June 3, 2011

"Keep Cool" by Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Keep Cool

Suns have set and suns will rise
Upon many gloomy lives;
Those who sit around and say:
" Nothing good comes down our way."
Some say: "What's the use to try,
Life is awful hard and dry."
If they'd bring such news to you,
This is what you ought to do.

Chorus
Let no trouble worry you;
Keep cool, keep cool!
Don't get hot like some folk do,
Keep cool, keep cool!
What's the use of prancing high
While the world goes smiling by.
You can win if you would try,
Keep cool, keep cool.

Throw your troubles far away,
Smile a little every day,
And the sun will start to shine,

Making life so true and fine.
Do not let a little care
Fill your life with grief and fear:
Just be calm, be brave and true,
Keep your head and you'll get through.

Chorus
Let no trouble worry you;
Keep cool, keep cool!
just be brave and ever true;
Keep cool, keep cool!
If they'd put you in a flame,
Though you should not bear the blame,
Do not start to raising cane,
Keep cool, keep cool.

“Keep Cool” by Marcus Mosiah Garvey.

"Keep Cool" was written by Marcus Mosiah Garvey while he was serving a five year sentence in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary for mail fraud. Although Garvey was in poor health, he wrote these lyrics to calm his followers who rightly believed that Garvey had been railroaded.


About Marcus Mosiah Garvey


Marcus Garvey, National Hero of Jamaica, full-...Image via Wikipedia
Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., ONH (17 August 1887 – 10 June 1940) was a Jamaican publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator who was a staunch proponent of the Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements, to which end he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL). He founded the Black Star Line, part of the Back-to-Africa movement, which promoted the return of the African diaspora to their ancestral lands.

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Clear Marcus Garvey’s Name

“We are petitioning President Barack Obama to issue a full pardon and to clear the name of Marcus Mosiah Garvey, a national hero of Jamaica.”

Marcus Garvey, founder of the UNIA, was arrested by the FBI under the Hoover administration and charged with mail fraud for which he was sentenced to five years in prison. Although his sentence was eventually commuted by President Calvin Coolidge, it is now abundantly clear that Garvey did not commit any criminal acts, but as Professor Judith Stein has stated, “his politics were on trial. 


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