Key: Bb major
Verse 1
C#m
[Spoken]
D#
E
C#m
D#m
What I've realized since is that it's a very painful process but it is not destructive. It's the road to liberation. The what really happened in the sixties
E
C#m
D#
D#m
E
C#m
D#
D#m
E
C#m
was that this country took just the first step toward admitting that it had been wrong on race, and creativity burst out in all directions.
Verse 2
C#m
From the color of the faces
D#m
in Sunday songs
E
To the hatred they raised
all the youngsters on
C#m
D#m
Once upon a time in this country, long ago
E
She knew there was
something wrong
C#m
Because the song said "yellow,
D#
red, black, and white
E
Every one precious in the path of Christ"
C#m
But what about the daughter
D#m
Of the woman cleaning their house?
E
Wasn't she a child they were
singin' about?
C#m
And if Jesus
Verse 3
D#
loves us, black
and white skin
E
Why didn't her white mother
invite them in?
C#m
When did it become a room
D#m
E
for no blacks to step in?
How did she already know not
C#m
to ask the question?
E
Left lasting impressions
At a lesson, comfort's gone
C#m
D#m
She never thought things would ever change
D#
E
C#m
But she always knew there was
something wrong
Verse 4
C#m
E
Always knew there was
C#m
E
somethin' wrong.
C#m
B
She always knew there
E
B
C#m
was somethin' wrong
Verse 5
C#m
B
C#m
D#m
Years later, she found herself
E
Mississippi bound to help
C#m
D#m
Stop the legalized lynching
E
of Mr. Willy McGee
C#m
But they couldn't stop it
E
So they thought that they'd talk to the
governor about what'd happened
C#m
D#m
And say, "We're tired of being used as
E
C#m
an excuse to kill black men"
D#
But the cops wouldn't let 'em past
E
And these wo men,
they struck 'em as uppity
C#m
D#
So they hauled 'em all off to jail
E
And they called in protective custody
C#m
Then from her
Verse 6
cell
D#
She heard her jailers
E
Grumblin' about "outsiders"
C#m
When she called 'em out
D#m
E
And said she was from the south,
they shouted,
B
C#m
"Why is a nice,
D#m
E
Southern lady makin' trouble
For the governor?"
C#m
She said, "I guess I'm not
D#m
your type of lady
E
And I guess I'm not
your type of Southerner
C#m
D#m
But be fore you call me traitor,
E
Well it's plain as just to say
C#m
I was a child in Mississippi
D#
B
E
But I'm ashamed of it today"
C#m
She always
Verse 7
E
knew there was
C#m
D#m
E
somethin' wrong
C#m
B
E
She always knew there was somethin'
B
C#m
D#
E
C#m
wrong
E
She always knew there
C#m
E
was somethin' wrong
C#m
E
B
E
She always knew there was somethin'
C#m
wrong
E
([spoken] And, all of a sudden,
B
C#m
I realized I was on the other side)
Verse 8
Imagine the world that you're
standing within
All of your neighbors,
they're family-friends
How How would you cope facing the fact
The flesh on their hands
was tainted with sin?
She faced this every day
People she saw on a regular basis
People she loved, in several cases
People she knew were incredibly racist
Verse 9
C#m
It was painful,
D#m
but she never stopped loving them
E
B
Never stopped callin' their names
E
C#m
And she never stopped being
D#
D#m
a Southern woman
E
And she never stopped
fighting for change
C#m
And she saw that her struggle was
D#m
E
in the tradition of ancestors
B
never aware of her
E
C#m
It continues today:
D#
D#m
E
The soul of a Southerner
D#m
C#m
born of the other America
Verse 10
C#m
E
She always knew there was
C#m
E
somethin' wrong
C#m
E
She always knew there was somethin'
C#m
D#m
E
wrong
C#m
E
She always knew there
C#m
E
was somethin' wrong
C#m
E
She always knew there was
C#m
somethin' wrong
Verse 11
C#m
[Spoken]
What you win in the immediate battles is little compared to the effort you put into it but if you see that as a part of this total movement to build a new world, you know what could be (????? "oooh,
D#m
E
C#m
D#
B
E
C#m
D#
D#m
E
C#m
D#
E
C#m
D#m
B
E
C#m
D#
D#m
E
C#m
D#
E
B
E
C#m
ooooh"). You do have a choice. You don't have to be a part of the world of the lynchers. You can join the other America. There is another America!
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TunerE A D G B E
ChordsC#m D# E D#m B
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