MONTANARO: Again, here's Ohio State's Richardson. GREGORY PECK: (As Atticus Finch) This case should never have come to trial. (SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD") It helped spur the civil rights movement and loosely inspired the book and movie "To Kill A Mockingbird." The Scottsboro Boys were nine Black teenagers who are accused of raping two white girls in what is widely seen today as one of the worst cases of racist legal injustice. LEDBETTER: So I advise everybody, be a little careful when they go along through Alabama - stay woke, keep their eyes open. An old record - it's hard to hear, but he says in Alabama, be careful and stay woke. MONTANARO: Here's Ledbetter speaking about the song in what's believed to be the first audio recording of the use of the word woke. I'm going to tell all you colored people. Scottsboro, Scottsboro boys, tell you what it's all about. The landlord'll get you, going to jump and shout. HUDDIE LEDBETTER: (Singing) Go to Alabama and you better watch out. It was used in Black protest songs dating back to the early 20th century, including by Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly, the singer of the 1938 song "Scottsboro Boys." ![]() RICHARDSON: In simple terms, it just means being politically conscious and aware, like stay woke. MONTANARO: Elaine Richardson is a professor of literacy studies at the Ohio State University. MONTANARO: But what does the word really mean, and where does it come from?ĮLAINE RICHARDSON: It comes out of Black culture. They're not learning to fight and protect us from some very bad people. TRUMP: A lot of things going on with our military, with the woke and all this nonsense. In fact, just hours after making that statement, he used it repeatedly in a town hall on Fox News. MONTANARO: But that seems to be a new stance for Trump because he's used the word multiple times to criticize the left. You know, it's like just a term they use. What about the front-runner for the Republican nomination, former President Donald Trump?ĭONALD TRUMP: And I don't like the term woke because I hear woke, woke, woke. MONTANARO: But Burgum is in the minority in his party on this and has minimal support at this point. Here's North Dakota Republican Governor Doug Burgum on NBC's Meet the Press.ĭOUG BURGUM: I believe that the president of the United States has got to define a set of things they're supposed to work on, and it's not every culture war topic. MONTANARO: Republicans on the campaign trail are using it as something of a catchall to criticize anything on the progressive side of the political spectrum they don't like, whether it's teaching about racism in schools or gender transition policies or even books and libraries they deem inappropriate. ![]() ![]() We will never, ever surrender to the woke mob. We will fight the woke in the businesses. MONTANARO: That's presidential hopeful and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis using the word woke he's repeated over and over and over again and made central to his politics.ĭESANTIS: We will fight the woke in the legislature. RON DESANTIS: Now, this woke mind virus represents a war on merit, a war on. But what does it actually mean? As Domenico Montanaro reports, the term didn't arise out of the culture war.ĭOMENICO MONTANARO, BYLINE: There's one word on the Republican presidential campaign trail that's hard to avoid. It's hard to avoid criticism of, quote, "wokeness" and "wokeism" among GOP presidential hopefuls. Woke - it's just four letters, but it has had a big impact on Republican politics ahead of the 2024 election.
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