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I Have Known Women (4:04): From Si’s musical Mother Jones in Heaven (and Hell), a passionate plea for women not to take the vote for granted, but to continue to organize and fight back.

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I have known women
Who lived on their hands and their knees
Scrubbing the floors in the mansions where riches are born
I have known women who sewed ‘til their fingers were bleeding
Stitching the gowns for the dances where power is worn

I have known women who slaved all their lives
Asking no more than the chance to survive
Will their lives be better because we have votes for the women?
Will their work be easier if they pass suffrage at last?

Upper class ladies all necklaced and jeweled
Well-chosen language, manners so fine
Who will they vote for? A proud union miner?
Or their husband’s good friend who invests in his mine?

I have known women whose bodies were broken by violence
There in the factory, the laundry, the home and the mill
I have known women who suffered their lives out in silence.
Who will speak out for them? Who will stand up with them still?

I have known women who stood by their men
Only to lose them again and again
Will their pain be less now because we have votes for the women?
Will their spirits be healed by the men who take office next time?

Elegant ladies with poodles and furs
Springtime in France, summer in Spain
Who are they friends to? The working class woman?
Or the owner whose leather-gloved fist holds the chain?

I have known women who slept on the floor in a blanket
Giving their bed up so I could have rest for the night
I have known women who marched against high-powered rifles
Stared down the barrels and dared them to fire and fight

I have known women whose courage and anger
Won them a moment of honor and pride
Should they give up the allegiance to class that sustained them?
Their faith in the strike and each other that held back the pain?
For a small piece of paper without even one woman on it
For a small paper ballot that won’t even mention her name

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Saro Lynch-Thomason North Carolina

Saro Lynch-Thomason is a ballad singer, song writer, folklorist, documentarian, and illustrator from Asheville, North Carolina. Her passion for traditional music, people’s struggles and Appalachian traditions calls her to perform, teach and produce media that tell the stories and songs of America’s social history. ... more

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