Jimmy Wilson

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
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
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 war
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
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, charlies, many more
Fought and died and rose to fight again

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!

Last year a negro stole a dollar bill
The judge he said we mustn't be severe
Instead we'll give him life imprisonment to show there's justice here

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!

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
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 in 1958
Johannesburg to Nottinghill and back
A plague of ignorance and hate men
Walk in fear because their skin is black

But these are more enlightened days
Cruel men and savage ways
Leave them let them go

Now every man may walk his road in peace
Let men be free!