QuoteJim Crow

"I advise everybody, be a little careful when they go along…" — Lead Belly (Huddie Ledbetter)

c. 1938(Approximate date)· Lead Belly (Huddie Ledbetter) (speaker)

“I advise everybody, be a little careful when they go along through there [Scottsboro] — best stay woke, keep their eyes open.”
Speaker
Lead Belly (Huddie Ledbetter)
Occasion
Spoken afterword to the recording "Scottsboro Boys" (1938)

Lead Belly's spoken warning to Black travelers on his 1938 recording about the Scottsboro case — an early documented use of "stay woke."

Sources & citations

  1. 1.folkways.si.eduwebsite
  2. 2.en.wikipedia.orgwikipedia