Bob Dylan - The Death Of Emmett Till: Guitar Chords

Learn to play "The Death Of Emmett Till" on your guitar with our detailed chord guide and lyrics. This page provides everything you need to perform this song on the guitar, including lyrics integrated with chords, chord diagrams, and a key transposer to match your vocal range.

Learn The Death Of Emmett Till Guitar Chords and Lyrics by Bob Dylan

This section will guide you through each part of the song, providing the guitar chords placed directly above the lyrics for easy playing. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced player, these elements will help you perform "The Death Of Emmett Till" smoothly on your guitar.

For easier playing, use our Simplify Chords feature to remove difficult chords like barre.

       Cm            D#/A#   F/A       G#
"Twas down in Mississippi no so long ago,
        Cm                D#/A#          F/A             G
When a young boy from Chicago town walked in a Southern door.
     Cm              D#/A#              F/A           G#
This boy's frightful tragedy you should all remember well,
    Cm           D#/A#                   G               Cm
The color of his skin was black and his name was Emmett Till.

Some men they dragged him to a barn and there they beat him up.
They said they had a reason, but I disremember what.
They tortured him and did some things too evil to repeat.
There was screaming sounds inside the barn, there was
laughing sounds out on the street.

Then they rolled his body down a gulf amidst the blood-red rain
And they threw him in the waters wide to cease his screaming pain.
The reason that they killed him there, and I'm sure it ain't no lie,
He was a black-skinned boy, so he was born to die.

And then to stop the United States of yelling for a trial,
Two brothers they confessed that they had killed poor Emmett Till.
But on the jury there were men who helped
the brothers commit this awful crime,
And so this trial was a mockery, but nobody seemed to mind.

I saw the morning papers but I could not bear
To see the smiling brothers walkin' down the courthouse stairs.
For the jury found them innocent and the brothers they went free,
While Emmett's body floats the foam of a Jim Crow southern sea.

If you can't speak out against this kind of thing,
a crime that's so unjust,
Your eyes are filled with dead men's dirt,
your mind is filled with dust.
Your arms and legs they must be in shackles and chains,
and your blood it must cease to flow,
For you let this human race fall down so God-awful low!

This song is just a reminder to remind your fellow man
That this kind of thing still lives today
in that ghost-robed Ku Klux Klan.
But if all  us folks that thinks alike,
if we'd give all we could give,
We could make this great land of ours
a greater place to live.


You can simplify chords by removing barre

Transpose

Reset

Font Size

Reset

Simplify chords by removing barre

Guitar Chord Diagrams

A

Guitar chord A

A#

Guitar chord A#

Cm

Guitar chord Cm

F

Guitar chord F

G

Guitar chord G

G#

Guitar chord G#

Here you can see detailed diagrams for each guitar chord used in the song. Utilize our key transposer to adjust the chords to a key that better fits your singing range. Simply select the desired key, and the chords throughout this page will update automatically, ensuring you can play and sing comfortably.

If you are also interested in learning how to play "The Death Of Emmett Till" on the ukulele, check out the chords on our sister site: Ukulele Chords for "The Death Of Emmett Till" by Bob Dylan.

Bob Dylan Song List