They gave us
Pieces of silver and pieces of gold
Tell me,
Who'll pay reparations on my soul?
Many fine speeches (oh yeah)
From the White House desk (uh huh)
Written on the cue cards
That were never really there
Yes, but the heat and the summer were there
And the freezing winter's cold
Now tell me,
Who'll pay reparations on my soul?
Call my brother a junkie cause he ain't got no job (no job, no job)
Told my old man to leave me when times got hard (so hard)
Told my mother she got to carry me all by herself
And now that I want to be a man (be a man) who can depend on no one else (oh yeah)
The official unemployment began to soar in 1970, when this song was created. The seventies was a decade of  stagflation , which is the phenomenon in which the economy experience both a high inflation rate and a high unemployment rate. 

Wholl Pay Reparations on My Soul?