In Alabama, 1958,
the cost of human life is very low.
A man that's black is trampled down
just like men were a thousand years ago.
But these are more enlightened days
Through old men an d savage ways
we left long ago
Now everyone may walk his road in peace
For all are free
Five thousand years ago a million men
Were gathered in to roy
al Egypt's hands
Were bound together, forced to build
Pyramids of stone in desert sands
But these are more enlightened days,
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 rubber to the tree.
But these are more enlightened days,
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
Diggus, Chartus,
many more fought and died
and rose to fight again
These are more enlightened days,
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, said,
we mustn't be severe
Instead of death we'll give him life
Imprisonment to show
there's justice here
These are more enlightened days,
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.
These are more enlightened days,
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 today.
Johannesburg to Notting Hill and back.
A plague of ignorance and hate.
Men walk in fear
because their skin is black.
So 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 men be free.