The term "woke" has a long history in African American communities. It was first used in the early 20th century to describe people who were aware of and actively attentive to the injustices faced by Black people. The term was often used in protest songs and other forms of cultural expression.

In the 1960s, the term "woke" became more widely used in the context of the Civil Rights Movement. It was used to describe people who were committed to fighting for racial justice. The term also gained popularity in the 1970s and 1980s as Black people continued to fight for social and economic equality.

In the 2010s, the term "woke" began to be used more broadly to describe people who were aware of and actively attentive to social injustice, regardless of their race or ethnicity. This broader usage of the term was popularized by the Black Lives Matter movement, which brought attention to the systemic racism that Black people face in the United States.

Today, the term "woke" is still used in African American communities, but it is also used more broadly by people of all races and ethnicities. The term is often used to describe people who are aware of and actively working to challenge social injustice.

Here are some examples of how the term "woke" has been used in the past:

• In 1938, Huddie Ledbetter, a.k.a. Lead Belly, used the phrase "stay woke" as part of a spoken afterword to a recording of his song "Scottsboro Boys," which tells the story of nine black teenagers and young men falsely accused of raping two white women in Alabama in 1931.

• In 1962, William Melvin Kelley used the term "woke" in a New York Times Magazine article titled "If You're Woke You Dig It." In the article, Kelley described white beatniks' appropriation of Black slang.

• In 1971, the play Garvey Lives! by Barry Beckham included the line: "I been sleeping all my life. And now that Mr. Garvey done woke me up, I'm gon' stay woke. And I'm gon' help him wake up other black folk."