Jim Crow Justice – John Henry Johnson

Jim Crow Justice
       John Henry Johnson

The old gray-haired back woman
Sat on a porch across the street,
Legs dangling over the side – wailing.
Lordy Mercy – Lordy Mercy, she wailed:
That’s my only boy (she pointed)
Laying over there in his own blood
Soaking up the ground.
Lordy Mercy – What can I do?
Can’t do nothin,
Can’t nobody do nothin.
Lordy Mercy – Lordy Mercy.

A white man shot my boy down,
Shot him down with a shot gun.
Man said he sassed him;
My boy oughta knowed
You can’t sass a white man.
Lordy Mercy – What can I do?
Can’t do nothin,
Can’t nobody do nothin.
Lordy Mercy – Lordy Mercy,
God help us!