My Name Is Emmett Till Songtext / Lyric

I was born a black boy, my name is Emmett Till

Walked this earth for 14 years, 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 was 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 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