WEBVTT
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(crowd murmurs loudly)
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Where is
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(crowd murmurs loudly)
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About the sit-ins.
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I'm pretty sure a lot of people didn't know the song.
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It's called Ballad of the Sit-ins.
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It was written by Guy Carawan.
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Hit the chord, hit the chord.
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Hit the chord.
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Tell me if it's too high.
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♪ The time was 1960, ♪
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♪ The place the U.S.A., ♪
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♪ February 1 became a history-making day ♪
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♪ From Mobile, Alabama to Nashville, Tennessee ♪
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♪ A time of (hums) at noon and take a seat with me ♪
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♪ Heed the call, Americans all ♪
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♪ Side by equal side ♪
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♪ Brothers, sit in dignity ♪
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♪ Sisters sit in pride, in pride, in pride ♪
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♪ In pride, in pride, in pride, ♪
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♪ In pride, in pride, in pride ♪
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♪This is the land we cherish ♪
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♪ The land of liberty ♪
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♪ Our cans are made of many qualities ♪
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♪ The Constitution says we can and ♪
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♪ As Christians we should know ♪
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♪ That Jesus died that morning so all mankind would know ♪
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♪ Heed the call, Americans all ♪
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♪ Side, by equal side ♪
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♪ Brothers sit in dignity ♪
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♪ Sisters sit in pride ♪
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♪ In pride, in pride ♪
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♪ In pride, in pride ♪
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♪ In pride, in pride ♪
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♪ In pride, in pride ♪
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♪ No mobs of violence and of hate shall ♪
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♪ Turn me from my goal. ♪
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♪ No Jim Crow law or police state shall ♪
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♪ Stop my freebound soul. ♪
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♪ 3,000 Souixs bound and dead ♪
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♪ Lift your heads and sing ♪
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♪ We are drawn to freedom ♪
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♪ Like songbirds on the wing ♪
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♪ Heed the call, Americans all ♪
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♪ Side by equal side ♪
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♪ Brothers sit in dignity ♪
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♪ Sisters sit in pride ♪
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♪ In pride, in pride ♪
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♪ In pride, in pride ♪
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♪ In pride, in pride ♪
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♪ In pride, in pride ♪
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♪ In pride, in pride ♪
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♪ In pride, in pride ♪
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♪ Sisters sit in pride ♪
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(applause)
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Charles Jones?
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I think he was there until a few moments ago
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Charles, is Charles Jones in the back?
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Oh there he is
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And Mr. McDew?
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The next panel today is about Ella Baker and the actual
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birth of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
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And three of the people with us on the platform were there
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for the actual creation of the Student Nonviolent
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Coordinating Committee.
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I'm not going to say much except to introduce them.
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Our first speaker is Lonnie King who was the founder and
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head of the Atlanta Committee on human rights,
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One of the several student groups that came together to
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form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
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Let's start with Lonnie King.
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(applause)
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Thank you very much Ms. Norman.
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Mr. Chairman.
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Chuck McDoo, my good friend Joyce, and my very good friend
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Charles Jones, and Connie Curry and Sean Surod who was our
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first feel, unpaid feel.
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Secretary who created a revolution in this country by
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wearing blue jeans.
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A lot of you people don't realize that Charles Sherod was
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the first person to really start wearing blue jeans as
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work clothes because he had to go down to Alabama and
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Mississippi and other places to help us register voters.
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And I see Jim Foreman out there and a number of other
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people, and I have nostalgia about this whole weekend
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because I was in Atlanta two weeks ago for our 40th
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and Reverend Dr. Otis Moss ended his eloquent presentation
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by talking about the fact that it's been 40 years and I
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may see some of you again, and you may not see me again
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and because of that eloquent presentation, moving
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presentation, I agreed to come, to be very honest with you.
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Because we may not see one another again and the struggle
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that I have been involved in, that you have been involved
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in and I'm hoping that many of the young people will
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become involved in, continues.
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Background of SNCC, in 1960, as you already heard, on the
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first of February, four young men sat down in Greensboro,
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at Greensboro.
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The following morning, I was at Gates and Milton's drug
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store in Atlanta, Georgia at the AU Center and I had
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breakfast every morning there with a guy named
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Julian Barnes, and a guy named Joseph Pierce.
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I had met Julian in the registration line at Morehouse.
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I don't know how it was at your college, but registration
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was the longest, dang it was long.
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And you could tell your whole life story to the person
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behind you or in front of you.
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So when I came back from the war, after having served in
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the Navy for a tour of duty, I met this young man, skinny
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young fella, we spent about eight hours together talking.
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And we became friends and when it was time for, I guess
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for this movement to get started, I got the newspaper and
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I said Julian, Joe, look at what they been doing in
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Greensboro, we ought to do that here.
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And Julian said "well somebody's gonna do it" and I said
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"well why not us".
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And from that we went on and we started organizing on
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these different campuses.
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At the AU center.
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Then I got a telephone call, not a call, I got a personal
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visit from Dr. Maise's secretary, asking me to come to the
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third floor of the administration building at AU for an
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important meeting at three o'clock one afternoon.
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And I learned that all the rest of our leaders were also
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having to come to that same meeting.
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Uh oh.
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So we walk into the room, here were all the six college
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presidents, most of whom you read about in the history
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books, Maise and Clement and Manly, and so forth and so on.
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And we really thought that we was going to be put out of
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school because of what we were doing and all we meant to do.
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They tried to discourage us, but when they saw that we were
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not going to be discouraged, they then had one suggestion,
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they said well why don't you do this, if you're not gonna
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stop, why don't you set forth a petition for why you are
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attacking this system.
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For our historical purposes as well as putting the world
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on notice as to what you're all about.
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And so with that in mind, we wrote something called "An
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Appeal for Human Rights".
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Which many of you may have seen or read about in the
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history books.
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On March the ninth, it was published in all three major
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papers in Atlanta and the New York Times the following
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week published it for free for us, full page.
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But we set forth in there our petition which represented
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not only what we felt in Atlanta, but we felt this
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represented Georgia, the South, and the nation.
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And one of the lines that I want to bring forward to yall
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and that is that we felt that the time was out for
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African-Americans, or Negroes as we were called at that
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time, to continue to have our rights metered out to us
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one at a time, one at a time.
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And that the time for action was now, and that we were
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gonna use every legitimate, nonviolent means to bring
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about a change in this system in Atlanta and in this nation.
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And we moved forward six days later to attack several
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places in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, and we went to
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jail on that issue.
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While this was going on, Nashville was hopping and Knoxville
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was hopping, and Burmingham was moving, and almost in every,
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in almost every state in the Confederacy,
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former Confederacy, well I think I was right the first time.
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(laughter)
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In the Confederacy, where there were HBCUs, young people
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rose up.
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And what happened was that we were fighting the system
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concurrently all over the South.
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And the normal kinds of reactionary tactics that the
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guardians of the old order had used, did not work.
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Because even though they had put down that Lonnie King,
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18 years of age or 20 years of age and put down my
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home address, my home address might have been in California,
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as opposed to there in Atlanta.
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So what happened is that the normal way of stopping a
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movement in the South, had been to kill off the leaders.
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Either to shoot them, or to make sure they didn't have
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any jobs, or so forth and so on.
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And so therefore, that particular tactic couldn't work
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against us.
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And so I think that was one of the important things that
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helped us succeed.
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I also want to tell you that the Atlanta movement said that
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we had a meeting and we decided that we could not fight
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this battle without there being some organization.
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And contrary to what you read in all the history books,
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I want to straighten out something for you.
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Julian Barnes, Mary White Eddimon, who I'm sure you've
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heard about, and I went down to see Martin King in late
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March, middle March, right after those sit-ins when he
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had just come over from Alabama, to ask him to call this
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meeting at Shaw.
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Martin King was reluctant, but we gotta put the record
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straight, Martin King was reluctant but he said
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I will get Ella Baker to do it after we argued with him
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about it.
