Freedom Singers: Woke up this morning/ With my mind Stayed on Freedom/ I woke up this morning/ with my mind, Lord, stayed on freedom/ I woke up this morning/ with my mind stayed on freedom/ I pray, I pray, I Pray, Hallelujah. Larry Rubin: It might that many of the goals for which the civil rights movement fought has been reached. The civil rights bill has been passed The voting rights bill has been passed. Negro congressmen have been elected throughout the North and several Negroes have been elected to prominent positions throughout the South. But is that all Negroes fought for? Listen to Senator Leroy Johnson, a State Senator of Georgia, he was the first Negro to be elected to the Georgia state Senate since Reconstruction. Senator Leroy Johnson: What you are doing here in Albany, Georgia in the shadow of fear and in the shadow of tremendous heart by persons of non-color represent what must be done by Negroes throughout the South if we are ever to obtain first-class citizenship. [clapping] The Negro must receive a greater appreciation for his own accomplishments in order to move forward. The story of the Negro struggle in America, starting with the slave trade in Africa, a slave trade with people living, lying, stealing, murdering, and dying. A slave trade with a black man, who stepped out of his hut for a breath of fresh air and ended up ten months later in a southern state with bruises on his back and brand on his chest.
The slave trade was a truth, and in retrospect, an exercise in futility, for sought to enslave the soul of a people who was destined to be free. [clapping] Today, the Negro find himself torn between two divergent philosophies: he’s taught that the fruits of this great American democracy belong to all of the citizens, and get the Negro find himself realistically faced with a segregated society. Today throughout the Southland, you will find a new kind of attitude categorizing the Negro. The kind of attitude which, which says to the world, I will not be satisfied with second-class citizenship for the black boys and girls who are moving throughout the Southland, sitting down and standing up in human dignity, and speaking to the content of America, and saying to America: I want to be free and I want to be free now. No one need to be altruistic with us. No one need to give us anything. Our demands are the demands of a people that belong to this country. America is my land, is my country. We need not be apologetic to anybody, and the Negro must stop feeling sorry for himself. He must stop feeling sorry for being black. [clapping] A wind of change is blowing throughout the Southland. You will find the kind of attitude that is exemplified in the little boy, who was stopped by a white man on the streets of Georgia. The white man called, [unsure: (0:04:23)] representing the highest and best in segregation and prejudice, stopped the little boy and said to him: this is my town, my streets, who are you? And the little black boy, standing on the tips of his toes, looked at the white man square in the face and square in the eye, said to him: I am somebody. There will be no room to say, take it easy, you’ve come a long way in a hundred years; you’ve got plenty of time, and time will cure it all. They will tell you that the time isn’t right. And I say to you that the answer to them is simple and very clear. The answer is not how far we have come in the last hundred years, but the answer is where we stand today in relation to the other group in society.
