The Death of Emmett Till (Witmark Demo - 1962) Lyrics

[Verse 1]
T'was down in Mississippi, not so long ago
When a young boy from Chicago town stepped through a Southern door
This boy's dreadful tragedy I can still remember well
The color of his skin was black and his name was Emmett Till

[Verse 2]
Some men they dragged him to a barn and there they beat him up
They said they had a reason, but I can't remember what
They tortured him and did some things, too evil to repeat
There was screaming sounds inside the barn, there was laughing sounds out on the street

[Verse 3]
Then they rolled his body down a gulf, amidst a bloody red rain
And they threw him in the waters wide to cease his screaming pain

The reason that they killed him there, and I'm sure it ain't no lie
Was just for the fun of killing him and to watch him slowly die

[Verse 4]
And then to stop, the United States of yelling for a trial
Two brothers they confessed that they had killed poor Emmett Till
But on the jury there were men who helped the brothers commit this awful crime
And so this trial was a mockery, but nobody there seemed to mind

[Verse 5]
I saw the morning papers but I could not bear, to see
The smiling brothers walking' down the courthouse stairs
For the jury found them innocent, and the brothers they went free
While Emmett's body floats the foam of a Jim Crow southern sea
[Verse 6]
If you can't speak out against this kind of thing, a crime that's so unjust
Your eyes are filled with dead men's dirt, your mind is filled with dust
Your arms and legs they must be in shackles and chains, and your blood it must refuse to flow
For you to let this human race fall down so God-awful low!

[Verse 7]
This song's just a reminder to remind your fellow man
That this kind of thing still lives today in that ghost-robed Ku Klux Klan
But if all of us folks that thinks alike, if we give all we could give
We'd make this great land of ours a greater place to live

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About

Genius Annotation

Often called The Ballad of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan, this song tells a story about Emmett Louis Till, a boy who was beaten and killed for allegedly flirting with a white woman in Mississippi in 1955. After his death, pictures of his mutilated body were publicized in Northern press, drawing attention to the continued treatment and situation of African Americans living in the South. Along with the Supreme Court’s ruling on Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, his death is an earmarker for the start of the the Civil Rights Movement.

According to Dylan’s website, he only ever played the song live once. In addition, the song never showed up on any of his recorded albums – only getting a record release on his demo series years later.

Today, Till’s death often draws comparisons with another boys killed by rasicm and prejudice – Trayvon Martin.

  1. 13.
    The Death of Emmett Till (Witmark Demo - 1962)
  2. 26.
    Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right (Witmark Demo, 1963) (Missing Lyrics)
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Release Date
October 19, 2010
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