C/G      3-0-2-0-1-0
D/F#     2-0-0-2-3-2
F        1-3-3-2-1-1
E        0-2-2-1-0-0
[Strum with some hammer-on's here and there on the Am and E chords or
play chords over a travis style picking pattern]

[Intro]
Am    C/G    D/F#    F    Am   E   Am

[Verse 1]
      Am            C/G           D/F#            F
"Twas down in___ Mississippi,     not so___ long ago,
       Am                   C/G                 D/F#                      E
When a young boy___ from Chicago town,      stepped through a___ Southern door.
     Am                 C/G                   D/F#              F
This boy's___ frightful tragedy,       I can still___ remember well,
    Am              C/G                         E                  Am
The color of___ his skin was black,     and his name was___ Emmett Till.

[Verse 2]
     Am                      C/G             D/F#                       F
Some men they dragged___ him to a barn,      and there they___ beat him up.
     Am                 C/G                 D/F#                   E
They said they had___ a reason,       but I___ can't remember what.
     Am                  C/G                    D/F#            F
They tortured him___ and did some things,   too evil to repeat.
          Am                 C/G                       E                             Am
There was screaming sounds inside the barn, there was laughing sounds___ out on the street.

[Verse 3]
          Am                  C/G              D/F#                 F
Then they rolled his___ body down a gulf,    amidst a___ blood-red rain
         Am                  C/G             D/F#                   E
And they threw him in___ the waters w-ide to cease his screaming p-ain.
       Am               C/G                          D/F#                 F
The___ reason that they killed him there,    and I'm sure it___ ain't no lie,
         Am                C/G                    E                     Am
Was just for___ the fun of killin' him,     and to___ watch him slowly die..

[Verse 4]
    Am                  C/G                   D/F#                F
And then to stop,   the United States,   of yelling___ for a trial,
     Am                  C/G                    D/F#                   E
Two brothers they___ confessed that they,   had killed p-oor Emmett Till.
           Am            C/G                         D/F#                        F  
But on the jury___ there were men,    who helped the brothers commit this awful crime,
       Am                 C/G               E                     Am 
And so this trial was a__ mockery,   but nobody there__ seemed to mind.

[Verse 5]
   Am                C/G             D/F#           F
E|saw| the mor---ning papers,    but I___ could not bear
   Am                  C/G                 D/F#                  E
To see the smiling___ brothers,    walkin' down the courthouse stairs.
         Am               C/G                 D/F#                F
For the jury f-ound them innocent,    and the brothers they went free,
      Am               C/G                   E                    Am 
While Emmett's bo--dy floats the foam, of a_ Jim Crow___ southern sea___.

[Verse 6]
       Am                    C/G                           D/F#              F
If you can't speak out,  against this kind of thing, a crime that's so unjust,
     Am                       C/G                    D/F#                    E
Your eyes are filled___ with dead men's dirt,   your mind is filled with dust.
     Am                            C/G                           D/F#                     F
Your arms and legs they must be in shackles and chains, and your blood it must refuse to flow___,
    Am                 C/G            E                    Am
For you let this human race,    fall down so___ God-awful low!

[Verse 7]
     Am                C/G         D/F#                  F
This song is just a reminder,   to remind your___ fellow man
          Am                      C/G                 D/F#               E
That this kind of thing___ still lives today in that ghost-robed Ku Klux Klan.
       Am                     C/G                          D/F#          F
But if all of us folks,  that thinks alike,  if we give all__ we could give,
     Am                C/G               E                    Am
We'd make this great,  land of ours a___ greater___ place to live.

[Outro]
Am     C/G      D/F#      F
Am     E        Am