You got to walk that lonesome valley
You got to walk it by yourself
Nobody else can walk it for you
You got to walk that valley by yourself

Now there was a slave girl, Isabella Baumfree
Sold three times in her youth
She took her child and walked to freedom
She took the name Soujourner Truth

She took a white man to court and won
She said I'll do anything a man can do
I'll eat as much as any man, if I can get it
If black men'll vote, why can't I vote too?

She had to walk that lonesome valley
She had to walk it by herself
Nobody else could walk it for her
She had to walk that valley by herself

Now there was a priest named Father Berrigan
Tryin' to make sense of what Jesus said
He heard his country was burning children
He and his friends burned draft records instead

He said, now what if you really meant it?
Loved your fellowman like you love your Lord?
In Pennsylvania they destroyed warheads
Making plowshares out of swords

Dan Berrigan walked that lonesome valley
He had to walk it by himself
Nobody else could walk it for him
He had to walk that valley by himself

Now there was a soldier named Bradley Manning
Without a friend, so far from home
In a body that never fit right
Knowing things no one should know

Said what would you do with this information?
Wouldn't it help the world if it were known?
Got eleven months in Quantico, for starters
With the lights on, naked and alone

Chelsea Manning had to walk that lonesome valley
She had to walk it by herself
Nobody else could walk it for her
She had to walk that valley by herself

If you got to walk that lonesome valley
You got to walk it by yourself
Nobody else can walk it for you
You got to walk that valley by yourself