"Jackie Robinson" lyrics

Ooh, oh
Ooh, oh

Luther Jackson Green
Lived in the apartment above me
We smoked cigarettes on the stairs
Tell me stories that the white boys never hear

Like when he found this sign
He moved North in 1949
On his tenth birthday
Daddy took him to town to the Jackie Robinson play

It was a picture perfect day
In the sunshine and the hate
He didn't understand
Why all those people would say such awful things

His daddy said pay no attention to them
Turnaround and watch the man play
The one black man in the baseball field
Was better in every way

My daddy said if you wanna win in this world
You gotta beat 'em at their own game

Luther Jackson Green
Went to law school in 1963
In the summer between
He worked in Alabama with Martin Luther King

He met a girl on a summer night
Fell hard when they saw each other's eyes
There were people in town that really didn't like
That he was black and she was white

They found her in the ditch
A little outside of town
Some stupid man was blasting about it
So Luther beat him down

He looked him in the eye
Spit in his face and turned and walked away

He knew he was better than all the hate
He knew he was bigger than all the pain
He knew that there's a time to fight
And a time to walk away
He knew until he changed the rules
Oh yeah, they beat 'em at their own game

He never did lose that feeling inside
You could hear it in his voice
You could see it in his eyes

Luther moved out West to live
When his wife passed away
He lives right next door to his son
So he can watch his grandchild play

Luther Jackson Green
Watched election night with me
We put a black man in the White House
A thing he never thought he'd see

Even though he never cried
I could see tears in his eyes
He had dreamed about this moment
Every single day of his life

Yeah Luther died that night in his sleep
But he lived long enough to see
America become the kind of place
He always wanted it to be

He said you could never forget the day
That we beat 'em at their own game
Yeah just like Jackie Robinson
Just like Jackie Robinson

Gotta be bigger than all the hate (just like Jackie Robinson)
Gotta be better than all the pain (just like Jackie Robinson)
Oh, gotta find a better way (just like Jackie Robinson)
Oh, gotta beat 'em at their own game (just like Jackie Robinson)
Oh, gotta beat 'em at the wrong game (just like Jackie Robinson)
Oh, gotta beat 'em at the wrong game (just like Jackie Robinson)
(Just like Jackie Robinson)