My Charge To Keep (Honoring Arthur Slater)

“I’m Arthur Slater, born here in Coffeeville, Alabama in Clarke County, March 24, 1929. I remember the first radio that came to Coffeeville, that we exposed to.  Mr. Miller Howze had a radio, and everybody in the community went to listen to that radio when Joe Louis was going to fight.  That was a big kick for us, we enjoyed that.  I never will forget one night; we ran all the way from home down to the house to hear Joe Louis fight.  And when he went in the ring, he knocked that man out in about four seconds after he was in the ring.  And we made a big run for nothing.  But we had fun doing that.  That was a lot of fun to us because that’s the only thing we did have that we got fun out of … We had to do a lot of work and what we were being taught was how to do the job, not manage the job.  The White man would manage the job and we would do the work.  So they couldn’t say “future farmer.” They had to say “Negro farmer.” – Arthur Slater

From the Album Here I Stand: Elders’ Wisdom, Children’s Song

My name is Arthur Slater

From Clarke County Alabama

Born on March 24^th, 1929

We lived on what we could raise

In lower Alabama

Farming logs, paper wood

Chickens, mules and cows

It’s my charge to keep

We plowed it, hoed it, picked it

Scratched it raw in Alabama

Peanuts, cotton, black-eyed peas

Fifty cents a day

The blacks went here

The whites went there

Here in Alabama

Clarke County Training School

Is where I had to go

It’s my charge to keep

Barefoot in the briar stickers

Cut in Alabama

In hand me down uniforms

Boy could we play ball

Now, today, it makes me proud

To be in Alabama

Black and white kids on the field

In brand new uniforms

It’s my charge to keep

My name is Arthur Slater

From Clarke County Alabama

Words & Music by Larry Long

Copyright Larry Long Publishing 1994 | BMI

*Lyrics collectively written by Larry Long with youth from Coffeeville rural Alabama through the Elders’ Wisdom, Children’s Song program in partnership with PACERS Small Schools Cooperative and Community Celebration of Place.  Inspired by Mr. Arthur Slater.

Appears on

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Here I Stand: Elders’ Wisdom, Children’s Song is exclusively available on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

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