C
Left hands hold the leashes and the right hands hold the torches
    G7                                 G
And grandpas holding shotguns swing on porch swings hung on porches
        Am
And the grandmas in their gardens plant more seeds to cut their losses
        G
And the poachers with the pooches and the nooses preheat crosses
        C
And the pooches see the grandpas and they bare their teeth and growl
            G7                                   G
While their owners turn their noses up like they smell something foul
         Am
And they fumble with their crosses and they start to mumble curses
         G
And they plot ways to get grandpas off of porches into hearses

        C
But the grandpas on the porches are just scarecrows holding toys
        G7              G
And the grandmas in the gardens are papier-mâché decoys
          Am
While the real grandmas and grandpas are with all the girls and boys
         G
Marching downtown to the city hall to make a lot of noise saying


[Chorus]
       C
Saying Hands up don't shoot I can't breathe
G7                    G
Black lives matter no justice no peace
  Am
I know that we can overcome because I had a dream
  G
A dream we tore this racist broken system apart at the seams


[Verse 2]
             C
Sometimes it seems like we've reached the end of the road
           G7                             G
We've seen cops and judges sleep together wearing long white robes
         Am
And they put their white hoods up try to take the black hoods down
         G
And they don't plan on stopping til we're all in the ground
          C
Til we're dead in the ground or we're incarcerated
       G7                      G
'Cause prison's a big business form of enslavement
       Am
Plantations that profit on black folks in cages
        G
They'll break our backs and keep the wages
        C
It's outrageous that there's no place we can feel safe in this nation
       G7            G
Not in our cars not at the park not in subway stations
       Am
Not at church the pool the store not asking for help
    G
Not walking down the street so we've gotta scream and yell


[Chorus]
C
Hands up don't shoot I can't breathe
G7                    G
Black lives matter no justice no peace
  Am
I know that we can overcome because I had a dream
  G
We tore this racist broken system apart at the seams


[Verse 3]
C
You tweet me my own lyrics tell me to stop
        G7        G
Letting a few bad apples ruin the bunch
       Am
Don't minimize the fight comparing apples to cops
        G
This is about the orchards poisoned roots not loose fruits in a box
         C
Once the soils been spoiled the whole crop's corrupt
       G7              G
That's why we need the grassroots working from the ground up
       Am
And we look to black twitter to stay woke and get some truth
  G
Instead of smiling cops and black mugshots from biased corporate news
          C
'Cause if you steal cigarillos or you sell loose cigarettes
       G7                                G
Or you forget your turn signal will they see your skin as a threat
          Am
Will they kill you and then smear you and cover it up and lie
          G
Will they call it "self defense" will they call it "suicide"


[Chorus]
C
Hands up don't shoot I can't breathe
G7                    G
Black lives matter no justice no peace
  Am
I know that we can overcome because I had a dream
        G
A dream we tore this racist broken system apart at the seams


[Verse 4]
C
Decades of cultivation starts from tiny seeds that were once planted
       G                G7               G               G7
And we mustn't take the gardens that our elders grew for granted
          Am
Though it is up to our youth how new rows sown are organized
        G
Because movements can't keep moving if old and unsharpened eyes
      C
Can't see the need to hear what those on the ground hafta say
   G            G7               G               G7
In Ferguson and Cleveland Staten island the east bay
 Am
Charleston Phoenix Detroit Sanford Waller
G
Seattle Chicago Los Angeles Baltimore
         C
Climbing flagpoles taking bridges locked together to the bart
         G        G7               G             G7
Speaking up about injustice in our music and our art
         Am
Storming stages to ask candidates when they're gonna start
G                          
Really directly addressing issues breaking our hearts


[Chorus]
C
Hands up don't shoot I can't breathe
G7                    G
Black lives matter no justice no peace
  Am
I know that we can overcome because I had a dream
        G
A dream we tore this racist broken system apart at the seams


[Chorus]
C
Hands up don't shoot I can't breathe
G7                    G
Black lives matter no justice no peace
  Am
I know that we can overcome because I had a dream
           G
A dream we tore this racist broken system apart at the seams


[Verse 5]
           C
And if the altars are torn down we'll just keep on placing flowers
        G              G7              G                  G7
For the boy whose body was in the road for more than four hours
        Am
We will honor the dead of every age and every gender
          G
'Cause we can't just have it be the brothers' names that we remember
C
Black boys with skateboards and black boys with hoodies
    G            G7            G            G7
And little black girls who are on the couch sleeping
    Am
And all of the black trans women massacred
         G7                     G              G7             G
Too many black folks killed and brutalized too little justice served
          C
After the lynchings of our people by the murderous police
    G7                              G            G7              G
Who stand like hunters 'round their prey gasping helpless in the street
              Am
Feet from the teen sister they tackled, locked handcuffed in the car
     G
Feet from her twelve year old brother dying... While no one did CPR

          C
And we'll keep on planting flowers and we'll fight until the day
     G7               G                G7              G
That we don't have to pick them all to put them all on graves
     Am
Yeah we'll keep planting flowers and we'll fight until the day
     G
That we don't have to pick them all to put them all on graves


[Chorus]
C
Hands up don't shoot I can't breathe
G7                    G
Black lives matter no justice no peace
  Am
I know that we can overcome because I had a dream
        G
A dream we tore this racist broken system apart at the seams