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What is America to me? A name, a map, or a flag I see A certain word, democracy What is America to me? The house I live in A plot of earth, a street The grocer and the butcher Or the people that I meet The children in the playground The faces that I see All races and religions That's America to me The place I work in The worker by my side The little town the city Where my people lived and died The howdy and the handshake The air of feeling free And the right to speak your mind out That's America to me |
The things I see about me The big things and the small That little corner newsstand Or the house a mile tall The wedding and the churchyard The laughter and the tears And the dream that's been a growing For more than two hundred years The town I live in The street, the house, the room The pavement of the city Or the garden all in bloom The church the school the clubhouse The million lights I see But especially the people — Yes especially the people That's America to me |
Music by: Samuel Ward Lyrics by: Katharine Lee Bates Performed by: Ray Charles on the Dick Cavett Show, 18 September 1972 |
O beautiful for spacious skies, |
O beautiful for halcyon skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the enamel'd plain! America! America! God shed his grace on thee 'Til souls wax fair as Earth and air And music-hearted sea! O beautiful for pilgrim feet, Whose stem impassioned stress A thoroughfare for freedom beat Across the wilderness! America! America! God shed his grace on thee 'Til paths be wrought through wilds of thought By pilgrim foot and knee! O beautiful for glory-tale Of liberating strife When once and twice, for man's avail Men lavished precious life! America! America! God shed his grace on thee 'Til selfish gain no longer stain The banner of the free! O beautiful for patriot dream That sees beyond the years Thine alabaster cities gleam Undim'd by human tears! America! America! God shed his grace on thee 'Til nobler men keep once again Thy whiter jubilee! |
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By: Abel Meeropol (aka Lewis Allan) Sung by: Nina Simone with contextual images — Billie Holiday |
| Southern trees bear a strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black body swinging in the Southern breeze, Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees. Pastoral scene of the gallant South, The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth, Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh, And the sudden smell of burning flesh! Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck, For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck, For the sun to rot, for a tree to drop, Here is a strange and bitter crop. |
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Prior to the opening of South Pacific … Music: Richard Rodgers | Book: Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan | Adapted from James Michener's novel … at the Majestic Theatre, Manhattan, 7 April 1949 Lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II refused to change or cut the song that was prompted by the line [racism is] “not born in you! It happens after you're born” You've got to be taught To hate and fear, You've got to be taught From year to year, It's got to be drummed In your dear little ear You've got to be carefully taught. You've got to be taught to be afraid Of people whose eyes are oddly made, And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade, You've got to be carefully taught. You've got to be taught before it's too late, Before you are six or seven or eight, To hate all the people your relatives hate, You've got to be carefully taught! Table of Contents |