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Because Ella was his secretary at that time, executive
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secretary, and Ella was a graduate of this university
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here, so she called and got this thing set up here at Shaw.
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The telegram went out and Charles, I think it had Martin's
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name and Ella's name on it, didn't it?
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To all the leaders that we could identify from newspaper
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accounts, we didn't really know all of you, we just
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read about you.
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And because the white newspapers were so good at putting
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your names down, we knew who to call.
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(laughter)
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And so that's how you got here in 1960.
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Now once you got here, well before you got here, let
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me also say this to you, that was a little bit of a
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discussion.
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Some folks thought that we shouldn't organize, and I won't
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get into all of that.
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But we felt in Atlanta that there had to be an organization
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because if you were gonna battle this system, you couldn't
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do it with unorganized troupes.
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Let me tell you what was happening, briefly.
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Virginia passed the first Anti-trespass law, and within
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a matter of a few weeks, almost every state had passed the
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same, almost identical, word for word law.
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Which meant that if you went into a lunch counter and the
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manager asked you to leave, and you didn't leave then the
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John Damme, the police could come in and take you away.
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Now that kind of system was there.
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So there was a need for SNCC, you may not have called it
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SNCC, but there was a need for something where we had
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some coordination and Tim Jenkins just showed me the first
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issue of the Student Voice, which I'm sure he'll tell you
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about later on.
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And in that Student Voice it talked about all these things,
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most of these things that I'm now talking to you about.
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But that's history and Tim had a part of the
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history back then.
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When I came here in 1960, I don't know which building we
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were in, but it was a little bigger than this one I think.
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It was a very large place and I met lifelong friends there.
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You came to Atlanta to start your headquarters there,
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Ed King, James Denbridge, Connie Curry, Ella Baker, my good
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buddy Donna McGinty.
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We all were there during that time and trying to make these
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things go.
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Let me give you my concluding remarks about the birth of
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SNCC and the idea and why did it come about.
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I'm about to finish a PhD in history and I'm, after having
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read all this history now over the last four years, I'm
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really beginning to get a better appreciation for what
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we did.
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You see, we were so busy in 1960 we didn't have time to
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think about the historical significance of what we were
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doing because we were so busy trying to get it done.
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But when you go back and you take, you flashback over
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history you will find the significance of that movement and
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let me just quickly say it to you.
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There have always been some movements in America, ever since
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African-American, or Africans came over from Africa, to
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try and get out of bondage.
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Contrary to what you've read in some of these early history
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books about we were all happy and happy-go-lucky and loved
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being in slavery, you know that really wasn't true.
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But what happened was that we did something that the
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historians call slipping the yolk.
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Have ya'll heard of something called slipping the yolk?
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Alright and what essentially meant was that we found a way,
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hundreds of years ago, to try and escape the bullet.
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To try and escape the whip, to escape the kinds of
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oppression that we knew the plantation owner was
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going to put on us.
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So that's what we did.
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So we weren't really happy.
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Even though we might have been singing, we weren't really
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joyful, but we were conning the man.
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However, while some of us were conning the man, some people
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planned revolutions.
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I'll just mention two for you and then Imma move on.
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Denmark Visi in this next state down, organized a really
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strong insurrection in the 1820s in Charleston.
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And he was a free man by the way, free Black man, but he
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was betrayed and he was executed along with some of his
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friends.
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And you know, as they call co-conspirators.
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Then from 1830 to 1833, Nat Turner also, in Virginia, next
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state over, organized a revolution, and he too was killed,
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as you know.
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And in almost every instance, in history, we find that the
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people who try to organize a way of getting out from under
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this bondage, they were killed.
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And I won't go too much further on this end, except to say
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that in 1909, the NAACP was organized with DuBois and a
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number of other people there in New York.
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And they embarked on a legalistic approach.
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Now why did they do that?
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Because it was safer to do that.
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If we had the mass movements, we found that the Billy clubs
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and the guns were drawn and we would be killed.
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Whether it was a hundred, a thousand, it didn't matter.
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Kill the people who were trying to be the insurrectionists.
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In the 1920s, after African-American men battle in the
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first World War, as DuBois said, let's fight abroad so
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we can have some democracy at home, our men came home, and
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they came home some were killed in uniforms.
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And especially in the state of Texas, really bad on
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African-Americans who came back from the war.
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So there was this thing, we cannot afford to actually
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confront this system the way it should have been confronted.
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00:18:39.939 --> 00:18:43.099
But then a man named Mortecai Johnson, who was the president
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00:18:43.099 --> 00:18:46.128
of Howard University, Joyce's school where she had it,
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00:18:46.128 --> 00:18:50.433
decided in 1922 to 1923 that Howard University ought to
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become the law school to train African-American lawyers
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00:18:56.325 --> 00:18:59.312
on how to argue constitutional cases on behalf of
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Black People.
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Dr. Johnson's position simply was that white lawyers are
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00:19:04.859 --> 00:19:08.080
well intended, but when Supreme Court justices are asking
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00:19:08.080 --> 00:19:11.234
them questions about how does it feel to be denied these
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rights, many of them somehow or another flunked the test,
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because they'd never been denied.
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So he asked Justice Louis Brandeis, would he help him
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00:19:21.410 --> 00:19:25.232
form, move Howard from a night law school to a day law
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school, to train Civil Rights lawyers.
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Justice Brandeis told him I will do it on one condition,
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that you not tell anybody about it until after I'm dead.
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(laughter)
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So they formed this union, and they put together Howard
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University Law School as a prime law school, day school,
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and you know the rest, Judge Hasties, Spotser Robinson,
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00:19:50.747 --> 00:19:52.066
you can call off a number of people, Thurgood Marshall,
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00:19:52.066 --> 00:19:53.198
they went through there.
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So the NAACP was prepared for this legalistic approach, and
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it was gonna take about a century to get us free, folks,
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we still be fighting.
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However, along comes the second World War, and at this time,
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if you ever get the chance, I'm gonna digress, if you ever
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get a chance to go to the Library of Congress, go and
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look at the NACP files over there.
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They have millions of letters and correspondence over there.
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But look at what happened in the 40s.
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I just looked the other day while I was there.
337
00:20:24.901 --> 00:20:28.187
There are letters from African-American soldiers complaining
338
00:20:28.187 --> 00:20:30.939
about how they were being treated.
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00:20:30.939 --> 00:20:34.118
One man talked about how he was shot in the leg by his
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00:20:34.118 --> 00:20:36.975
commanding officer because he had a minor disagreement
341
00:20:36.975 --> 00:20:38.256
with him.
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00:20:38.256 --> 00:20:40.155
Another man was in a traffic accident down in Opalacka,
343
00:20:40.155 --> 00:20:44.166
Alabama with a white man, they took him to jail in uniform,
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00:20:44.166 --> 00:20:47.365
beat him up, kept him in jail for six months, took
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00:20:47.365 --> 00:20:48.475
off his uniform.
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00:20:48.475 --> 00:20:51.462
The man had to, he literally had to escape in order to
347
00:20:51.462 --> 00:20:52.827
save his life.
348
00:20:52.827 --> 00:20:55.878
And I could go on and on and on about the kind of things
349
00:20:55.878 --> 00:20:59.160
that happened during the second World War, but I did find
350
00:20:59.160 --> 00:21:02.937
through most of those letters though, was that the African
351
00:21:02.937 --> 00:21:05.883
American soldiers kept talking about the big dichotomy of
352
00:21:05.883 --> 00:21:10.811
fighting for a democracy overseas, while we're being denied
353
00:21:10.811 --> 00:21:14.919
a democracy in America, even in uniform.
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00:21:14.919 --> 00:21:18.425
Having said all of that then, those men had children.
355
00:21:18.425 --> 00:21:20.428
I'm one of those children.
