I was born a black boy
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My name is Emmett Till
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I walked this earth for 14 years
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And one night I was killed
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For speaking to a woman
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Whose skin was white as dough
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That's a sin in Mississippi
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But how was I to know?
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I'd come down from Chicago
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To visit with my kin
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Up there I was a cheeky kid
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I guess I'd always been
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But the harm they put upon me
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Was too hard for what I'd done
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For I was just a black boy
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And never hurt no one
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Oh oh oh oh oh oh
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Oh oh oh oh oh oh
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They took me from my uncle's house
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Mose Wright was his name.
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He'd later stand and, without hesitation,
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Point the blame
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At the ones who beat and cut me
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And shot me with a gun
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And threw me in the river
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Like I was trash when they were done
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I was sent back to my mother,
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At least what was left of me,
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She kept my casket open
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For the whole wide world to see
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The awful desecration
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And the evidence of hate
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You could not recognize me
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The mutilation was so great
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There came a cry for justice
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To be finally fulfilled
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All because of me, a black boy
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My name is Emmett Till
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Oh oh oh oh oh oh
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Oh oh oh oh oh oh
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Oh oh oh oh oh oh
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Oh oh oh oh oh oh
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Oh, but I'd have rather lived
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’Till I was too old to die young
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Not miss all I left behind
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And all that might have come
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Summer clouds above my head
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The grass beneath my feet
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The warmth of a good woman
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Her kisses soft and sweet
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Perhaps to be a father
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With a black boy of my own
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Watch him grow into a kinder world
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Than I had known
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Where no child would be murdered
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For the colour of his skin
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And love would be the only thing
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Inside the hearts of men
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They say the horror of that night
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Is haunting Heaven still
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Where I am one more black boy
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My name is Emmett Till
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-----------------
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My Name is Emmett Till
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| Emmylou Harris |
