The night has been long,
The wounds has been deep,
The pits has been pitch black
And the walls have been steep.

Under a dead blue sky on a distant beach,
I was dragged by my collar just beyond one's reach.
Your hands were tied, your mouth was bound,
You couldn't even call out my name.
You were helpless and so was I,
unfortunately throughout our history
You've worn a badge of disdain.

the night has been long,
The wounds has been deep,
The pits has been pitch black
And the walls have been steep.

But today, voices of old spirit rises
Speak to us in words profound,
Across the years, across ions,
Across the oceans, and across the seas.
They say, draw near to one another,
Save your kind.
You have been paid for in a distant place,
The old ones remind us that slavery's chains
Have paid for our freedom over and over.

The night has been long,
The wounds has been deep,
The pits has been dark,
And the walls have been steep.

The tortures we have lived through and survived it all
Have sharpened our senses and toughened our will.
The night has been long.
This morning I look through your anguish
Right down to your soul.
I know that with each other we can make ourselves whole.
I look through the posture and past your disguise,
And see your love for family in your big brown eyes.

I say, clap your hands everybody and let's come together in this ground we stand
I say, clap your hands everybody and let's deal with each other with love,
I say, clap your hands everybody and let us get from the low road of indifference,
Clap your hands, let us come together and reveal our hearts,
Let us come together and revise our spirits,
Let us come together and cleanse our souls,
Clap you hands, let's leave the imprisonment
And stop impostering our own history.
Clap your hands, call the spirits back from the ledge,
Clap your hands, let us invite joy into our conversation,
Courtesy into our bedrooms,
Gentleness into our kitchen,
Care into our family.

The ancestors remind us, despite the history of pain
We are a moving on up people who will rise again.

And still we rise.