On The 50th Anniversary-Never Forget Birmingham Sunday 1963

On The 50th Anniversary-Never Forget Birmingham Sunday 1963

February Is Black History Month

Joan Baez - Birmingham Sunday Lyrics

Lyrics as reprinted in Guy and Candie Carawan, Sing for Freedom: The Story of
the Civil Rights Movement through its songs, Bethlehem, PA, 1990, pp. 122-123.
Come round by my side and I'll sing you a song.
I'll sing it so softly, it'll do no one wrong.
On Birmingham Sunday the blood ran like wine,
And the choir kept singing of Freedom.
That cold autumn morning no eyes saw the sun,
And Addie Mae Collins, her number was one.
In an old Baptist church there was no need to run.
And the choir kept singing of Freedom,

The clouds they were dark and the autumn wind blew,
And Denise McNair brought the number to two.
The falcon of death was a creature they knew,
And the choir kept singing of Freedom,
The church it was crowded, and no one could see
That Cynthia Wesley's dark number was three.
Her prayers and her feelings would shame you and me.
And the choir kept singing of Freedom.

Young Carol Robertson entered the door
And the number her killers had given was four.
She asked for a blessing but asked for no more,
And the choir kept singing of Freedom.
On Birmingham Sunday a noise shook the ground.
And people all over the earth turned around.
For no one recalled a more cowardly sound.
And the choir kept singing of Freedom.

The men in the forest they once asked of me,
How many black berries grow in the Blue Sea.
I asked them right back with a tear in my eye.
How many dark ships in the forest?
A Sunday has come a Sunday has gone.
And I can't do much more than to sing you a song.
I'll sing it so softly, it'll do no one wrong.
And the choir keeps singing of Freedom.