Am                        C              G                F
They called you the rise of the black messiah like so many boys before you
      Am               C              G               F
And they’ll be more, more to follow threatening and hard to swallow
    Am                        C              G                F
I’m sitting underneath that hanging tree, just me and the ghost of the KKK
      Am                     C                       G                F
Poor man’s gallows in the middle of the woods - the saddest tree that ever stood

[Chorus]
Am    C   G  F
Oooh oooh oooh

[Verse 2]
      Am                        C                        G                F
My friend I heard you tell of slavery’s end but have you heard of mass incarceration
      Am                   C                         G                       F
That ol’ Jim Crow he just keeps getting born with a new hanging rope for the black man’s scourge
       Am                        C               G                F
Hey ol’ man river, what do you know of that plantation they all Angola?
     Am                 C                    G                F
The devil spawned a prison there - the saddest farm that ever lived
     G                     G                     F
Your great grand-daddy, he worked that land with shackles on his feet and on his hands
     G                     G                     F
He built them levees he chopped that cane he died in the mud in his chains
                    C              F
Now you stand where he once stood shackles on you all the same

[Chorus]
Am    C   G  F
Oooh oooh oooh

[Bridge]
              C                G         Am                            F
But he’s gonna rise, he’s gonna rise and all them lynches are gonna be damned
                            Am
When outta that mud walks a brand new man

[Chorus]
Am    C   G  F
Oooh oooh oooh
Am    C   G  F
Oooh oooh oooh

[Verse 3]   
       Am                        C                 G                        F
They called you the rise of the black messiah and said they’d do any damn thing the could to keep ya - 
              Am                  C                   G                       F
You and your brothers from spreading the word, the gospel of freedom and the black man’s worth
       Am           C               G                F
40 years in solitary, consider the man they just can’t bury
       Am                 C               G                F
I got this letter in my hand, saying tell this story when you can

[Bridge]
               C                G         Am                            F
But he’s gonna rise, he’s gonna rise and all them lynches are gonna be damned
                            Am
When outta that mud walks a brand new man

[Outro]
Am    C   G  F
Oooh oooh oooh
Am    C   G  F
Oooh oooh oooh