a year or so later a young man she was dating more or less regularly began taking her down to the village , where some of the young ( and mostly white ) folk-singers who performed there had added some new and startling songs to their repetoiredsuddenly , in addition to all those old wheezes about how john henry had taken his hammer and outraced the new steam-hammer ( killing himself in the process , lawd , lawd ) and how bar'bry allen had cruelly rejected her lovesick young suitor ( and ended up dying of shame , lawd , lawd ) , there were songs about how it felt to be down and out and ignored in the city , how it felt to be turned away from a job you could do because your skin was the wrong color , how it felt to be taken into a jail cell and whipped by mr. charlie because your skin was dark and you had dared , lawd , lawd , to sit in the white folks ' section of the lunch-counter at an f.w .