356
00:21:20.428 --> 00:21:22.692
So when they came home,
357
00:21:22.692 --> 00:21:24.699
they talked about some of this stuff.
358
00:21:24.699 --> 00:21:28.795
And so by 1960 I ended up at Morehouse College, and I was
359
00:21:28.795 --> 00:21:33.188
like thousands of other young Black kids around this country
360
00:21:33.188 --> 00:21:36.262
who's daddies, who's uncles, who's brothers had served
361
00:21:36.262 --> 00:21:37.595
in the military.
362
00:21:38.692 --> 00:21:41.463
And they came home talking about this dichotomy.
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00:21:41.463 --> 00:21:45.630
Now there's nothing that one man said on Earth more power
364
00:21:47.161 --> 00:21:50.317
than an idea who's time has come.
365
00:21:50.317 --> 00:21:53.263
And the time had come, in 1960, for African-Americans to
366
00:21:53.263 --> 00:21:57.891
change the way they were trying to get their rights.
367
00:21:57.891 --> 00:22:00.724
No more metered out one at a time.
368
00:22:01.752 --> 00:22:05.296
You had to get a movement together and bring in as
369
00:22:05.296 --> 00:22:08.368
many African-Americans and whites.
370
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Bring in people of good will who wanted
371
00:22:11.184 --> 00:22:12.718
to change this country.
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00:22:12.718 --> 00:22:14.702
And then if you look at this movement, you will see that
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00:22:14.702 --> 00:22:17.794
change, as Anne Braden said, not just this country, but
374
00:22:17.794 --> 00:22:20.806
this movement changed this world.
375
00:22:20.806 --> 00:22:24.132
You can look at almost any discipline, whether sociology,
376
00:22:24.132 --> 00:22:27.329
whether it's public administration, whether it's history,
377
00:22:27.329 --> 00:22:30.000
psychology, you name it, 1960 has been a watershed for
378
00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:33.750
reexamination for that particular discipline.
379
00:22:35.543 --> 00:22:37.164
Why is that?
380
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Because we caused people to think, re-think, and take
381
00:22:39.920 --> 00:22:43.056
a second look at what are we doing.
382
00:22:43.056 --> 00:22:47.223
Let me conclude by saying that we had this meeting in
383
00:22:48.111 --> 00:22:52.278
Atlanta, Georgia two weeks ago and only 30 students came.
384
00:22:55.302 --> 00:22:56.752
30.
385
00:22:56.752 --> 00:22:59.739
Now we published a second appeal for human rights two weeks
386
00:22:59.739 --> 00:23:03.664
ago, full page ad in all of the newspapers, updating
387
00:23:03.664 --> 00:23:05.247
where we are today.
388
00:23:08.016 --> 00:23:11.344
And what we found when we did the research is that forty
389
00:23:11.344 --> 00:23:15.511
years ago, 99% of African-Americans, or Negroes as we were
390
00:23:16.955 --> 00:23:20.347
called, were in the same situation.
391
00:23:20.347 --> 00:23:25.019
40 years later, over half of our people, are still in
392
00:23:25.019 --> 00:23:26.436
grinding poverty.
393
00:23:27.472 --> 00:23:30.288
The same situation, either the same people, or their
394
00:23:30.288 --> 00:23:31.288
descendants.
395
00:23:32.976 --> 00:23:34.598
What have we done though, what has Martin King done for them
396
00:23:34.598 --> 00:23:35.920
in the last 40 years?
397
00:23:35.920 --> 00:23:39.056
I made a lot of money, I've gotten some more degrees,
398
00:23:39.056 --> 00:23:41.808
moved into the suburbs, so forth and so on.
399
00:23:41.808 --> 00:23:43.855
But I have not done what I should have done over the last
400
00:23:43.855 --> 00:23:44.688
40 years.
401
00:23:46.202 --> 00:23:49.211
And what I'm saying to you is that we all need to think
402
00:23:49.211 --> 00:23:52.262
about what it is that we can do as we go forward.
403
00:23:52.262 --> 00:23:54.864
But let me go a little further.
404
00:23:54.864 --> 00:23:59.387
Our universities, Shaw University, Morehouse College where I
405
00:23:59.387 --> 00:24:03.547
went, our colleges have not kept faith with the movement.
406
00:24:03.547 --> 00:24:07.641
The young people who came through there 40 years ago,
407
00:24:07.641 --> 00:24:11.504
revolutionized them too, but I think that they had the
408
00:24:11.504 --> 00:24:15.664
responsibility for the institutional memory, to some extent.
409
00:24:15.664 --> 00:24:18.864
At least to the history department, to begin to say to the
410
00:24:18.864 --> 00:24:22.427
people coming through, that you have two responsibilities.
411
00:24:22.427 --> 00:24:26.800
One to yourself, to get the very best possible education
412
00:24:26.800 --> 00:24:28.422
that you can, to repair yourself.
413
00:24:28.422 --> 00:24:30.850
And two, to give something back.
414
00:24:30.850 --> 00:24:33.392
And the second back, to give something back,
415
00:24:33.392 --> 00:24:34.892
is what's missing.
416
00:24:36.972 --> 00:24:39.213
(applause)
417
00:24:39.213 --> 00:24:43.380
My final point, final, final point, we were so moved by
418
00:24:45.339 --> 00:24:49.506
this paucity of people in the audience who did not have
419
00:24:52.102 --> 00:24:56.269
gray hair, and so we decided that we are going to organize
420
00:24:58.522 --> 00:25:02.403
the communal appeal for human rights which is what our
421
00:25:02.403 --> 00:25:04.820
group was in 1960 until 1980.
422
00:25:06.480 --> 00:25:09.742
Non-profit corporation and we're going to go and ask the
423
00:25:09.742 --> 00:25:14.541
AU Center schools all of them down there that you know
424
00:25:14.541 --> 00:25:17.680
about, to let us then begin to teach African-American
425
00:25:17.680 --> 00:25:21.847
history, to every freshman class from now on ad infinitum.
426
00:25:23.397 --> 00:25:25.647
(applause)
427
00:25:28.795 --> 00:25:31.526
WE believe that we can do this, and we all, a lot of us
428
00:25:31.526 --> 00:25:34.598
have academic credentials so the Southern Association is
429
00:25:34.598 --> 00:25:36.923
not gonna be upset, we have got enough PhDs and MDs and
430
00:25:36.923 --> 00:25:40.006
Masters in all these different areas.
431
00:25:40.913 --> 00:25:43.323
So nobody's accreditation is going to be hurt by it.
432
00:25:43.323 --> 00:25:47.490
But we need to go back and recognize that benign neglect
433
00:25:48.443 --> 00:25:51.963
has not worked for the last 40 years.
434
00:25:51.963 --> 00:25:55.590
And we were young enough when we started this movement for
435
00:25:55.590 --> 00:25:59.757
us to still be available and one more time, thank you.
436
00:26:05.228 --> 00:26:07.478
(applause)
437
00:26:14.299 --> 00:26:17.540
Our next speaker will be Charles Jones, who already
438
00:26:17.540 --> 00:26:21.358
introduced himself to you, one of the first field
439
00:26:21.358 --> 00:26:25.945
secretaries for SNCC to enter some of the most dangerous
440
00:26:25.945 --> 00:26:29.060
places in the South and he's gonna tell us more about the
441
00:26:29.060 --> 00:26:32.473
birth, the actually coming together of SNCC.
442
00:26:32.473 --> 00:26:34.723
(applause)
443
00:26:39.663 --> 00:26:42.457
A very gracious good morning.
444
00:26:42.457 --> 00:26:43.737
Good morning.
445
00:26:43.737 --> 00:26:47.904
And in the spirit as I stand here I want to give all of
446
00:26:49.519 --> 00:26:53.686
the respect to Ruby Darsis, to Ella, to Steptoes, I want for
447
00:26:57.327 --> 00:27:01.160
a moment, to radiate and reflect those giants.
