[00:20.48]Was down in Mississippi not so long ago
[00:29.98]When a young boy from Chicago town
[00:34.56]Walked in a Southern door
[00:39.91]This boy's fateful tragedy
[00:43.51]You all should remember well
[00:48.40]The color of his skin was black
[00:53.04]And his name was Emmett Till
[01:00.13]Some men, they dragged him to a barn
[01:06.01]And there they beat him up
[01:09.30]They said they had a reason
[01:13.94]But I just can't remember what
[01:18.38]They tortured him and did some things
[01:23.66]Too evil to repeat
[01:27.65]There were screaming sounds inside the barn
[01:32.32]There was laughing sounds out on the street
[01:38.16]Then they rolled his body down a gulf
[01:42.69]Amidst a blood red rain
[01:47.13]And they threw him in the waters wide
[01:51.90]To cease his screaming pain
[01:56.34]The reason that they killed him there
[02:00.93]And I'm a-sure, it was no lie
[02:05.37]Was just for they found them killing him
[02:10.22]And to watch him slowly die
[02:15.35]And then to stop the United States
[02:19.15]Of yelling for a trial
[02:23.53]Two brothers, they confessed
[02:26.69]That they had killed poor Emmett Till
[02:32.32]But on the jury there were men
[02:36.90]Who had helped the brothers commit this awful crime
[02:41.49]And so this trial was a mockery
[02:46.13]But nobody there seemed to mind
[02:51.67]I saw the morning papers
[02:57.50]But I could not bear
[03:01.00]To see the smiling brothers
[03:05.38]Walkin' down the courthouse stairs
[03:09.97]For the jury found them innocent
[03:14.49]And the brothers, they went free
[03:18.93]While Emmett's body floats the foam
[03:23.51]Of a Jim Crow southern sea
[03:30.19]If you can't speak out against this kind of thing
[03:34.98]A crime that's so unjust
[03:39.73]Your eyes are filled with dead men's dirt
[03:44.11]Your ears must be filled with dust
[03:48.90]Your arms and legs
[03:50.50]They must be in shackles and chains
[03:53.13]And your blood, it must cease to flow
[03:57.64]For you to let this human race
[04:02.59]Fall down so God-awful low
[04:07.33]This song is just a reminder
[04:11.82]To remind your fellow man
[04:16.26]That this kind of thing still lives today
[04:20.90]In that ghost-robed Ku Klux Klan
[04:25.24]But if all of us folks that thinks alike
[04:29.72]If we give all we could give
[04:34.51]We could make this great land of ours
[04:38.95]A greater place to live

Was down in Mississippi not so long ago
When a young boy from Chicago town
Walked in a Southern door
This boy's fateful tragedy
You all should remember well
The color of his skin was black
And his name was Emmett Till
Some men, they dragged him to a barn
And there they beat him up
They said they had a reason
But I just 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 blood 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 a-sure, it was no lie
Was just for they found them 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 Emmett Till
But on the jury there were men
Who had helped the brothers commit this awful crime
And so this trial was a mockery
But nobody there seemed to mind
I saw the morning papers
But I could not bear
To see the smiling brothers
Walkin' down the courthouse stairs
For the jury found them innocent
And the brothers, they went free
While Emmett's body floats 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 men's dirt
Your ears must be filled with dust
Your arms and legs
They must be in shackles and chains
And your blood, it must cease to flow
For you to 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 Ku Klux Klan
But if all of us folks that thinks alike
If we give all we could give
We could make this great land of ours
A greater place to live