Mama never had a flower garden

'Cause cotton grew right up to our front door

Daddy never went on a vacation

He died a tired old man at forty-four

Our neighbors in the big house called us "redneck"

Cause we lived in a poor sharecropper shack

The Jacksons down the road were poor like we were

But our skin was white and theirs was black

But I believe the South is gonna rise again

But not the way we thought it would back then

I mean everybody hand in hand

I believe the South is gonna rise again

I see wooded parks and big skyscrapers

Where dirty run-down shacks stood once before

I see sons and daughters of sharecroppers

But they're not pickin' cotton anymore

But more important, I see human kindness

As we forget the bad and keep the good

A brand new breeze is blowing 'cross the southland

And I see a brand new kind of brotherhood

Yes I believe the South is gonna rise again

But not the way we thought it would back then

I mean everybody hand in hand

I believe the South is gonna rise again

I believe the South is gonna rise again

I believe the South is gonna rise again