Mount Meigs

Mount Meigs Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children
'64, they let me go
They let me go from Mount Meigs, Alabama
In 1964
But with some cuts and bruises that I would never forget
Alabama Industrial School
The hardship that the children was going through
Children after children after children
Picking cotton
Toting those bales
Bending our backs
Hoeing up and down the ditches and the creeks
Flat weeding
Hearing the old Farmall tractor
Chucking up the hill
Changing the gears
Singing a song
Long time coming and it won't be long
You gonna see ol' Sally with the-
You gonna see ol' Sally, you gonna see ol' Sally with the red dress on

Mr. Glover sitting on his can
With his grеasy oily stick and fan belt in his hands
Telling you to put your dick in the holе
And he gets ready to whoop you
And beat you
Down on the ground

Teardrops of boys and girls
Girls and boys crying
"I wanna go home"
Old man get up to say, "You had a good home but you wouldn't stay there"
"You had a good home but you wouldn't stay there"
We was trying to understand the meaning of "wouldn't stay there"
I was only trying to run away to find my mother
I needed my mother, I needed the hugs
I needed to... I just needed her
I needed to know who my grandpappy was
I needed to know who my own mama was
But I didn't know
I didn't have no idea
Sometimes feeling like a fool
Thinking I was the most stupidest child that walked the Earth
Nobody taught us anything
Got no education
Nobody let us have no wisdom
They beat the curiosity out of me
They beat it out of me
They whooped it
They knocked it
They banged it
Slammed it
Damned it
Damned the curiosity
I'm only goin one way down the row
And making sure that you kept that row straight
Making sure that you kept that row straight

Mount Meigs, Alabama
Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children
We didn't get no scholarship
We didn't get no graduate degree
But all of that information is still within me
All of that information
At 71 years old and I still think of the days
The days and days and days and more days
On top of the days
Picture me being there
Picture me being there
In Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children