They called you the rise of the black messiah like so many boys before you
And they’ll be more, more to follow threatening and hard to swallow
I’m sitting underneath that hanging tree, just me and the ghost of the KKK
Poor man’s gallows in the middle of the woods - the saddest tree that ever stood
My friend I heard you tell of slavery’s end but have you heard of ma** incarceration
That ol’ Jim Crow he just keeps getting born with a new hanging rope for the black man’s scourge
Hey ol’ man river, what do you know of that plantation they all Angola?
The devil spawned a prison there - the saddest farm that ever lived
Your great grand-daddy, he worked that land with shackles on his feet and on his hands
He built them levees he chopped that cane he died in the mud in his chains
Now you stand where he once stood shackles on you all the same
But he’s gonna rise, he’s gonna rise and all them lynches are gonna be damned
When outta that mud walks a brand new man
They called you the rise of the black messiah and said they’d do any damn thing the could to keep ya -
You and your brothers from spreading the word, the gospel of freedom and the black man’s worth
40 years in solitary, consider the man they just can’t bury
I got this letter in my hand, saying tell this tory when you can
He’s gonna rise, he’s gonna rise and all them lynchers are gonna be damned
When outta that hole walks a brand new man