I say to you that there has never been a single period in history where the majority group has given to the minority group, of its own volition and of accord, basic human rights. Always there have been a necessity for minority groups to fight, to sacrifice for rights obtained. [clapping] We must always realize that no high—no matter how high one Negro may go, that he can never enjoy to the fullest capacity the fruits of American democracy until the lowest Negro in the lowest spot, and in the lowest place in America, can enjoy the exclusive American democracy. We must recognize the fact that a great deal of our problems will be solved when we can come together as a people. When we can come together in large numbers and we can register together throughout the Southland, and we can build together throughout the Southland. And this is our salvation: at the ballet box, because here we can change the political climate of this great country. We can vote into office those persons who are willing to extend the fruits of democracy to everyman regardless of race, color, and creed. And we must be ready and willing and able to vote out of office those persons who would deny the fruits of democracy to all mankind. The progress of the Negro is moving forward. It will not be long before we can obtain that which must rightfully come in this land of America. Equal justice, equal job opportunity for all mankind. Our challenge is to remove every vestige of segregation and discrimination from this great land. And I submit to you that it may very well be that black men will have to teach America what democracy really means. It may very well be that our path here on earth is to make democracy work. It may very well be that the job of a black man is to bring democracy to the Southland and to this great country. [clapping]
Larry Rubin: I think there’s a great tendency on the part of liberals, especially white liberals to feel that the Negro should not be prejudiced towards the whites. Senator Johnson was simply stating the problem. What he said was that in Albany, Georgia and I think this is true the South, the only whites the Negroes come contact with are their bosses or town rowdies. In other words, people who have oppressed them. These are the only way to come in contact with. I think that it would be unrealistic to feel that the group should not be antagonistic towards whites just as Negroes share in being discriminated against because they have black skin. Whites feel in the guilt—share in the guilt simply because they're white. This is the problem: A Negro can't say, well I'm not dirty; just because some other black people are dirty I shouldn’t be discriminated against. The black Muslims were the first Negro group, since Marcus Garvey anyway, to express the feelings of the average working-class Negro; that is, antagonistic toward—antagonism towards whites, and a wanting to combat the self-hatred that grows up in many Negroes. The black Muslims are very effective in combating the feeling he grows up with the black people that their inferior; however, although they do express a very valid feeling: their political goals—that is the buying several, several states or asking for several states of the United States for—to set up a black nation is obviously an untenable goal. And also since they are anti-Christian, I don't think that as an organization they will get the support of the masses of Negroes; however, they will gain the sympathy of the masses of the Negroes because they do express a very valid feeling. Also, the Muslims are basically urban and speak to Negroes living in urban industrial slumps. I think that as the unemployment problem grows that the black Muslims will also gain more and more sympathy. A lot of what I've been saying, that his black antagonism towards whites, and a lot of what the Senator Johnson was saying all of black versus whites, is actually a more basic problem of the state in racial terms: that is, the problem of our economy. There is a great unemployment today. There is great unrest. The Negroes that were rioting in Birmingham against the whites were unemployed. People want jobs. They see the problem as being against the white man.
Unidentified man 1: Tell them the story of the Negro who had been working as a sharecropper, and he went up to the old master at the end of the season and he, he said: oh master, how did we do this year? Master say: well, ya, John, you, you did very good this year; you had the best crop of peanuts and corn and cotton I’ve ever seen, but you know what, John? We, we just did break even so [giggling in background], there’s no money for you this year. You going to try again next year? I say, well, yes sir, I guess I’ll try again next year. John worked even harder than he’d ever worked before, then at the end of the season he went up and said: oh, master, how did we do this year? I said, well, John, you did, you out did yourself; this is the best year that you’ve ever had. I, I, I’m just proud of you; you have more cotton and peanuts and corn; you had a tremendous year this year, but you know, John? We just, just break even. [laughing] You going to try again next year, John? Said, no I’m going to try you now! [laughing] We have contributed our all to the building of this nation. We have made Cotton King. We just decided we wasn’t going to take it anymore; we decided we’d try now. [clapping] Larry Rubin: The movement is getting down to more basic wishes. In the past, the Negro Civil Rights Movement has generally been aimed at seeking equal opportunities for Negroes who had the same qualifications as whites, seeking to get Negroes into professions where whites were, where whites are, and seeking for better business opportunities et cetera. But this does not speak to the general man on the street, the man who is not in fact qualified to be a businessman or to be a lawyer. The movement is now moving toward, towards him. The Negro middle-class has always been the leaders of the Negro movement.
