Queen Mother Moore: What's the Hour of the Night?

“What’s the Hour of the Night?”

After four score years of freedom

Our so-called leaders say

That the Race has made great progress

And we face the dawn of day

But the day is not quite dawning

Millions of my peoples stand

Pleading at the bars of justice

For reparations and land

We’re not free in this country

And the truth is the light

So I turn to ask my watchman

“What’s the hour of the night?”

We died fighting for democracy

I admit this to be true

Yet countless Afrikan men and women

Have no homes or work to do

If we wish to see the daylight

Or the rising of the sun

We need our self-determination

Our own affair to run

Since only reparations will

Put freedom in our sight

Let us turn to ask the watchman

“What’s the hour of the night?”

Civil rights laws just for us

Is proof that we’re not free

How could we be fooled to think

We had a share in this democracy

When foreigners come here

They’re made citizens by choice

Citizenship was imposed upon us

We never had a voice

The passage of the 14^th amendment

Took away the right

So you’d better ask your watchman

“What’s the hour of the night?”