Eddie Noel

Eddie Noel was a  black man
Down Mississippi way.
He volunteered in World War II
And went to join the fray.

He was an expert marksman;
Some folks would even claim
He could strike a match from fourty yards
So deadly was his aim.

Willie Dickard was a white man.
Who hated colored folk,
Except, that is, for Eddie's wife,
And the passion she evoked.

When Eddie came to get his wife
Papa Dickard held him tight
While Willie worked him over
On that January night.

So Eddie up and got his gun
To hold them both at bay.
But Willie tried to rush him
And take that gun away.

Then Eddie Noel shot Willie down;
He laid him out that day.
They buried him beneath six feet
Of Mississippi clay.

Sheriff Byrd then formed a posse,
A lynch mob by all rights.
They caught Eddie in a crossfire
On a country road at night.

Now at one end of the crossfire
Was Deputy Malone,
The hardest hitting lawman
That the state had ever known.

Some say that he was brutal,
The meanest cuss by far.
Some say he dragged a colored boy
To death behind his car.

So Eddie up and shot him down;
He laid him out that day.
They buried him beneath six feet
Of Mississippi clay.

Six members of the lynch mob then
Trapped Eddie in his shack.
Joe Stewart busted down the door,
Inside it was pitch black.

Eddie shot Joe Stewart down;
He laid him out I say.
They buried Joe beneath six feet
Of Mississippi clay.

Then Eddie come out shootin'.
As he stood there in the sun
In that withering crossfire,
He shot them one by one.

When the smoke had finally cleared
Three men were laid in clay,
Three more men were wounded,
And the rest had run away!

They had to call that lynch mob off.
T'was more than they could bear.
They took their whisky, dogs and guns
N' high tailed it outta there.

Now you can take a man for money,
You can maybe take his wife,
You can take all of his property,
And even take his life.

But one thing you should know
Is you haven't got the right
To take away his dignity
And not expect a fight.

Folks talked about Mack Parker,
And what was done to Emmet Till,
But when Eddie Noel's name came up
Those folks got mighty still.

For he never went to prison,
He died when old and grey,
And they buried him beneath six feet
Of Indiana clay.