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What is a song about racism which might be compared to Crooks in Of Mice and Men?

The Beatles song "Blackbird" might be a good choice for this. Paul McCartney apparently wrote this song during the height of the civil rights movement and the desegregation of public schools in Arkansas. It's easy to imagine Crooks as a bird with "broken wings" (Crooks was also literally and figuratively crippled) who just wants to "learn to fly." The blackbird in McCartney's song also has "sunken eyes" and Crooks is described as having eyes which "lay deep in his head." 


In the song, the flying of the bird is likened to the new freedom of blacks in America during the 1960's after several laws signed during the Johnson administration attempted to give blacks more equality. In Steinbeck's novella, Crooks too is looking to "fly" away from the ranch and the prejudice he faces as the only black worker on the place. He is, for a time, eager and willing to go along with George, Lennie and Candy to the dream farm which is the main topic of discussion in chapter five of the book. 

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