(Credits: Far Out / Charles L. Todd / Robert Sonkin / Library of Congress)
No four-letter word has divided the world at large in the past decade more than “woke”. For a term that’s supposed to mean being tolerant and open to every type of culture around you, a lot of people would gladly call the whole thing a case of the new generation taking away the things that made everything cool back in the day. If you look back on the first uses of the word, though, the entire concept of “woke” comes all the way back to the first bluesmen like Lead Belly.
When blues first started, the entire mindset was about singing what was in your heart. Trying to find the words to sing but can’t sing? That didn’t matter. What mattered was being able to talk about everything that was bringing you down and being able to share that with the rest of the world by bending the life out of your guitar.
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This is where we find a young blues troubadour, Huddie Ledbetter, known to most as Lead Belly. While many 1990s kids know him for Nirvana reinterpreting his work for their song ‘Where Did You Sleep Last Night’, Lead Belly was known for singing any kind of tune that suited his style, whether it was talking about the lonesome of losing his lover or going after someone who did him wrong.
For all of the different archives that have survived through the years, one of the more interesting songs he ever put to tape was a protest song titled ‘Scottsboro Boys’. Borrowing from the tune ‘Sawmill Moan’ by fellow blues artist Willard ‘Ramblin’’ Thomas, which explores the familiar theme of lost love, Lead Belly’s piece is rippling with rage directed at the widespread racial injustice he saw around him.
The original lyrics go, “If I don’t go crazy, I’m sure gonna lose my mind/’Cause I can’t sleep for dreamin’, sure can’t stay woke for cryin’”, which Lead Belly repurposed as “best stay woke”. This version of the word may have been meant as an approximation of how Southern people spoke at the time, but it’s easy to see the line as a precursor to what the world would mean later.
Many blues songs have been about laying a burden down after a long time, but the phrase practically sums up the problem that people have with the word today. Since many people have tried using different ways to get opposing sides to get along, the drama around someone’s “wokeness” shows that no one has truly been paying attention to what Lead Belly meant.
‘Scottsboro Boys’ was penned to commemorate the infamous 1931 case in Alabama where nine Black teenagers were charged with raping two white women, setting a precedent for racial inequality not just in American society but also in the country’s judicial system. While addressing people from his community, Lead Belly warned them about going to Alabama, “So I advise everybody, be a little careful when they go along through there—best stay woke, keep their eyes open.”
If you really think about it, what should the term “woke” mean in the greater context? Checking good ol’ Webster’s Dictionary, the term as it applies to today means “aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)”. Lead Belly used it in a similar context, referencing a sense of awareness of contemporary society’s inherent brutality.
That kind of prejudice has only continued in different forms through to today. Things may not be as harsh as they were back in the days of the blues, but the major divides as it pertains to law enforcement in the US, as well as political lines, have drawn a clear line between ordinary people who don’t want to be on the wrong side of history.
So the next time you look at the word “woke”, don’t look at it as the kind of word that some committee put together to make people more aware of their surroundings. Think of it as the word descended from generations of artists that came before, still striving for that change that they don’t know is ever going to come.