I heard Odessa's mind was sick
That she was crazier than hell
The police caught her turning tricks
Down at the Blue and Gray motel
Odessa was the neighbor's maid
She had ten mouths at home to feed
They bussed her kids to Birmingham
And put her in the county jail
Nobody seemed to give a damn
They say a white man posted bail
My dad said not to breathe a word
I told my brother all I heard
And the train of change
Was coming fast to my hometown
We had the choice to climb on board
Or get run down
It was crazy there
Were grown men fights
Over segregation and civil rights
Martin Luther King and the KKK
George C. Wallace and LBJ
And when the National Guard came in
I thought the world was gonna end
It was crazy in Alabama
Down at the corner Dairy Dip
They sold soft ice cream for a dime
White people ordered from the front
The side was for the colored line
We all were told they had their place
Because they were a different race
We spent hot summer afternoons
At the public swimming pool
Where the privileged and the few
Played on their island of cool blue
Brown children
Watched outside the fence
It never made one lick of sense
But the train of change
Was coming fast to my hometown
We had the choice to climb on board
Or get run down
My momma yelled child get inside
Drew the drapes and locked the doors
We watched the marchers passing by
Felt the rumble heard the roar
They all held hands they sang and wept
And freedom rang in every step
Cause the train of change
Was marching through my hometown
We had the choice to climb on board
Or get run down