My Name Is Emmett Till Lyrics - Hard Bargain - Emmylou Harris

I was born a black boy 

My name is Emmett Till 

Walked this earth for 14 years, but one night I was killed. 

I was 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's always been 

But the harm they put upon me was too hard for what I'd done 

For I was just a black boy 

I'd never hurt no one 

They took me from my Uncle's house 

Mose Wright was his name 

He later standing without hesitation point the blame 

At the ones who beat and cut me and shot me with a gun 

Threw me in the river like i was trash and they were done 

I was sent back to my mother, at least what was left of me 

She left my casket open for the whole wide world to see 

The awful desecration and the evidence of hate 

You couldn't recognize me the mutalation was so great 

There came a cry for justice 

to be finally fufilled 

All because of me a black boy 

My name is Emmett Till 

O 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, grass beneath my feet 

The warmth of a good woman 

The 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 

No child would be murdered for the color 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 

End 

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