Nellie

Hey Nellie Nellie, come to the window

Hey Nellie Nellie, look at what I see

He's riding into town on a sway-back mule

In a tall black hat he looks like a fool

He sure is talking like he's been to school

It's 1855

Hey Nellie Nellie, come to the window

Hey Nellie Nellie, listen what he says

He say the black folk should be free

To walk anywhere like you and me

He's talking about a thing called democracy

It's 1859

Hey Nellie Nellie, come to the window

Hey Nellie Nellie, hand me down my gun

The men are marching, the boys are too

All putting on their coats of blue

I can't just stand here talking to you

It's 1861

Hey Nellie Nellie, come to the window

Hey Nellie Nellie, I've come home alive

But my coat of blue is stained with red

And the man in the tall black hat is dead

We sure can remember all the things he said

It's 1865

Hey Nellie Nellie, come to the window

Hey Nellie Nellie, time to make a row

I see white folk and black folk side by side

Marching in a column a century wide

From Selma to Soweto we're turning the tide

I feel things changing now

From Selma to Soweto we're turning the tide

Things are changing now

Hey Nelly Nelly, come to the window

Hey Nelly Nelly, look at what I see

I see white folks and colored walkin' side by side

They're walkin' in a column that's a century wide

It's still a long and a hard and a bloody ride

In 1963