448
00:27:04.793 --> 00:27:08.960
Who, when faced with the possibility of being here,
449
00:27:12.111 --> 00:27:13.028
stood tall.
450
00:27:15.823 --> 00:27:19.990
I want to honor that because I know that only on their
451
00:27:21.775 --> 00:27:26.084
shoulders, only on those shoulders do we now stand, and
452
00:27:26.084 --> 00:27:30.251
while my emotions will communicate the depth of my respect
453
00:27:33.529 --> 00:27:36.855
and appreciation and love, I make no apology for these
454
00:27:36.855 --> 00:27:40.355
tears, I haven't cried for Ruby Daris yet.
455
00:27:41.892 --> 00:27:43.142
I haven't done.
456
00:27:44.644 --> 00:27:49.295
I haven't cried for many of our brothers and sisters, I
457
00:27:49.295 --> 00:27:53.462
was too busy surviving the trauma of a war where people
458
00:27:55.865 --> 00:27:59.782
were shooting at you, physically and otherwise.
459
00:28:01.452 --> 00:28:03.865
I'll never forget Charles coming down the doors and after
460
00:28:03.865 --> 00:28:05.892
the Klan had shot up the house.
461
00:28:05.892 --> 00:28:08.812
I was by myself, I don't know if I told you this, but it was
462
00:28:08.812 --> 00:28:11.075
about two o'clock in the morning, and somebody shot at
463
00:28:11.075 --> 00:28:15.242
the car, and at that point I didn't know and I had to call
464
00:28:16.623 --> 00:28:19.908
on whatever it was we call on, Charles.
465
00:28:19.908 --> 00:28:24.324
Grandma, who told me, "Boy, don't you, don't you sit there
466
00:28:24.324 --> 00:28:27.824
and apologize for no man for who you are".
467
00:28:29.145 --> 00:28:31.577
I had to come to grips with that man who was gonna.
468
00:28:31.577 --> 00:28:34.625
If he had been in front of me, he would blow me away, and
469
00:28:34.625 --> 00:28:39.535
that's my confrontation with nonviolence in a most spiritual
470
00:28:39.535 --> 00:28:41.603
way that came with when I had to deal with what would happen
471
00:28:41.603 --> 00:28:44.783
when he was standing in front of me and I was standing there
472
00:28:44.783 --> 00:28:47.253
and my grandma was telling me what to do.
473
00:28:47.253 --> 00:28:49.920
And I have to tell you, I'd have
474
00:28:50.756 --> 00:28:53.055
taken him out in a heartbeat.
475
00:28:53.055 --> 00:28:54.681
And I have to say this to you because of this,
476
00:28:54.681 --> 00:28:56.857
my grandmother would not have allowed me to have someone
477
00:28:56.857 --> 00:28:58.274
destroy her hope.
478
00:29:00.975 --> 00:29:02.404
You mothers know what I'm talking about.
479
00:29:02.404 --> 00:29:05.711
Grandmothers, that, is he gonna be the one?
480
00:29:05.711 --> 00:29:08.527
And Chuck I never said this and maybe it's a confession,
481
00:29:08.527 --> 00:29:13.409
but given that intellectual and actual confrontation, I made
482
00:29:13.409 --> 00:29:17.721
a choice that as for between him and I, I knew that if
483
00:29:17.721 --> 00:29:20.708
he was gonna kill me, I couldn't let him do it.
484
00:29:20.708 --> 00:29:24.271
And we wanna brought America's Georgia and all of that, I
485
00:29:24.271 --> 00:29:28.068
don't know how I kept from being confronted by it, but
486
00:29:28.068 --> 00:29:29.625
thank God.
487
00:29:29.625 --> 00:29:34.049
Alright, but I want to honor now, all of those people.
488
00:29:34.049 --> 00:29:37.804
You all know them, you walked the backroads with them, you
489
00:29:37.804 --> 00:29:41.773
motivated people who were scared as hell, and who stood up
490
00:29:41.773 --> 00:29:42.989
and got beat and shot.
491
00:29:42.989 --> 00:29:44.312
You know that pain.
492
00:29:44.312 --> 00:29:49.304
Thank you Chuck for that movie man, telling a story, man.
493
00:29:49.304 --> 00:29:52.056
I was just as proud to tell you, I hope ya'll saw
494
00:29:52.056 --> 00:29:53.592
Freedom Song.
495
00:29:53.592 --> 00:29:57.773
It was an accurate composite of our effort.
496
00:29:57.773 --> 00:30:02.336
And 40 years later, seeing it on my television, with some
497
00:30:02.336 --> 00:30:06.072
of my neighbors watching, I stood tall I felt like all of
498
00:30:06.072 --> 00:30:10.239
the gods who had come, perhaps sacrificed, but I don't
499
00:30:13.731 --> 00:30:16.867
want us to lose, as we talk about these people that have
500
00:30:16.867 --> 00:30:21.034
gone on, particularly Ella, Ella is still in my spirit so
501
00:30:22.435 --> 00:30:26.211
totally, I can remember when we were, Diane and I, we were,
502
00:30:26.211 --> 00:30:30.563
and Marion, we were, talking about it, and Ella would sit
503
00:30:30.563 --> 00:30:35.038
back calmly, hear each of us, but would not let us turn
504
00:30:35.038 --> 00:30:36.455
each other loose.
505
00:30:39.244 --> 00:30:43.192
Until we had come, not to a majority, one more than, but
506
00:30:43.192 --> 00:30:47.416
until Diane and Charles and Chuck MacDoo, and Tim, and felt
507
00:30:47.416 --> 00:30:48.999
a common community.
508
00:30:51.619 --> 00:30:53.619
We would not go forward.
509
00:30:54.989 --> 00:30:59.341
So of the uniquenesses that that period brought, this sense
510
00:30:59.341 --> 00:31:01.643
of the beloved community, and Charles I was thinking of this
511
00:31:01.643 --> 00:31:03.393
when Jim was talking.
512
00:31:04.312 --> 00:31:08.088
Charles Sherod and I were in jail down in Rock Hill, South
513
00:31:08.088 --> 00:31:12.440
Carolina, we had chosen to go in at that point when the sit
514
00:31:12.440 --> 00:31:16.024
ins had taken place throughout the South, and we thought
515
00:31:16.024 --> 00:31:19.736
we needed a focal point to organize the efforts of the
516
00:31:19.736 --> 00:31:22.125
students, and to dramatize that we needed to work together,
517
00:31:22.125 --> 00:31:23.491
and to keep it going.
518
00:31:23.491 --> 00:31:27.491
And Charles and I had been conducting devotions.
519
00:31:28.483 --> 00:31:32.685
I see my brother still doing that, bless you man.
520
00:31:32.685 --> 00:31:33.705
Bless you.
521
00:31:33.705 --> 00:31:37.229
And we got put in solitary confinement because we were
522
00:31:37.229 --> 00:31:41.877
having devotions and at that point there was a white
523
00:31:41.877 --> 00:31:46.360
section of the jail and a black section of the jail.
524
00:31:46.360 --> 00:31:47.661
But it was a big compound.
525
00:31:47.661 --> 00:31:50.349
So we'd be up singing and praying, Charles you know still
526
00:31:50.349 --> 00:31:52.227
does that so well, thank God.
527
00:31:52.227 --> 00:31:56.394
And it so infuriated the guards, there at the place, who
528
00:31:58.136 --> 00:32:01.933
were charged with not only keeping us prisoners, but
529
00:32:01.933 --> 00:32:05.453
keeping white prisoners and Black prisoners apart, and
530
00:32:05.453 --> 00:32:09.620
somehow maintaining some kind of difference, of deference
531
00:32:11.213 --> 00:32:12.831
to the white prisoners, and trying to deal with us.
532
00:32:12.831 --> 00:32:14.264
But at any rate, Charles and I got put in solitary.
