Let America Be America Again

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 that 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

Oh, 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 man, 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, oh pioneers

I am the man who never got ahead

The poorest worker, barred up 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

And every brick and stone and every furrow turned

Has made America the land it has become

Oh, 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

Oh, 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

Indians', Negroes', 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, oh 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 gangsta 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