Afternoon Matinee: Protest - When Will We Be Paid For the Work We’ve Done

Performed by The Staple Singers

When will we be paid for the work we’ve done

When will we be paid for the work we’ve done

We worked this country

From shore to shore

Our women cooked all your food

And washed all your clothes

We picked cotton and laid the railroad steel

Worked our hands down to the bone at your lumber mill

When will we be paid for the work we’ve done

When will we be paid for the work we’ve done

Fought in your wars, in every land

To keep this country free, y’all

For women, children, and men

But anytime we ask for pay or a loan

That’s when everything seems to turn out wrong

We’ve been beat up, called name, shot down, and stoned

Every time we do right, somebody say we’re wrong

When will we be paid for the work we’ve done

When will we be paid for the work we’ve done

Oh, oh when, when will we be paid?

We’ve given up our sweat, now


And all of our tears

Stumbled through this life


For more than 300 years I,

I wanna know, the work we’ve done

When will be paid for the work we’ve done

Tell me

When will we be paid for the work we’ve done

When will we be paid for the work we’ve done

Will we ever be proud

Of "My country, tis of thee"

Will we ever sing out loud

Sweet land of Liberty

When will we be paid

For the work we’ve done

When will we be paid for the work we’ve done

When will we be paid for the work we’ve done

~ from the University of Minnesota Human Rights Library ~