Hallelujah (A Song For Mama Ginger Dukes Beale)
Music and Lyrics written and arranged by Fanon Hill / Published by Candlestick Freedom Publishing (ASCAP)

CHORUS:
Hallelujah (16x)

VERSE 1:
These are the days our maker has made
A blessed foundation, our ancestors laid

And these are the days
Our children we must raise

May the light in their hearts
Conquer darkness away

CHORUS:
Hallelujah (16x)
Adlibs - I can still hear Ginger Dukes Beale singin’
I can hear Mama Ginger praying
I still see Mama Ginger fighting, for the least of thee)
(Repeat)

VERSE 2:
Our healers laid hands, they chanted and prayed
Unsold and unbought, they bound the devil away

Still today, we’ve got to fight
Every which way

Our future’s on the line
And today is judgment day

(CHORUS)

BRIDGE A:
Ooooh, oooh, oooh, oooh, yeaaaaa
We’re coming, we’re coming forth, by day and night

Ohhhh, ohhhh, ohhhh, ohhhh, yeaaaaa
We’re coming, we’re coming forth, in eternal light

We’re still laying bricks on the protest line
Fighting for freedom once again, in this time

So many black bodies falling, in this country;
Does being born Black come with a penalty?

BRIDGE B:
And one hundred and one million tons of ghetto concrete, could never crush our hunger no no no no no no no no no to be free
And we know that the Iroquois confederation, was the foundation for this country’s democracy
Still they fight against our Native American brothers and sisters brutally


CHORUS:
Hallelujah (16x)
I can still hear Ginger Dukes Beale singin’
I can hear Mama Ginger praying
I still see mama ginger fighting, for the least of thee

I can still see Mama Ginger’s hands working,
Delivering the needy where they crieth
And the poor that hath no helper
Blessed is she, Blessed is she

The red dirt from our mother land, followed us to this new land
You’ll never be able to wash it off, try as hard as you can
And if you really could see, you’d know that this red dirt (this red dirt), connects you to your original identity and holds the secret to keeping you free

OUTRO MODULATIONS:
I hear Henry McNeal Turner speaking
I see Emma Berdis Jones healing
I still see Harriet Tubman fighting for the least of thee, for the least of thee

I hear Willa Oma Flowers singing
I can still hear Sthayi Bhava Das chanting
I hear Mama Lou Hamilton praying for the least of thee

Everything we’ve ever needed we’ve had it
We’ve got to build our sites of resistance
The valley of Dry Bones Runs deep
Such a glorious prophesy we must keep

I see John Baptist Coleman invoking
I hear Hattie Pritchard-Craig praying
I can see Patsy Carson fighting for the least of thee

I hear William Walter Cordel praying
I can see Fannie Lou Hammer fighting
I can hear Eugenia Hill chanting that sacredness resides in thee, resides in thee
Woo!