HALLELUJAH, I’M A-TRAVELING
In nineteen fifty-four,
The Supreme Court has said,
Listen here, Mr. Jim Crow
It’s time you were dead.
CHORUS:
Hallelujah, I’m a-traveling
Hallelujah, ain’t it fine;
Hallelujah, I’m a-traveling
Down freedom’s main line.
At Howard Johnson’s one day,
We will all buy a Coke
And the waitress will serve us
And know it’s no joke.
I’m taking a trip
On the Greyhound Bus Line
I’m riding the front seat
To Jackson this time.
In Fayette County,
Set off and remote,
The polls are not open
For Negroes to vote.
Three hundred Freedom Riders
When offered a choice
Six months, three hundred dollars,
Respond in one voice.
REFRAIN:
Hallelujah, I’m a jailbird
And I ain’t paying no fine.
Hallelujah, I’m a-traveling
Down freedom’s main line,
This song was sang during the 1954 segregation protest by the Freedom Riders. Black , white men and women were riding on two greyhound buses in Mississippi protesting peacefully against segregation. They wanted blacks to have the right to be treated equally as white people were and the right to vote. They were attacked by an angry mob composed of white men and women who fired the bus. The people were trying to escape as the bus was on fire; some of them were beaten, others were arrested and sent to jail. This song explains well what they wanted and what they were protesting for.
The song “American skin” released in 2000 talk about the tension between police officers and immigrants. The song refers to how the police treat the immigrants and how they are racist towards them.