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