Alabama '58

In Alabama nineteen fifty eight
The cost of human life is very low
A man that's flag is trampled down
Just like them were is thousand years ago

But these are more enlightened days
No room for all these savage ways
Leave them, let them go
Now every man may walk his roads in peace
For all are free

Two thousand years ago a million men
Were gathered into Royal Egypt's land
Were bound together, forced to build
The pyramids of stone and desert sand

,

Mary's son walked through a land of woe
Dreaming of the world as it could be
But for good and lawful men of Rome
Bound them like a robber to a tree

,

In Britain just a hundred years ago
The jails were full of good and hungry men
Diggers, Fenians many more
Fought and died for growth to fight again

,

Last year a Negro stole a dollar bill
The judge he said: 'we mustn't be severe
Instead of death we'll give him life
Imprisonment to show that justice is here'

,

And so throughout the ages you have seen
How progress marches ever on its way
No rack, no wheel, no Spanish boot
For Alabama's prisoners today

,

In these are more enlightened days
No room for all these savage ways
Leave them, let them go
Now every man should walk his road in peace
That men be free