Let America Be America Again - Marcus Miller, Jussie Smollett

Let America be America again

Let it be the dream it used to be

Let it be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a home where he himself is free

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—

Let it be that great strong land of love

Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

That any man be crushed by one above

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty

Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath

But opportunity is real, and life is free

Equality is in the air we breathe

(There's never been equality for me

Nor freedom in this «homeland of the free.»)

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?

And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart

I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars

I am the red man driven from the land

I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--

And finding only the same old stupid plan

Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak

I am the young man, full of strength and hope

Tangled in that ancient endless chain

Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!

Of grab the gold!

Of grab the ways of satisfying need!

Of work the men!

Of take the pay!

Of owning everything for one’s own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil

I am the worker sold to the machine

I am the Negro, servant to you all

I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--

Hungry yet today despite the dream

Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!

I am the man who never got ahead

The poorest worker bartered through the years

Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream

In the Old World while still a serf of kings

Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true

That even yet its mighty daring sings

In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned

That’s made America the land it has become

O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas

In search of what I meant to be my home--

For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore

And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea

And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came

To build a «homeland of the free.»

The free?

Who said the free?

Not me?

Surely not me?

The millions on relief today?

The millions shot down when we strike?

The millions who have nothing for our pay?

For all the dreams we’ve dreamed

And all the songs we’ve sung

And all the hopes we’ve held

And all the flags we’ve hung

The millions who have nothing for our pay--

Except the dream that’s almost dead today

O, let America be America again--

The land that never has been yet--

And yet must be--the land where every man is free

The land that’s mine--the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME--

Who made America

Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain

Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain

Must bring back our mighty dream again

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--

The steel of freedom does not stain

From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives

We must take back our land again

America!

O, yes

I say it plain

America never was America to me

And yet I swear this oath--

America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death

The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies

We, the people, must redeem

The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers

The mountains and the endless plain--

All, all the stretch of these great green states--

And make America again!

Make America again!

Let America be America again