You're broken down and tired
Of living life on a merry go round
And you can't find the fighter
But I see it in you so we gonna walk it out And move
mountains
We gonna walk it out
And move mountains
And I'll rise up
I'll rise like the day
I'll rise up
I'll rise unafraid
I'll rise up
And I'll do it a thousand times again
And I'll rise up
High like the waves
I'll rise up
In spite of the ache
I'll rise up
And I'll do it a thousand times again
For you
For you
For you
For you
When the silence isn't quiet
And it feels like it's getting hard to breathe And I
know you feel like dying
But I promise we'll take the world to its feet And move
mountains
Bring it to its feet
And move mountains
And I'll rise up
I'll rise like the day
I'll rise up
I'll rise unafraid
I'll rise up
And I'll do it a thousand times again
For you
For you
For you
For you
All we need, all we need is hope
And for that we have each other
And for that we have each other
And we will rise
We will rise
We'll rise, oh, oh
We'll rise
I'll rise up
Rise like the day
I'll rise up
In spite of the ache
I will rise a thousand times again
And we'll rise up
High like the waves
We'll rise up
In spite of the ache
We'll rise up
And we'll do it a thousand times again
For you
For you
For you
For you
Ah, ah, ah, ah
==========================================================================
The Historical Marker Texts
Lynching of Erastus Brown, July 10, 1897
In the pre-dawn hours of July 10, 1897, an armed mob of
white men brutally lynched Erastus Brown, a Black husband
and father of two, near the Bourbeuse River Bridge in
Union, Missouri. Mr. Brown was no more than 20 years old
at the time of his death. On July 2, Mr. Brown left his
home to retrieve medicine for his sick infant child. While
on this journey, he was accused of hitting a white woman
with a rock. Mr. Brown was arrested shortly after the
accusation, with no evidence tying him to the alleged
crime, and placed in the Union County Jail. On July 10, an
armed lynch mob of approximately forty prominent white
farmers traveled to Union on horseback. The mob stormed
the jail, with no resistance from the officers on duty,
dragged Mr. Brown to the bridge, and hanged him from a
nearby willow tree. Though several community members in
Union, including the county prosecutor, either saw or
interacted with the mob, no one was willing to identify
members of the mob to local authorities after the lynching
of Mr. Brown. The local sheriff stated that there was “no
use” in investigating the lynching. Like nearly all
lynching victims, Mr. Brown was killed without legal
intervention or protection from a white mob that was not
held accountable for his death. Tragically, Mr. Brown’s
infant child died two days after his lynching.
The Franklin County Remembrance Project Coalition
The Equal Justice Initiative
Lynching in America
Thousands of Black people were the victims of racial
terror lynching in the United States between 1865 and
1950. The lynching of African Americans during this era
was a form of racial terrorism intended to intimidate
Black people and enforce racial hierarchy and segregation.
After the Civil War, violent resistance to equal rights
for African Americans and an ideology of white supremacy
led to fatal violence against Black women, men, and
children. Many African Americans were lynched following
accusations of violating social customs, engaging in
interracial relationships, or committing crimes, even when
there was no evidence tying the accused to any offense. It
was not uncommon for lynch mobs to seize their victims
from jails, prisons, courtrooms, or out of police hands,
often without fear of any legal repercussions. Though
armed and legally required to protect the men and women in
their custody, police rarely used force to resist
white mobs intent on killing Black people and sometimes
even participated in lynchings. Racial terror lynchings
often included burnings and mutilation, sometimes in front
of crowds numbering in the thousands. Many names of those
whose lives were claimed by these acts of racially
motivated violence were not recorded and will never be
known, but at least 60 racial terror lynchings have been
documented in Missouri.
IMAGES FROM THE EVENT