Franklin Frazier in his book The Black Bourgeoisie describes this middle-class as being a caricature of the whites, of wanting to be white but more so, of proving to their neighbors and they were more than white. This is the class that drives around in big Cadillac; however, since the movement has started, I believe that there are many signs that these same people, in order to retain their leadership, for one thing, is being moved toward fighting for better job opportunities for the average man. Also, I think that the Negro middle-class is learning that now in fact they do not have to be white; that is, they do not have to fight for acceptance among whites entirely to be accepted as a human being because of the large strength that the Negro rights movement is gaining. I heard a man downtown here in Yellow Springs, this is an elderly gentleman. He was a member the town Council. One of the most respected Negroes in town, who was rather well-to-do also. He was talking to a white person and he said: you know, for the first time since I've been living, I realize I'm angry. I'm angry against whites. He said: I’m being discriminated against not economically, maybe, but psychologically. Whites are for instance, paternalistic toward me, he was saying. All their lives Negroes hear about what America is. They hear that America is a land of opportunity, that it is a land of freedom, that we all have liberty here. But on the other hand, they, they see realistically that America is not this, at least for them, and they feel now—at least many of the Negro leaders now feel that, well the way they phrase it is: we don't want to be integrated into a burning house. They see a lot of inequities that exist in America, aside from even the race problem. Negroes are more and more identifying with Africa, and they see that in the past, American for instance, has helped colonialism. There’s a, There’s a, a large feeling that the Negro not only wants to be integrated but wants to contribute to America. The Negro is the soul of America, as doctor Anderson, head the Albany movement said.
Dr. W.G. Anderson: We feel as though we make Southwest Georgia better, the entire South will be better. The soul of the nation rests in the hands of the Negro. The salvation of the free world rests in the hands of the Negro. As we make Southwest Georgia better, we’ll make the world better. We will have to teach our brothers in the Deep South that it is [unsure: (0:16:06)], and we win the hearts and minds of people throughout this world. If we are to maintain our image as a world leader in a democratic society, it will not be because we are a big nation. Bigness is imposing. It will be because we are a great nation, and a great nation recognizes the privileges of its minorities. Greatness is enduring. [clapping] Larry Rubin: Basically, the Negro wants his rights. He wants to be able to vote. He wants job opportunities. He wants this. If he can somehow get it within the present system, fine; but if the present system is not flexible enough, he still demand his rights. What sort of change this will make, whether this would be a socialistic change, whether this will be—yeah I don't know what kind of change. I can’t predict. I will say this though, that the federal government up until now has been only interested in keeping the peace not in affording Negro rights. For instance, in Birmingham, federal troops were sent in only after the Negro started to riot, not while the white policeman were beating up the Negros.
Negroes resent this very much. President Kennedy's speech was very heartening, his recent speech in which he said that he will push for a strong civil rights legislation in Congress, is very heartening. It’s very disheartening, however, that now when pushing for it, the South is able to block the action so far. I think that the civil rights movement will push on beyond getting the right to vote toward, for instance, unionization of Negro workers. I think this will be the next step. There are small signs of this now. There were signs when I was working in Georgia that the Negro population of Albany was getting together economically. They wanted to start a young federal bank to make loans to Negroes, loans that Negroes cannot get at that white banks. Also, their thinking of starting a credit union. I think it is inevitable that the Negro must be given his, his rights. More and more states are beginning to realize this now. The leaders of South Carolina and North Carolina, for instance, have said: well we're against integration and all of this but, if the federal government forces us to, we will comply with the Supreme Court's ruling. We don't want another Mississippi or Alabama.
Children Singing: We shall overcome/ We shall overcome/ We shall overcome, someday/ oh, deep in my heart, I do believe/ We shall overcome, someday/ We’ll walk hand-in-hand/ We’ll walk hand-in-hand/ We’ll walk hand-in-hand, someday/ Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe/ We shall overcome, someday [change in audio clip] Freedom Singers: We shall overcome/ my Lord, we shall come, someday/ oh, deep in my heart, I do believe/ Oh, we shall overcome, someday. [change in audio clip] Freedom Singers: with my mind, stayed on freedom/ I pray, I pray, I pray, Hallelujah Radio host: Revolution in Georgia: The Negro Struggle for Franchise. This has been the final in a series of programs produced for WISO by Larry Rubin, a white Antioch student who worked for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Southwest Georgia’s voter registration movement. Tonight, Rubin examined the question, where are they going? The song “I Woke Up This Morning” was sung by the Freedom Singers.