What Really Happened to ‘Staying Woke’? : But “woke” didn’t enter the lexicon on Twitter or TV. It dates back to the Blues musician Lead Belly, speaking about his 1938 song, “Scottsboro Boys,” which he wrote after nine Black boys in Scottsboro, Alabama were falsely accused of raping two white women in 1931. Eight of the boys were sentenced to death, and after strenuous legal battles, collectively…