Jackie Robinson

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 a ditch
 A little outside of town
 Some stupid man was blasting about it
 So Luther beat him down
 He looked him in the eye
 He spit in his face and he 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, just beat them 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)
 Oh, gotta be bigger than all the hate (just like Jackie Robinson)
 Oh, 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 their own game (just like Jackie Robinson)
 Oh, gotta beat 'em at their own game (just like Jackie Robinson)
 Oh (just like Jackie Robinson)