I don’t know anything about oppression or anything about this disease.
I’ve never been to the Mississippi Delta. I’ve not been down to New Orleans.
                               
But, I don’t know how I lost my freedom.  I don’t know how you lost yours.
But, someday maybe we’ll be together. I’m hoping that we’ll finally see,
That the only way that we can have freedom is for all of us to be free.

I don’t know much about persecution ‘cause I’ve mostly lived a life of ease.
I’ve never had my ankles shackled nor feared the color of my seed.

But, I don’t know how I lost my freedom.  I don’t know how you lost yours.
But, someday maybe we’ll be together. I’m hoping that we’ll finally see,
That the only way that we can have freedom is for all of us to be free.

I wasn’t there, and you weren’t there but somehow, we still feel the chains. 
Maybe next year is the year we will all be free.

I’ve never been to Alabama to see the way people lived there.
Never thought skin could be a reason for treating people wrong this long.

But, I don’t know how I lost my freedom.  I don’t know how you lost yours.
But, someday maybe we’ll be together. I’m hoping that we’ll finally see,
That the only way that we can have freedom is for all of us to be free.
That the only way that we can have freedom is for all of us to be free.
Is for all of us to be free!