533
00:32:14.264 --> 00:32:16.597
Four or five days wasn't it.
534
00:32:20.579 --> 00:32:23.496
No blankets, on the concrete floor.
535
00:32:25.933 --> 00:32:30.100
We did have some of the brothers though slipping us food
536
00:32:31.885 --> 00:32:33.016
under the door, I remember eating up.
537
00:32:33.016 --> 00:32:34.680
I remember several of those folks.
538
00:32:34.680 --> 00:32:37.197
And Charles and I lay there and talked about how we were
539
00:32:37.197 --> 00:32:41.464
going to the theological basis, he was in divinity school.
540
00:32:41.464 --> 00:32:42.787
I was too I guess.
541
00:32:42.787 --> 00:32:47.459
The theological basis, and when I saw, when we talked
542
00:32:47.459 --> 00:32:49.079
about Gandhi.
543
00:32:49.079 --> 00:32:51.981
When Charles and I were in solitary talking about Gandhi,
544
00:32:51.981 --> 00:32:55.395
not only was it a practical, tactical approach, but he
545
00:32:55.395 --> 00:32:58.893
and I felt that the only way we could change the South, the
546
00:32:58.893 --> 00:33:01.944
only way was to change it through the force of our very
547
00:33:01.944 --> 00:33:05.357
commitment embodied, but also with the force of love.
548
00:33:05.357 --> 00:33:06.690
We believe that.
549
00:33:08.062 --> 00:33:10.584
So when we left and the guard, the main guard, came up
550
00:33:10.584 --> 00:33:11.917
and spoke to us.
551
00:33:13.208 --> 00:33:16.708
What he say, "you boys did pretty good" or
552
00:33:17.880 --> 00:33:19.692
"good luck to you".
553
00:33:19.692 --> 00:33:23.597
This was the guard at the Rock Hill, really it was the
554
00:33:23.597 --> 00:33:27.800
Yaw County chain gang, who had been such a racist,
555
00:33:27.800 --> 00:33:31.725
aggressive person, who because of this energy, came over
556
00:33:31.725 --> 00:33:34.975
and shook our hand actually, didn't he.
557
00:33:36.291 --> 00:33:40.813
And I think that, to me, is one of the essences of how
558
00:33:40.813 --> 00:33:45.293
approaching this thing from a much broader spiritual context
559
00:33:45.293 --> 00:33:49.772
Jim and I totally appreciate and I read again our calling
560
00:33:49.772 --> 00:33:52.483
statement, at the preamble.
561
00:33:52.483 --> 00:33:54.723
That issue we wrestled with, and I do remember, I remember
562
00:33:54.723 --> 00:33:58.157
the session, I remember the words.
563
00:33:58.157 --> 00:34:00.611
You know and so when I read them again the other day, I said
564
00:34:00.611 --> 00:34:04.192
wow, and much of that was your own seasoned development of
565
00:34:04.192 --> 00:34:05.192
the concept.
566
00:34:07.437 --> 00:34:11.320
And I understand you also spent some time in India so that
567
00:34:11.320 --> 00:34:14.307
this was not just an academic concept, you saw some
568
00:34:14.307 --> 00:34:15.672
of that happen.
569
00:34:15.672 --> 00:34:19.839
So as I give these honorings, particularly to Ella, who
570
00:34:22.093 --> 00:34:26.019
helped us grow up, who helped us come to a point of
571
00:34:26.019 --> 00:34:30.307
understanding that the only way you're gonna do this is by
572
00:34:30.307 --> 00:34:32.653
respecting the very individual person, and if that took you
573
00:34:32.653 --> 00:34:35.341
some time then darn it, you stood there, and you did it.
574
00:34:35.341 --> 00:34:39.508
I also want to honor my grandfather, and great grandfather,
575
00:34:41.080 --> 00:34:41.997
and mother.
576
00:34:43.043 --> 00:34:46.793
I came to this in a little different context.
577
00:34:49.869 --> 00:34:51.939
My father who is the youngest of 11 children, he was born
578
00:34:51.939 --> 00:34:54.776
in 1910, all of them graduated from college.
579
00:34:54.776 --> 00:34:55.776
Hear me now.
580
00:35:00.429 --> 00:35:02.755
Because you hear all this stuff about how Black people
581
00:35:02.755 --> 00:35:04.331
are this, that and whatever.
582
00:35:04.331 --> 00:35:08.498
My father's family, his father had come, was born a slave,
583
00:35:09.944 --> 00:35:13.694
married my grandmother, who was born a slave.
584
00:35:15.832 --> 00:35:19.523
Both were teaching at something like 12 and 13 years old
585
00:35:19.523 --> 00:35:21.357
because they were the only ones who had learned how to read
586
00:35:21.357 --> 00:35:22.808
in the community.
587
00:35:22.808 --> 00:35:26.963
They came to South Carolina, set up a church, set up eight
588
00:35:26.963 --> 00:35:30.796
parochial schools, we are in 1870, 1880, 1890.
589
00:35:34.518 --> 00:35:39.512
Eight parochial schools, our pastor is incidentally my
590
00:35:39.512 --> 00:35:43.679
grandfather, I was a student pastor at two churches
591
00:35:44.547 --> 00:35:46.380
my grandfather set up.
592
00:35:48.664 --> 00:35:53.400
So all of my uncles, finished Johnson Smith, my Aunts
593
00:35:53.400 --> 00:35:56.664
finished Barbara Scosha, so by the time I came along, I
594
00:35:56.664 --> 00:35:59.544
mean I didn't have much of a choice.
595
00:35:59.544 --> 00:36:01.187
My family looked at me and said of course you're going to
596
00:36:01.187 --> 00:36:02.104
contribute.
597
00:36:03.000 --> 00:36:05.901
My grandma told me " boy, yeah you the one".
598
00:36:05.901 --> 00:36:08.568
So for me, coming to the meeting here, for me coming to
599
00:36:08.568 --> 00:36:12.735
the lunch counters, I was just trying to say Ella's, hey
600
00:36:15.689 --> 00:36:17.187
I'm here.
601
00:36:17.187 --> 00:36:21.153
I know I have no choice, I know I must keep the faith
602
00:36:21.153 --> 00:36:22.456
as you did.
603
00:36:22.456 --> 00:36:26.056
Through the middle passage, through the earlier part of
604
00:36:26.056 --> 00:36:28.723
slavery, through all of it.
605
00:36:28.723 --> 00:36:30.115
They kept the faith, they survived, they taught us
606
00:36:30.115 --> 00:36:31.365
how to survive.
607
00:36:32.611 --> 00:36:34.573
Of course we're gonna go pick up a gun and
608
00:36:34.573 --> 00:36:36.156
take on a preacher.
609
00:36:37.643 --> 00:36:39.181
How absurd.
610
00:36:39.181 --> 00:36:41.592
But we had a source of power so much stronger.
611
00:36:41.592 --> 00:36:44.387
And I, now, sitting her 20 or 40 years later have you
612
00:36:44.387 --> 00:36:47.755
any idea how nurturing this is for those of us who didn't
613
00:36:47.755 --> 00:36:51.422
know what we were doing but stood there man.
614
00:36:52.600 --> 00:36:53.603
I tell you.
615
00:36:53.603 --> 00:36:55.522
Who wrestled through, jumped off the cliff and learned
616
00:36:55.522 --> 00:36:57.592
how to fly on the way down, didn't know if we were gonna
617
00:36:57.592 --> 00:37:00.941
crash but goddanit our brother, our sister was there and
618
00:37:00.941 --> 00:37:03.309
we were going to get there.
619
00:37:03.309 --> 00:37:05.677
There was no discussion, no articulation of anything about
620
00:37:05.677 --> 00:37:08.173
why am I here, why me?
621
00:37:08.173 --> 00:37:11.006
We learned to fly on the way down.
