billy penned a protest song in honor of the scotts borough buys, group teens falsely accused in alabama of raping two white women. reporter: since then it has become part of the cultural lexicon and that s what it s always meant to black people for almost 100 years now. by the late 80s, woke was showing up in black art, like spike lee s classic film school days. and later giving new electricity by erica badu after the killings of trayvon martin and michael brown. and in 2020, woke crossed over from black culture to the mainstream, following the murder of george floyd. no justice, no peace. no one is talking about woke as much as we have in the past