Ed Johnson was a no-good, raping murderer they said
And by the time the finished beating him he might as well've been dead
So they dragged him down to the river and they hung him from the bridge-
But he wasn't guilty, he wasn't guilty

Ed Johnson he was killed the day the lynching mob attacked
And clearing his name a hundred years later will not bring him back
Through tears and blood the dying man still held up his head
"God bless you all, I am innocent..."
But his words were drowned out by the raging waters
Of the whitewash, of the whitewash
The whitewash…

Now the police in my city shot another black man down
And to hear the mayor talking is the raving of a clown
Who would drag a dead man's reputation with him into the ground-
When he wasn't guilty of anything, no
He was just another victim of the whitewash, of the whitewash
The whitewash…

They can scrub the dead man's blood away
But the memory remains

Election Day in Florida, man don't it take you back?
To a time when it was dangerous to vote if you were black
They purge the rolls and block the roads and turn black folk away
Now Bush thinks he's the president
But he was only put in power by the whitewash
By the whitewash
Oh the whitewash….

And we'll wash our  tears and blood away
But the memory remains