622
00:37:12.289 --> 00:37:14.315
And landed really rather gracefully.
623
00:37:14.315 --> 00:37:18.148
Chuck does that so well he's still going down.
624
00:37:20.459 --> 00:37:24.626
So I come here as a continuum of the struggles of human
625
00:37:30.334 --> 00:37:34.029
beings, not only for their own dignity, but to assert it.
626
00:37:34.029 --> 00:37:38.196
Not in an arrogant, but in an extraordinarily strong
627
00:37:39.939 --> 00:37:43.757
way that says that you will deal with me.
628
00:37:43.757 --> 00:37:47.235
Because really I am the best of you,
629
00:37:47.235 --> 00:37:49.485
you haven't discovered yet.
630
00:37:51.821 --> 00:37:55.988
Right, and I could not set my bar to be equal to you.
631
00:37:58.072 --> 00:38:02.239
I had to set my bar much higher, because the manifestation
632
00:38:03.149 --> 00:38:07.316
of your behavior not only with slavery, sexism, you know
633
00:38:11.384 --> 00:38:12.385
it all, but if I'm only striving to be that, Jim, then what
634
00:38:12.385 --> 00:38:13.406
do I bring to the discussion.
635
00:38:13.406 --> 00:38:14.413
So that's what we struggled with.
636
00:38:14.413 --> 00:38:18.848
To bring the best of the human experience, the human
637
00:38:18.848 --> 00:38:22.848
capacity to each and every confrontation we had.
638
00:38:24.568 --> 00:38:27.469
And God knows we stumbled from time to time, but I tell you
639
00:38:27.469 --> 00:38:31.412
there were times we stood so tall, I'm proud of that.
640
00:38:31.412 --> 00:38:35.579
So I'm honoring all of those people, who came before us.
641
00:38:42.356 --> 00:38:45.273
All those folks who walked with us.
642
00:38:46.755 --> 00:38:49.101
Those of us who are here, but all of those
643
00:38:49.101 --> 00:38:50.253
who didn't make it.
644
00:38:50.253 --> 00:38:53.420
In your own spirit, honor, honor that.
645
00:38:57.997 --> 00:39:01.944
Because this was rough this is bad, this wasn't just a nice
646
00:39:01.944 --> 00:39:03.626
intellectual discussion, we were dealing with the power, the
647
00:39:03.626 --> 00:39:07.793
total political and military power of this country.
648
00:39:09.304 --> 00:39:12.304
So we fashioned a way to survive it.
649
00:39:14.296 --> 00:39:15.296
Tim Jenkins.
650
00:39:16.237 --> 00:39:19.928
Let me put a quick context of 1960.
651
00:39:19.928 --> 00:39:22.936
Tim and I had been working through the United States
652
00:39:22.936 --> 00:39:24.877
National Student Association.
653
00:39:24.877 --> 00:39:27.011
Tim was a national officer.
654
00:39:27.011 --> 00:39:28.178
Indeed he was.
655
00:39:29.933 --> 00:39:33.005
And these were the bright minds.
656
00:39:33.005 --> 00:39:35.693
The presidents and vice presidents of the student
657
00:39:35.693 --> 00:39:38.693
governments throughout this country.
658
00:39:40.109 --> 00:39:44.276
I put myself in nomination for the chairman of the
659
00:39:45.272 --> 00:39:48.621
Carolina Virginia region against a fellow from Wahlfort,
660
00:39:48.621 --> 00:39:50.121
and won the thing.
661
00:39:51.459 --> 00:39:54.381
So I was the first chairman of the Carolinas Virginia
662
00:39:54.381 --> 00:39:56.131
region of the National Student Association.
663
00:39:56.131 --> 00:39:58.214
Tim did you go to Europe?
664
00:40:00.632 --> 00:40:01.635
I went to Europe in 59.
665
00:40:01.635 --> 00:40:02.637
Tim and I went to Cuba in 59.
666
00:40:02.637 --> 00:40:06.804
And attempted to organize and work with students there.
667
00:40:07.672 --> 00:40:12.408
But by the time 1960 came, we had had some communications
668
00:40:12.408 --> 00:40:15.971
with a lot of other of our peers.
669
00:40:15.971 --> 00:40:20.138
I was actually I was asked by the House Committee on
670
00:40:21.709 --> 00:40:25.876
UnAmerican Activities to come as a friendly witness.
671
00:40:26.979 --> 00:40:31.146
And the reason for that was that in Vienna, Austria in
672
00:40:33.037 --> 00:40:37.705
1959, I guess it was, I had been in attendance to an
673
00:40:37.705 --> 00:40:42.253
international conference where the Soviet Union was trying
674
00:40:42.253 --> 00:40:46.029
to say to emerging African countries and third world
675
00:40:46.029 --> 00:40:48.717
countries, we the man, we the one, ya'll don't worry about
676
00:40:48.717 --> 00:40:50.424
the United States, we're the people you need to go with.
677
00:40:50.424 --> 00:40:53.085
And I went with about 300 students from the United States.
678
00:40:53.085 --> 00:40:56.141
And found myself from time to time, I guess debating, was
679
00:40:56.141 --> 00:41:00.308
a good word, with Paul Rosen Jr. about not only what was
680
00:41:02.366 --> 00:41:05.848
happening in this country but also positive things, slave
681
00:41:05.848 --> 00:41:09.283
rebellions, other parts of the picture.
682
00:41:09.283 --> 00:41:12.483
So the House Committee, remember asked me to come, because
683
00:41:12.483 --> 00:41:15.316
they knew I was one of their boys.
684
00:41:16.899 --> 00:41:18.819
And I heard something, the chairman said "Mr. Jones, don't
685
00:41:18.819 --> 00:41:21.784
you agree that we are better than the Soviet Union because
686
00:41:21.784 --> 00:41:25.517
they indoctrinate our children to, their children to believe
687
00:41:25.517 --> 00:41:26.883
in Communism?"
688
00:41:26.883 --> 00:41:29.912
And I said "With due respects, my brother, it is easier to
689
00:41:29.912 --> 00:41:34.079
be anti-communist than it is to be pro anything, but
690
00:41:36.845 --> 00:41:38.189
particularly pro-American.
691
00:41:38.189 --> 00:41:41.240
I see you as anti-Communist, I haven't heard you say
692
00:41:41.240 --> 00:41:43.331
anything about my interests.
693
00:41:43.331 --> 00:41:44.502
So let's discuss".
694
00:41:44.502 --> 00:41:47.256
And for the next two and half hours, all them Ls and oh
695
00:41:47.256 --> 00:41:50.648
I'd love to get a copy of that.
696
00:41:50.648 --> 00:41:53.507
One of the things that I've done is not to read much of
697
00:41:53.507 --> 00:41:56.813
what happened during that period.
698
00:41:56.813 --> 00:41:59.053
And I'm not sure why that is.
699
00:41:59.053 --> 00:42:00.311
I'm beginning to do it now.
700
00:42:00.311 --> 00:42:03.082
Joanne, thank you for Ella.
701
00:42:03.082 --> 00:42:04.600
All of you folks that have done this.
702
00:42:04.600 --> 00:42:05.709
Thank you so much.
703
00:42:05.709 --> 00:42:09.336
Who have, I've chosen not to read much of what happened.
704
00:42:09.336 --> 00:42:12.406
Might just be an ego thing.
705
00:42:12.406 --> 00:42:14.819
Maybe I want to remember my own experiences and perhaps
706
00:42:14.819 --> 00:42:18.986
if I can be honest with them, that is as an accurate,
707
00:42:22.409 --> 00:42:26.659
if not more-so expression of what went on than many of
708
00:42:26.659 --> 00:42:30.008
our historians and there are a lot of folks who have
709
00:42:30.008 --> 00:42:31.309
written good stuff.
710
00:42:31.309 --> 00:42:33.613
But there are also stuff out there that is absolutely no
711
00:42:33.613 --> 00:42:36.853
resemblance to what I remember in being there.
