Labor Sings! Exhibit


John L. Handcox "We're Going to Roll the Union On"

CHORUS:

We're gonna roll
We're gonna roll
We're gonna roll the union on.

(Repeat after each verse)

If the planter's in the way,
We're gonna roll it over him.
Gonna roll it over him.
Gonna roll it over him.
If the planter's in the way,
We're gonna roll it over him
Gonna roll the union on!

If the boss is in the way
We're going to roll it over him.
Gonna roll it over him.
Gonna roll it over him.
If the boss is in the way
We're going to roll it over him.
Gonna roll the union on!

John Handcox (1904-1992), a black union organizer and labor poet, was born in Arkansas and started out as a farmer. He began organizing for the Southern Tenant Farmer's Union in the 1930s. In 1937, he recorded this and other songs for the Library of Congress. The authorship of "We're Gonna Roll the Union On" is disputed, and it was probably not written entirely by Handcox, although his version was the first one recorded.

Ilustration: Songs of the People (Workers Library Publishers, 1937)