About
These Rights Are Our Rights
The grassroots rallying cry This Land Is Your Land, by the renowned Woody Guthrie, is given a new perspective with the following lyrics reflecting the struggles and solidarity of our current times. Scroll to read lyrics, or click here for a printer-friendly version.
These lyrics are for you. Take them. Sing them – at your next party, meeting, rally, march. Choose the verses you like and sing. Record your friends and upload to YouTube.
start CHORUS
These rights are your rights
These rights are our rights
From the First Amendment
To our priv-a-cy
These rights were meant for you and me
Equal protection
A press that is free
Due process of law
No death penalty
These rights were meant for you and me
END CHORUS
From the bridge at Selma
To the Stonewall I--nn
The fight for justice
You know we’re all in
These rights were meant for you and me
REPEAT CHORUS
We’ll keep on fighting
As long as we must
We’ll leave all hatred
Down there in the dust
These rights were meant for you and me
REPEAT CHORUS
I started reading
That ol’ Bill of Rights
And then I knew that
It’s a Bill of Our Fights
These rights are meant for you and me
REPEAT CHORUS
One right we cherish
Right of Assem-bly
Cause in those protests
That’s where we’ll all be
These rights were meant for you and me
REPEAT CHORUS
Went to the ball game
What did I se - ee?
All of the players
Down taking a knee
Their silent protest
Sure inspired me
The right to protest
Makes this our land free
The right to protest was made for you and me
REPEAT CHORUS
As I lay dreaming
I dreamt a land of
Full equal-ity
Complete priv-acy
That land was made for you and me
REPEAT chorus
Our voices cry out
Let’s stop all spying
Stop wiretapping
And White House lying
That land was made for you and me
REPEAT CHORUS
Jane Roe got pregnant
She had a tough choice
It’s not the state’s choice
It Is just her choice
These rights were meant for you and me
REPEAT chorus
Health care is your right
Health care is our right
From baby’s first cry
Till the day we die
For all the big things
To little bee stings
Health care was made for you and me
REPEAT CHORUS
Now my companion
The same sex as me
It’s no one’s business
Just our pri-vacy
These rights were meant for you and me
REPEAT chorus
We thank you Woody
Your gift’s a great song
It gives us strength to
Keep on keep’n on
Your song was meant for you and me
REPEAT CHORUS
With strength and courage
John Lewis marched on
They beat and kicked him
But he just stayed strong
So we salute him
And sing him this song
We march as he marched
To fight all that’s wrong
His strength inspires you and me
REPEAT chorus
These rights are your rights
These rights are our rights
Freedom of spe-ech
Now that is our fight
Free speech was meant for you and me
REPEAT CHORUS
Walkin through Brooklyn
Thought there was no risk
Till some cop stopped us
Did a stop and frisk
Is there a problem?
We gently asked him
He called us a name
Then busted our ass
We called our lawyer
He said don’t worry
The Fourth Amendment
Will set you all free
These streets were meant for you and me
REPEAT CHORUS
Now roses are red
And your process due
If you’re arrested
Call A-C-L-U
These rights are made for you and me
REPEAT chorus
For women’s health care
It’s Planned Parenthood
Rights reproductive
You know that they’re good.
At Planned Parenthood
You get your sex ed
Birth control info
And you get tested
Their clinic is made for you and me
REPEAT CHORUS
Kids prayin’ in school
Well that’s just not cool
Cause church and the state
Must be sep-ar-ate
That right is meant for you and me
REPEAT chorus
As I was drivin’
On “I”- ninety-five
Then some cop stopped me
Some pro-filing jive
REPEAT CHORUS
And so we sued them
Said hey that’s no way
And now that freeway
Is a true free-way
These streets are meant for you and me
REPEAT chorus
A land of free-dom
Liber-ty so sweet
Well that’s a land with
No room for Trump’s tweets
That Trump’s not meant for you and me
REPEAT CHORUS
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about
Sam Walker
Sam Walker is a nationally recognized expert on police accountability. His specific areas of expertise include citizen oversight of the police, early intervention systems to identify problem officers, federal pattern and practice litigation, and mediating citizen complaints. He is also an expert on the history of civil liberties, with books on the history of the ACLU and the controversy over hate speech. Read his full bio here.
The lyrics for These Rights Are Our Rights merge Sam’s interests in civil liberties and music. As a teenager in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, he listened to Top 40 radio and had albums by Fats Domino, Little Richard, Big Joe Turner, Buddy Holly, and many others. For the last 35 years he has been collecting LPs (and some 78s) and now has about 10,000 in his record room.
The lyrics came about this way. When listening to radio stations on his headphones at the gym, Sam developed the habit of playing around with the lyrics, making a famous record funny, weird, off-color, or whatever. One day (but not at the gym) he heard Woody Guthrie’s This Land is Your Land, and immediately changed it to These Rights Are Our Rights. And that’s the story.
Sam is completely un-musical. He cannot sing, play an instrument (the teenage clarinet lessons failed), or read music. But he can play with words.
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