Stay woke. The axiom has recently come under scrutiny and been redefined by conservative politicians as a pejorative term. While now seemingly synonymous with attempts at diversity, equity and inclusion by their liberal colleagues, it is a maxim that dates to the 20th century.
This watchword, rooted in African American Vernacular English (AAVE), is a call to action. Stay woke, which is to say, “Be alert and keep your eyes open to social injustices.”
The phrase is also a call for vigilance and gives voice to the community’s responsibility for each other. It is to say, “Pay attention. Look out.”
The byword became a hashtag in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the murder of Trayvon Martin. It entered the public consciousness through the Black Lives Matter Movement, becoming a rallying cry to recognize and challenge police brutality.
But the summons to be vigilant likely began with Marcus Garvey, who called for the rise of political consciousness in 1923. He wrote, “Wake up, Ethiopia! Wake up, Africa! Let us work towards the one glorious end of a free, redeemed, and mighty nation. Let Africa be a bright star among the constellation of nations.”
Folk singer Huddie Ledbetter, also known as Lead Belly, is credited with one of the earliest recorded uses of the phrase. It’s a part of an afterword to his 1938 song titled “Scottsboro Boys” and most closely defines the proverb to mean be aware of the dangers of a white supremacist society.
“I advise everybody, be a little careful when they go along through there (Scottsboro)–best stay woke, keep their eyes open,” he said. The nine children and teenagers, who became known as the “Scottsboro Boys,” were falsely accused of raping two European American women in 1931.
Ranging in ages from 12 to 19, the boys were riding a Southern Railroad freight train through Alabama on March 25, 1931. A fight broke out between them and a group of European American passengers, resulting in the European American riders being forced to get off the train. Afterwards, they traveled to the sheriff’s office in the nearby town of Paint Rock and claimed the youth and young adults had assaulted them.
Also with the men, Victoria Rice and Ruby Bates falsely accused the boys of rape. It was that or face charges of vagrancy and illegal sexual activity. Consequently, the children and teens were met by an angry mob when the train reached Paint Rock, where they were arrested for rape and later tried three times in Scottsboro.
Historically, false accusations of rape were used to justify both lynchings and race massacres in America. These claims were often completely fabricated, with accusers later recanting or admitting they lied.
Ruby Bates would later admit just that, but not before eight of the nine boys were convicted and sentenced to death. A year later and after protests erupted in the North, the Supreme Court overturned the convictions. Still, Eugene Williams, Clarence Norris, Charley Weems, Olen Montgomery, Haywood Patterson, Roy Wright, Andy Wright, Willie Roberson and Ozzie Powell were retried, convicted, and conjointly served 100 years in prison.
Stay woke. That is to say, “Take heed.”
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. warned in a chapter titled “The World House” in Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?:
“Nothing could be more tragic than for [people] to live in these revolutionary times and fail to achieve the new attitudes and the new mental outlooks that the new situation demands.” He continued, “But today our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge to change.”
Stay woke! No matter what these politicians say, you know exactly what I mean.
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Director of The Raceless Gospel Initiative, an associate editor, host of the Good Faith Media podcast, “The Raceless Gospel” and author of Take Me to the Water: The Raceless Gospel as Baptismal Pedagogy for a Desegregated Church.
