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Beth DeSombre: Music

Crawfordsville, Indiana

(Beth DeSombre)
She was seventeen when the Woolworth burned
In Crawfordsville, Indiana
It was then she knew that no matter how
She would find a way out of this town
A third of her neighbors had voted for Wallace
And ridiculed King and his dream
The Beatles were singing but she can recall
Just how hopeless and wrong it all seemed

Judge me not
By anything less than the shape of my character
Let me dream
That one day we all will be free

She was twenty-six when she lost her job
They blamed it on the recession
But the waitresses that they didn't fire
Were the ones who were pretty and white
She had to stay here for the sake of her daughter
Though neighbors would not meet her eye
When no one will help you, her parents had taught her,
You turn to your kin to get by

Judge me not
By anything less than the shape of my character
Let me dream
That one day we all will be free

She was forty-five when the New White Party
Started a branch in the county
Claiming Christian heritage for this nation
And full separation by race
This town made its revenue publishing Bibles
You'd think that they'd know about love
But some local churches had bred hate's disciples
And now they spread fear from above

Judge me not
By anything less than the shape of my character
Let me dream
That one day we all will be free

She was sixty-one on that autumn night
When all eyes were turned to Chicago
When the counts were done pundits all proclaimed
Indiana had voted for change
She'd lived her whole life trying not to get angry
For decades she'd been beaten down
But now as her neighbors all gathered and sang
She was finally at home in this town

Judge me not
By anything less than the shape of my character
Let me dream
That one day we all will be free

One day we all will be free

© Beth DeSombre 2009