My Name Is Emmett Till

I was born a black boy

My name is Emmett Till

I walked this earth for 14 years

And one night I was killed

For speaking to a woman

Whose skin was white as dough

That's a sin in Mississippi

But how was I to know?

I'd come down from Chicago

To visit with my kin

Up there I was a cheeky kid

I guess I'd always been

But the harm they put upon me

Was too hard for what I'd done

For I was just a black boy

And never hurt no one

Oh oh oh oh oh oh

Oh oh oh oh oh oh

They took me from my uncle's house

Mose Wright was his name.

He'd later stand and, without hesitation,

Point the blame

At the ones who beat and cut me

And shot me with a gun

And threw me in the river

Like I was trash when they were done

I was sent back to my mother,

At least what was left of me,

She kept my casket open

For the whole wide world to see

The awful desecration

And the evidence of hate

You could not recognize me

The mutilation was so great

There came a cry for justice

To be finally fulfilled

All because of me, a black boy

My name is Emmett Till

Oh oh oh oh oh oh

Oh oh oh oh oh oh

Oh oh oh oh oh oh

Oh oh oh oh oh oh

Oh, but I'd have rather lived

'Till I was too old to die young

Not miss all I left behind

And all that might have come

Summer clouds above my head

The grass beneath my feet

The warmth of a good woman

Her kisses soft and sweet

Perhaps to be a father

With a black boy of my own

Watch him grow into a kinder world

Than I had known

Where no child would be murdered

For the colour of his skin

And love would be the only thing

Inside the hearts of men

They say the horror of that night

Is haunting Heaven still

Where I am one more black boy

My name is Emmett Till