In Alabama, nineteen-fifty-eight,
The cost of human life is very law,
A man that’s black is trampled down
Just like men were a thousand years ago.
But these are more enlightened days
The cruel men and savage ways
We left long ago.
Now every man may walk his road in peace,
For all are free.
Five-thousand years ago, a million men
were gathered into royal Egypt’s hands,
were bound together, forced to build
Pyramids of stone in desert sands.
But these are more enlightened days
The cruel men and savage ways
We left long ago.
Now every man may walk his road in peace,
For all are free.
Mary’s Son walked through a land of woe
Dreaming of the world as it could be,
The good and lawful men of Rome
Nailed Him like a robber to the tree.
But these are more enlightened days
The cruel men and savage ways
We left long ago.
Now every man may walk his road in peace,
For all are free.
In Britain just a hundred years ago
The jails were full of poor and hungry men.
Diggers, Chartists, many more,
Fought and died and rose to fight again.
But these are more enlightened days
The cruel men and savage ways
We left long ago.
Now every man may walk his road in peace,
For all are free.
Last year a Negro stole a dollar bill,
The Judge he says, "We mustn't be severe,
Instead of death, we’ll give him life
Imprisonment to show there's justice here."
But these are more enlightened days
The cruel men and savage ways
We left long ago.
Now every man may walk his road in peace,
For all are free.
And so, throughout the ages, we have seen
How progress marches ever on its way,
No rack, no wheel, no Spanish boot
For Alabama's prisoners today.
But these are more enlightened days
The cruel men and savage ways
We left long ago.
Now every man may walk his road in peace,
For all are free.
The plague still runs throughout the world to day,
Johannesburg to Notting Hill and back
A plague of ignorance and hate
Men - walk in fear because their skin is black.
In these more enlightened days,
No room for all these savage ways,
Leave them, let them go!
Now every man should walk his road in peace,
LET ME BE FREE.
The cost of human life is very law,
A man that’s black is trampled down
Just like men were a thousand years ago.
But these are more enlightened days
The cruel men and savage ways
We left long ago.
Now every man may walk his road in peace,
For all are free.
Five-thousand years ago, a million men
were gathered into royal Egypt’s hands,
were bound together, forced to build
Pyramids of stone in desert sands.
But these are more enlightened days
The cruel men and savage ways
We left long ago.
Now every man may walk his road in peace,
For all are free.
Mary’s Son walked through a land of woe
Dreaming of the world as it could be,
The good and lawful men of Rome
Nailed Him like a robber to the tree.
But these are more enlightened days
The cruel men and savage ways
We left long ago.
Now every man may walk his road in peace,
For all are free.
In Britain just a hundred years ago
The jails were full of poor and hungry men.
Diggers, Chartists, many more,
Fought and died and rose to fight again.
But these are more enlightened days
The cruel men and savage ways
We left long ago.
Now every man may walk his road in peace,
For all are free.
Last year a Negro stole a dollar bill,
The Judge he says, "We mustn't be severe,
Instead of death, we’ll give him life
Imprisonment to show there's justice here."
But these are more enlightened days
The cruel men and savage ways
We left long ago.
Now every man may walk his road in peace,
For all are free.
And so, throughout the ages, we have seen
How progress marches ever on its way,
No rack, no wheel, no Spanish boot
For Alabama's prisoners today.
But these are more enlightened days
The cruel men and savage ways
We left long ago.
Now every man may walk his road in peace,
For all are free.
The plague still runs throughout the world to day,
Johannesburg to Notting Hill and back
A plague of ignorance and hate
Men - walk in fear because their skin is black.
In these more enlightened days,
No room for all these savage ways,
Leave them, let them go!
Now every man should walk his road in peace,
LET ME BE FREE.
Contributed by Bartleby - 2011/6/15 - 13:16
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Note for non-Italian users: Sorry, though the interface of this website is translated into English, most commentaries and biographies are in Italian and/or in other languages like French, German, Spanish, Russian etc.
Album “New Briton Gazette, Vol. 2”, Folkways Records
Parole e musica by Peggy Seeger ed Ewan MacColl
Marion, Alabama, 1958. La signora Esteele Barker, stimata cittadina bianca, asserì che uno sporco negro, tal Jimmy Wilson, artigiano, le avesse rubato 1.95$. Wilson fu arrestato, processato e condannato da una giuria composta interamente da stimatissimi cittadini bianchi: la sentenza fu di morte. Il mondo intero si indignò di fronte ad un tale abominio ed il presidente Eisenhower ed il suo braccio destro Foster Dulles furono letteralmente sommersi dalle lettere di protesta provenienti da ogni angolo del globo.
Finalmente il governatore dell’Alabama Jim Folsom, detto "Big Jim", si mise la mano sulla coscienza e riformò d’autorità la pena comminata: non più la morte ma… il carcere a vita!
Giustizia era fatta!
Jimmy Wilson, lo sporco negro che aveva rubato 1.95$ alla povera signora Barker, restò in prigione fino al 1973. Quando fu liberato era ormai un vecchio.
Jimmy Wilson e insieme a lui tanti altri stupidi negri - come quello nell’immagine qui sotto – conobbero finalmente quanto fosse severa le legge dei bianchi e del loro Dio bianco…