Beau John was a king in his own native land
He ruled for a thousand days
Till the slave traders came and they locked him in irons
And they told him that he'd have to go away
They told him that he'd have to go away

Beau John got sick on the long ocean voyage
All around him people died
They took his friends and they threw them overboard
John hung down his head and he cried
John hung down his head and he cried

They sold Beau John down in New Orleans
To a man with a whip in his hand
He said farewell to his wife and his child
And they took him to a strange new land
They took him to a strange new land

Beau John worked hard for 37 years
He worked with a woman by his side
And on the morn that his last son was born
Beau John laid down and he died
Beau John laid down and he died

His son grew up just as big as his dad
They called him Beau John too
And for one hundred years Beau John and his sons
Did just what the master made them do
They did just what the master made them do
Until one day when the cannon fire roared
The master's wife and children did flee
Some men in blue coats rode into the yard
And they told Beau John that he was free
They told Beau John that he was free

When the nightriders came for old Beau John
Little Beau John hid behind a tree
He saw what they did and he hit the northern trails
Saying, "Maybe up there they'll let me be
Maybe up there they'll let me be."

But they pushed Beau John and they shoved him around
Till he didn't know where to turn
Some folks up in Harlem took him into their home
And Beau John started into learn
Beau John started into learn

He fought for his country in World War One
His son fought in World War Two
And they learned no matter what price they paid
There were certain things they weren't allowed to do
There were certain things they weren't allowed to do

And then one night on the television screen
He saw that Medgar Evers was dead
He took his wife in his arms in the night
And these are the words that he said, Beau John
These are the words that he said
"Well, they made me a slave and I worked in their fields
They made me fight in their war
They kept me down for four hundred years
But I ain't gonna take it any more
No, I ain't gonna take it any more."

His wife got a letter from a Georgia jail
From a town called Albany
Saying, "I am proud to be your own Beau John
And I ain't coming home till we're free
No, I ain't coming home till we're free."