Am           C     D7           F
Twas down in Mississipi not so long ago
      Am                C         D7                        F
When ayoung boy from Chicago town stepped through a southern door
     Am              C            D7             F
This boy's dreadful tragedy I can still remember well
    Am           C                      E              Am    C
The color of his skin was black and his name was emmet till

Some men they dragged him to a barn and there they beat him up
they said they had a reason but I can't remember what
they tortured him and did some things too evil to repeat
there were screaming sounds inside the barn,there was laughing sounds out on the street.

then they rolled his body down a gulf amidst a bloody red rain
and they threw him in the waters wide to cease his screaming pain
the reason that they killed him there and I'm sure it ain't no lie
was just for the fun of killing him and to watch him slowly die

and then to stop the United States of yelling for a trial
two brothers they confessed that they had killed poor Emmet Till
but on the jury there were men who helped the brothers commit this awful crime
and so his trial was a mockery,but nobody seems to mind

I saw the morning papers but I could not bear to see
the smiling brothers walking down the courthouse stairs
for the jury found them innocent and the brothers they went free
while emmet's body float's the foam of a Jim Crow southern sea

if you can't speak out against this kind of thing,a crime that's so unjust
your eyes are filled with dead man's dirt,your mind is filled with dust
your arms and legs must be in shackles and chains and your blood must refuse to flow
for you let this human race fall down so God-awful low

this song is just a reminder to remind your fellow man
that this kind of thing still lives today in that ghost-robed klu klux klan
but if all of us folks that thinks alike,if we gave all we could give
we could make this great land of ours a greater place to live