Crystal Eastman
Crystal Eastman was a warrior of yore,
Mover and shaker, path-breaker for sure.
Voice for the victims of the captains of wealth,
The mother of all work place safety and health.
Sister Eastman, your spirit s alive and risin,
Crystal Eastman your name will never die.
Sister Eastman, your cause is alive and thrivin,
Crystal Eastman, your name will never die.
She took her pen to the factories of hell;
. Shined the light where the dead and injured fell.
Wastelands of pain and injustice she saw,
She wrote the first worlrers’ compensation law. [CHORUS]
Courageous, audacious, always on the front lines,
Hell-miser, trail blazer way ahead of the times.
She led the fight to right so many wrongs;
Channing, disarming, so beautiful and strong. [CHORUS]
Organizer, rabble-rouser, brilliant and wise.
Her words were music, there was fire in her eyes.
She sowed the seeds, co-wrote and paved the way
For the ACLU, and the ERA. [CHORUS}
Fought for women’s rights and equal pay overdue;
Said ‘mothers raising kids are workin’ people too.’
Her life was a torch that burned fOT liberty;
A symbol of the free woman to be.
Code-pink resister to the robber-baron’s wars.
Outspoken sister, real peace and freedom f-orce,
They black-balled her, dragged her through the mud.
But in the end they couldn’t bury her love. [CHORUS}
Sister Eastman, your spirit s alive and thrivin,
Crystal Eastman, your name will never die.
Sister Eastman, the time has arrived
To tell the world about the love that you gavet‘
The families and the lives that you saved
Oh Crystal Eastman, Oh Crystal Eastman, Oh Crystal Eastman!
Words & Music by: C. Michael Stout, February, 2007