Box Factory

(I'm a) women who speaks in a voice

And I must be heard.

(Some)times I can be quite difficult,

I'll bow to no man's word.

Ella Baker was the advisor of and mentor to the Student Nonviolent Coordinatin

Committer. The first verse is from a statement Baker made after the murder of

Civil Rights workers Mickey Scherner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney during the

Mississippi ign in the summer of 1964. The bottoms of local river were dragged

during the for the bodies of the three civil rights workers. A obeenieitsvere-

the bodies of black men who had never been scarched for because they were black.

search also recovered a pumber of women's bodies but their deaths were deemed to be

without political significance.

I worked in a box factory from six a.m. ‘till three.

Only nineteen and in tip top form

And I'd be tired every mom, I'd be tired every morn,

I'd be tired every mom.

There's no union in a sweat shop place.

We'd go to lunch for a half-hour.

The boss would use our time to lecture us on power.

He said you better move faster or your job will soon be gone.

He'd lie and drone on and on.

Back to the machine and where it and I would race,

Moving along at a hell of a pace.

I'd talk to other workers, most turned away;

You'll lose your job if you complain, they'd say.

I'd go to the washroom and let the tears flow.

Tired and angry standing up alone,

I needed money for food and rent.

The price of dignity was the money I spent.