[Chords]
Am x-0-2-2-1-0
C/G 3-0-2-0-1-0
D/F# 2-0-0-2-3-2
F 1-3-3-2-1-1
E 0-2-2-1-0-0
[Strum with some hammer-on's here and there on the Am and E chords or
play chords over a travis style picking pattern]
[Intro]
Am C/G D/F# F Am E Am
[Verse 1]
Am C/G D/F# F
"Twas down in___ Mississippi, not so___ long ago,
Am C/G D/F# E
When a young boy___ from Chicago town, stepped through a___ Southern door.
Am C/G D/F# F
This boy's___ frightful tragedy, I can still___ remember well,
Am C/G E Am
The color of___ his skin was black, and his name was___ Emmett Till.
[Verse 2]
Am C/G D/F# F
Some men they dragged___ him to a barn, and there they___ beat him up.
Am C/G D/F# E
They said they had___ a reason, but I___ can't remember what.
Am C/G D/F# F
They tortured him___ and did some things, too evil to repeat.
Am C/G E Am
There was screaming sounds inside the barn, there was laughing sounds___ out on the street.
[Verse 3]
Am C/G D/F# F
Then they rolled his___ body down a gulf, amidst a___ blood-red rain
Am C/G D/F# E
And they threw him in___ the waters w-ide to cease his screaming p-ain.
Am C/G D/F# F
The___ reason that they killed him there, and I'm sure it___ ain't no lie,
Am C/G E Am
Was just for___ the fun of killin' him, and to___ watch him slowly die..
[Verse 4]
Am C/G D/F# F
And then to stop, the United States, of yelling___ for a trial,
Am C/G D/F# E
Two brothers they___ confessed that they, had killed p-oor Emmett Till.
Am C/G D/F# F
But on the jury___ there were men, who helped the brothers commit this awful crime,
Am C/G E Am
And so this trial was a__ mockery, but nobody there__ seemed to mind.
[Verse 5]
Am C/G D/F# F
I saw the mor---ning papers, but I___ could not bear
Am C/G D/F# E
To see the smiling___ brothers, walkin' down the courthouse stairs.
Am C/G D/F# F
For the jury f-ound them innocent, and the brothers they went free,
Am C/G E Am
While Emmett's bo--dy floats the foam, of a_ Jim Crow___ southern sea___.
[Verse 6]
Am C/G D/F# F
If you can't speak out, against this kind of thing, a crime that's so unjust,
Am C/G D/F# E
Your eyes are filled___ with dead men's dirt, your mind is filled with dust.
Am C/G D/F# F
Your arms and legs they must be in shackles and chains, and your blood it must refuse to flow___,
Am C/G E Am
For you let this human race, fall down so___ God-awful low!
[Verse 7]
Am C/G D/F# F
This song is just a reminder, to remind your___ fellow man
Am C/G D/F# E
That this kind of thing___ still lives today in that ghost-robed Ku Klux Klan.
Am C/G D/F# F
But if all of us folks, that thinks alike, if we give all__ we could give,
Am C/G E Am
We'd make this great, land of ours a___ greater___ place to live.
[Outro]
Am C/G D/F# F
Am E Am
