I was the daughter Of a little known king When they came And put me in a castle My eyes had never seen They spoke in tongues I've never heard They took me to the sea At the edge of the earth I journied tempest waters Reached these distant shores My clothes are tattered And my soul is worn I bore a daughter In captivity They came late one night To take her away from me I cried and I cried Oh, Lord have mercy on me Can't they see That little girl Is royalty Chorus: I held my ground And took my stand Can't help Feeling sometimes That I'm a stranger In this land In this land of mine My mother used To cook and clean For the rich folks On the hill Made sure I got an education And could hardly Pay the bills I studied Schools of thought And philosophies of man Started questioning The contradictions In this land I left the classroom Joined the rallies In the street Marching hand in hand In the Mississippi heat I spent so many years Of my life on the move That confrontation Was the only thing i knew Talking unity and how We gone push on through Can't even say no more If anything's improved (Chorus) I'm a family man With a wife And two kids to feed I dedicated my life To seeing we succeed The way I sought to make it I learned to follow the rules So we can make sure Our children visit The finest schools Grandmas on the weekends Going on about the good old days When decent black folks Be trying to make a change My parents used to tell me To live my life steadfast But some may ask me What it is that I have (Chorus)