712
00:42:36.853 --> 00:42:40.033
So now I think we probably gonna start writing stuff.
713
00:42:40.033 --> 00:42:42.637
Ms. Davis with Ms. Smith, Ms. Bumgardner Davis is gonna
714
00:42:42.637 --> 00:42:44.557
help us perhaps put something together and I appreciate
715
00:42:44.557 --> 00:42:46.733
that, I do appreciate that.
716
00:42:46.733 --> 00:42:48.862
So I'm gonna do that.
717
00:42:48.862 --> 00:42:53.029
But Tim, it was once I was coming back from this session.
718
00:42:54.115 --> 00:42:58.595
And my paper covered, Charlotte Observer covered, both
719
00:42:58.595 --> 00:43:02.435
when we were in Europe, "Colored Boy Does Good, Defends
720
00:43:02.435 --> 00:43:03.821
Democracy".
721
00:43:03.821 --> 00:43:07.988
And we, were coming, the mayor, I ran into him on the
722
00:43:08.835 --> 00:43:12.120
street, he said "Mr. Jones, we're proud of you man.
723
00:43:12.120 --> 00:43:17.069
You're a credit to your race, and you did a pretty good
724
00:43:17.069 --> 00:43:19.402
job for the rest of us too".
725
00:43:20.440 --> 00:43:24.467
I was coming back from the House Committee's testimony.
726
00:43:24.467 --> 00:43:27.715
Four o'clock in the morning, up here near South Boston.
727
00:43:27.715 --> 00:43:31.882
And I heard, "Today, four students went down to Wolsworth at
728
00:43:33.539 --> 00:43:37.845
Greensboro, sat at the lunch counter and did not move".
729
00:43:37.845 --> 00:43:39.747
And I said "Yes!"
730
00:43:39.747 --> 00:43:41.997
(laughter)
731
00:43:44.374 --> 00:43:48.541
Finally there was a handle for all of us who were trying to
732
00:43:50.499 --> 00:43:54.826
figure out, how we gonna deal with this monster.
733
00:43:54.826 --> 00:43:58.648
Obviously we can't take up arms, obviously we can't, what
734
00:43:58.648 --> 00:44:02.040
can, and when they sat down and didn't move, I said, "okay"
735
00:44:02.040 --> 00:44:06.371
Party's on, let's jam, let's put it together.
736
00:44:06.371 --> 00:44:10.538
And I got home, went to a meeting of the student council,
737
00:44:11.491 --> 00:44:14.347
announced that I was gonna go downtown the next day.
738
00:44:14.347 --> 00:44:17.933
And I thought that maybe there would be a core crew.
739
00:44:17.933 --> 00:44:22.100
There were 322 JCSU students waiting to go down and party.
740
00:44:23.479 --> 00:44:25.729
(laughter)
741
00:44:29.368 --> 00:44:33.485
And when we got on the street, interestingly enough, the
742
00:44:33.485 --> 00:44:36.902
guys at Greensboro had not said anything.
743
00:44:38.435 --> 00:44:42.104
They had done, they knew the press was reporting.
744
00:44:42.104 --> 00:44:46.712
What and how and when, but no one was saying anything
745
00:44:46.712 --> 00:44:47.545
about why.
746
00:44:49.357 --> 00:44:52.298
I ran into the mayor, the first day.
747
00:44:52.298 --> 00:44:53.465
The same mayor
748
00:44:54.435 --> 00:44:56.685
(laughter)
749
00:44:57.976 --> 00:45:02.143
I must tell you, he kind of looked down and walked out a
750
00:45:04.248 --> 00:45:05.976
side street.
751
00:45:05.976 --> 00:45:09.976
I spoke to him, Brother Al, how you like me now?
752
00:45:13.699 --> 00:45:17.866
IT was that liberation of a spirit penned up by all the
753
00:45:19.464 --> 00:45:23.631
history of my generation, we were ready, we just didn't know
754
00:45:24.621 --> 00:45:27.667
how and the sit ins and ice cream so from that moment on,
755
00:45:27.667 --> 00:45:31.834
totally convinced that Gandhi as I read him, was a saint.
756
00:45:34.157 --> 00:45:37.123
I wasn't quite sure I could always turn the other cheek,
757
00:45:37.123 --> 00:45:40.856
but I felt the soul force, the force of the power of the
758
00:45:40.856 --> 00:45:43.862
spirit to stand in front of the bullets, to stand in
759
00:45:43.862 --> 00:45:48.029
front of the machinery, to put your body in the machinery,
760
00:45:49.238 --> 00:45:50.947
and I said wow, good stuff.
761
00:45:50.947 --> 00:45:55.491
So we went about putting our body in the machinery.
762
00:45:55.491 --> 00:45:59.651
I had met Ella, I am pretty confident, at a YMCA gathering
763
00:45:59.651 --> 00:46:00.651
before 1960.
764
00:46:02.680 --> 00:46:04.429
I'm sure I had.
765
00:46:04.429 --> 00:46:07.650
And there was something about this woman.
766
00:46:07.650 --> 00:46:12.639
Always had a big pocketbook, always had a hat, very quiet.
767
00:46:12.639 --> 00:46:16.556
There was something about her quiet confidence.
768
00:46:19.363 --> 00:46:21.965
You know Ella, you never got the feeling Ella didn't know
769
00:46:21.965 --> 00:46:23.715
how it was gonna end.
770
00:46:25.059 --> 00:46:27.661
You know, I mean you always had the feeling that she was
771
00:46:27.661 --> 00:46:30.029
going to help us pull it through.
772
00:46:30.029 --> 00:46:32.632
And when we stayed up all night at Highland.
773
00:46:32.632 --> 00:46:35.981
Was it Highland when we were trying to Diane and the
774
00:46:35.981 --> 00:46:40.927
Nashroots group, the pure nonviolence, as it was called
775
00:46:40.927 --> 00:46:43.960
then, and the voter registration together, and there were
776
00:46:43.960 --> 00:46:47.181
all these, Ella made us stay up and I said made, just
777
00:46:47.181 --> 00:46:49.438
her quiet presence.
778
00:46:49.438 --> 00:46:52.853
Made us wrestle through that night.
779
00:46:52.853 --> 00:46:55.604
Marion was arguing big and strong but before the dawn was
780
00:46:55.604 --> 00:46:58.979
come, not only did we look at each other and smile, not
781
00:46:58.979 --> 00:47:03.146
only did we embrace each other after some of the most
782
00:47:06.061 --> 00:47:09.731
vigorous discussions and disagreements, but we came out
783
00:47:09.731 --> 00:47:13.379
of that loving each other a lot more.
784
00:47:13.379 --> 00:47:15.831
So that by the time we really got into the reality of
785
00:47:15.831 --> 00:47:20.243
McComb Mississippi, well McComb said what distinction
786
00:47:20.243 --> 00:47:23.277
between direct action and voter registration.
787
00:47:23.277 --> 00:47:25.603
All ya'll going down.
788
00:47:25.603 --> 00:47:30.421
And we voted over fifteen dollars a week, if we had it,
789
00:47:30.421 --> 00:47:31.254
a person.
790
00:47:32.131 --> 00:47:34.925
Ten a week if we had it, a person, living off the land,
791
00:47:34.925 --> 00:47:39.092
Ella gave us this capacity to respect the dignity of
792
00:47:43.395 --> 00:47:45.997
each person, whether we like them or not was irrelevant.
793
00:47:45.997 --> 00:47:50.164
And because of that, I suggest to you that SNCC in its
794
00:47:54.637 --> 00:47:58.691
beloved community, mean that, mean that from the
795
00:47:58.691 --> 00:48:00.483
bottom of my heart.
