David Rovics

As I Watch Minneapolis Burn

David Rovics


Tom: C

C                                                                F
Are people still lynched in America – and what happens when they die
        G                                                                  C
When he begged for his mother to save him, was he resisting arrest when he cried
                                                                    F
And how does the lynch mob roam free, when we already know who they are
    G                                                                 C
The men who murdered George Floyd, and then drove off in their police cars
                                                                 F       
To live with such savage injustice, with every new day the Earth turns
    G                                                     C  
I'm left with no reason to wonder, as I watch Minneapolis burn

[Verse]
                                                                F 
Are people still lynched in America – how many just in the past weeks
  G                                                   C 
From Georgia to Minnesota, as the pandemic spikes and peaks
                                                                           F 
Did you see him pinned down for eight minutes, did you see the knee on his neck
        G                                                            C 
Did you see the police station on fire, did you smell the smoldering wreck
                                                              F
As the National Guard marches in, watch the wheels of history churn
       G                                                  C 
In the land of Philando Castille, as we watch Minneapolis burn

[Verse]
                                                                     F 
Are people still lynched in America – and do the poor still die of disease
        G                                                            C
Are the prisons still full of debtors, do bodies still hang from the trees
                                                                          F
Do the workers still live by the highways, still struggle to come up with rent
   G                                                            C
Do families still get evicted, when the last of their credit is spent
                                                                               F
Do you see all the people who just had to find out what might there be left to learn
         G                                                         C
From the flames that rise from the Target, as we watch Minneapolis burn

[Outro]
                                                                 F 
Are people still lynched in America – and what happens when they die
        G                                                                  C 
When he begged for his mother to save him, was he resisting arrest when he cried