You can read these lyrics from the song “Afro Blue” (1959), and others by Oscar Brown Jr., in Bartlett’s Familiar Black Quotations. Read the lyric in its full context here.
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Root 100 Nominee Nicholas Ryan Gant Breaks Down the Secret Meaning of His New Single
Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and founding director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He is also the editor-in-chief of The Root. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
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