796
00:48:00.483 --> 00:48:03.555
We mean that we want a community where everybody, all of
797
00:48:03.555 --> 00:48:06.520
God's children are respected, are loved, protected, and
798
00:48:06.520 --> 00:48:09.270
we'll fight for your right to be.
799
00:48:10.765 --> 00:48:14.370
And I am still at this point, at 62, so blessed to have
800
00:48:14.370 --> 00:48:16.870
that total concept in my guts.
801
00:48:18.552 --> 00:48:20.877
That's how I live with all the conflicts.
802
00:48:20.877 --> 00:48:25.631
So by the time we got here, Smith did its thing, we were
803
00:48:25.631 --> 00:48:26.634
February eighth, the lunch counters I think were open
804
00:48:26.634 --> 00:48:28.384
in July of that year.
805
00:48:31.459 --> 00:48:33.400
I don't know the other timeframes of the other places.
806
00:48:33.400 --> 00:48:36.728
I know Chuck was down in Greens in South Carolina.
807
00:48:36.728 --> 00:48:39.843
Gerard was up in, still up at Virginia,
808
00:48:39.843 --> 00:48:41.823
in Virginia, Biesburg.
809
00:48:41.823 --> 00:48:44.920
So we didn't know each other.
810
00:48:44.920 --> 00:48:47.902
But we knew the energy, and we had a point of reference
811
00:48:47.902 --> 00:48:52.493
of knowing what that person had had to do and all the, to
812
00:48:52.493 --> 00:48:54.328
still be alive, number one, and had successfully carried
813
00:48:54.328 --> 00:48:55.565
that movement.
814
00:48:55.565 --> 00:49:00.515
So when we came here, when I walked in, Charles doing
815
00:49:00.515 --> 00:49:03.907
his devotions, I walked out I felt that same sense of
816
00:49:03.907 --> 00:49:07.832
power, here's some of these guys, girls, young ladies, wow,
817
00:49:07.832 --> 00:49:09.923
this is some good stuff.
818
00:49:09.923 --> 00:49:12.268
I wonder how I would relate to, how I'd fit in,
819
00:49:12.268 --> 00:49:16.107
but there was this embracing, that was this embracing.
820
00:49:16.107 --> 00:49:20.274
So we had been given from all of the elders, the wisdom of
821
00:49:24.195 --> 00:49:27.181
how to survive, the wisdom of the basic love and respect,
822
00:49:27.181 --> 00:49:31.348
though strength you are, somebody, and don't you let
823
00:49:34.262 --> 00:49:36.995
anybody, I remember my grandma so well she's right in her
824
00:49:36.995 --> 00:49:41.325
she said "don't you let anybody" make you apologize.
825
00:49:41.325 --> 00:49:44.483
I remember several times, we were faced with, middle of
826
00:49:44.483 --> 00:49:48.323
the night, police officers when we had to say "yessir"
827
00:49:48.323 --> 00:49:51.573
probably the roughest thing I ever did.
828
00:49:53.080 --> 00:49:57.247
I did once, between Albany and Atlanta that night when we
829
00:49:59.907 --> 00:50:02.315
got stopped, whoever that was.
830
00:50:02.315 --> 00:50:06.157
The police officers enjoyed humiliating us you know.
831
00:50:06.157 --> 00:50:08.696
And I remember, "Boy, is this your car?"
832
00:50:08.696 --> 00:50:09.529
Uh yes.
833
00:50:11.683 --> 00:50:12.850
"Yes? Yessir!"
834
00:50:15.331 --> 00:50:17.955
And my grandmother's spirit was standing up saying I'm
835
00:50:17.955 --> 00:50:20.536
telling you that was the roughest thing I ever had to do
836
00:50:20.536 --> 00:50:23.907
Chuck, because my grandmother was saying don't you do that.
837
00:50:23.907 --> 00:50:27.512
But I knew if I didn't tactically, we'd have been strung
838
00:50:27.512 --> 00:50:31.416
out wherever, and what would've happened.
839
00:50:31.416 --> 00:50:33.166
And so I said yessir.
840
00:50:35.021 --> 00:50:35.854
And I know you all did that too sometimes, we ain't gotta
841
00:50:35.854 --> 00:50:38.093
have no public confession, but if that was the only thing
842
00:50:38.093 --> 00:50:40.909
we had to give up, what the heck.
843
00:50:40.909 --> 00:50:43.147
So we came to this meeting here, Ella representing the
844
00:50:43.147 --> 00:50:45.314
best of all of the elders.
845
00:50:50.763 --> 00:50:54.797
And I think the fact that she was a woman and didn't bring
846
00:50:54.797 --> 00:50:58.488
a certain amount of that ego baggage that us men tend to.
847
00:50:58.488 --> 00:51:02.840
With having to win, I think because she was a woman, she
848
00:51:02.840 --> 00:51:07.007
understood intuitively, something that we hadn't even come
849
00:51:08.899 --> 00:51:11.331
to understand yet about life.
850
00:51:11.331 --> 00:51:14.765
I think because she was a woman, she brought the other
851
00:51:14.765 --> 00:51:18.932
side of the mothers who saw their children separated during
852
00:51:20.824 --> 00:51:25.459
slavery, and who yearned and who were in pain, having lost
853
00:51:25.459 --> 00:51:28.502
some of their children, she was the embodiment of all
854
00:51:28.502 --> 00:51:31.491
those mothers that you don't read about through slavery,
855
00:51:31.491 --> 00:51:34.067
but I want some of us to do this, who are above all fault
856
00:51:34.067 --> 00:51:36.877
to keep their families together, even when they were
857
00:51:36.877 --> 00:51:39.683
being sold away and even when they were sold away, kept in
858
00:51:39.683 --> 00:51:42.072
touch with their children and family.
859
00:51:42.072 --> 00:51:42.905
Alright?
860
00:51:45.165 --> 00:51:49.332
Ella brought all of that in a quiet, cognitive, dignity
861
00:51:50.752 --> 00:51:51.835
and strength.
862
00:51:54.936 --> 00:51:58.392
And I remember quite well, and still do, that she nurtured
863
00:51:58.392 --> 00:52:02.559
us into adults who were prepared, and did take on the beast.
864
00:52:03.400 --> 00:52:07.567
And for a moment in history, there were possibilities.
865
00:52:10.531 --> 00:52:13.176
The Kennedys picked up on it, incidentally.
866
00:52:13.176 --> 00:52:15.288
Remember all them rhetorics and all them.
867
00:52:15.288 --> 00:52:17.396
Johnson picked up on it, heck, we had.
868
00:52:17.396 --> 00:52:21.048
But I want to say to you that I think I have been not only
869
00:52:21.048 --> 00:52:25.396
blessed, but seeing each of you in your faces and picking
870
00:52:25.396 --> 00:52:28.150
up your spirits again now, and of course it's a celebration,
871
00:52:28.150 --> 00:52:32.589
of course it's an honoring of us, and then the rest of us
872
00:52:32.589 --> 00:52:34.422
who evolved from that.
873
00:52:36.515 --> 00:52:40.054
Because but for key decisions you know we would have been
874
00:52:40.054 --> 00:52:41.336
bogged down.
875
00:52:41.336 --> 00:52:44.216
Getting you out of a cone cellar.
876
00:52:44.216 --> 00:52:48.383
So I simply come as a conduit, as a continuation, of the
877
00:52:51.320 --> 00:52:52.403
human spirit.
878
00:52:55.480 --> 00:52:57.805
The African side, the European side, determined not only
879
00:52:57.805 --> 00:53:01.972
to survive, but absolutely blessed to continue these
880
00:53:04.973 --> 00:53:06.531
relationships.
881
00:53:06.531 --> 00:53:10.435
God Bless each of you and in your quest, keep all of this
882
00:53:10.435 --> 00:53:12.909
alive, keep the faith.
883
00:53:12.909 --> 00:53:13.996
God Bless.
884
00:53:13.996 --> 00:53:16.246
(applause)