- Down there in Southwest Georgia. We just decided we wasn't gonna take it anymore. We's decided we were gonna stop going to the back door. - Amen. - Gonna stop bowin' and scrapin' and scratchin' where we don't itch and laughing when it don't tickle - (laughing) Amen. - This is a Negro who is not afraid any longer, and as we sing that song "We Are Not Afraid", we sing it from the bottom of our hearts because we really mean it. - Amen. - It's a Negro who walks and holds his head up high, and as long as he holds his head up high he cannot be enslaved, because you have to bend down and bow down to become a slave. - That's right. - But we as Negroes have a dream. - A dream of being a first class citizen. And his dream has been filled with nightmares for many years past. Many of us can remember with horror the infliction of bodily harm and pain that has come to Negroes down through the generations. I can yet remember so vividly, and it hasn't been too long ago, the Negro who was shot down on the courthouse steps in Baker County, and was tied to a back of an automobile and dragged around. In this day and generation, I can remember very vividly, as early as last year, a Negro who was in jail in Bainbridge, Georgia because he said that he would vote against Marvin Griffin if he was out of jail and could vote, was beaten and died. Yes, these nightmares are in our dreams, but we have at the end of the dream a shining light that says on it, "Freedom". - Amen. - And we know that that road to freedom is a long and narrow road. We know that on one side of it there are briars and bramble bushes, and we know the other side there are cotton mouth moccasins and diamond back rattlesnakes. - We know that segregation and discrimination will be above our heads every inch of the way. But we'll keep our eyes set on that good light at the end of the road that shines to freedom. This is the dream of the American Negro. You here in Terrell County, and the Negroes over in Dougherty County, and the Negroes in Lee County, and the Negroes in Baker County, have decided that they aren't going to take it any longer. They decided they will not have their backs bent and be enslaved anymore. They are determined to be free and nothing can turn them around. Because the change has come from within. And once the change has started from within there is no turning back. The martyr has already martyred the cross. He has felt the pierce of the spear in his side. He cannot come down off the cross. He will stay there. He will suffer, bleed, and die until he is free. I look forward to the day when I can exert myself as a man downtown and demand what is rightfully mine and get it, without fear of any retaliation, without fear of my life being lost and my body being harmed. I look forward to the day when I will not have to go around to the backdoor anymore. I will not have to be subjected to the humiliations and embarrassments of being called a boy, and for why I can't go into the zoo because my face is black. They can kick us out, but they can't kick us down. They can burn the churches down, but where this one stood a greater church will stand, because our cause is a righteous cause, and you can slow it down, but you can't stop it. You can cause it to take a more devious route and get if off that straight path, but you but you can't stop it, it's going. Because the Negroes have a dream. - Amen. - A dream of being an American citizen. - What's your name? - Stanton. I got a sister. - Got a sister? - Yeah. - How about that. - Well. - You treat her nice, huh? - Yeah. - Sure he does. - Alright, you gonna treat her nice? - Uh huh. - That's good. That's my boy, alright. - Do you ever throw anything at her? - Yeah. (group laughing) - Uh oh. (group laughing) - We're gettin' somewhere, uh? - Say my sister named Terry. - My sister named Terry. - Have a little brother named Derrick. - Have a little brother named Derrick. - Yeah? - Yeah. - And his dad's name Jessie (mumbles). - And my dad's named Jessie (mumbles). - Tell him your mother's name. - (mumbles). - Today, I was able to spend some time in Terrell County. It was really like a real homecoming, and it's the most wonderful thing that has happened to me in two months because you are really my family and this is our struggle together. And so, to know that you are well and that your spirit is high and that even though yourbodies may be tired your spirits aren't It means an awful lot. - (mumbles) - After he had gone to the store at about quarter to 11, upon coming back he wasn't driving his truck. And another man stopped him and told him that his house was on fire. So, he sped toward his house and found that the fire had been started but that the house was ready to fall down to pieces. And he also found his kids in the ditch. They were scared, they were cold, and so he couldn't get anything out of them then. Took them to a friend's home. Well, after they had thawed out, you know, got 'em warm and everything, he questioned them. They said that a white man came to the house and told them to go down to the road, and they went down to the road. Said this white man came in a blue car. The kids were questioned and everything, by both the GBI and the FBI, and the GBI story is that the kids did it. This man (mumbles) the same man, Mr. Puller, had his house fired upon a couple of weeks ago and as he was driving along the road one day, had two white men in a car drive up beside him and point that gun from their car to his. All of this happened before the house burned. So, I mean, you can put one and one together. - There was a rumor out that tomorrow night at the meeting in Sumter County, that Mr. Trim Porter, who's the oldest deacon at that Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, is to be arrested if he comes to our meeting. Along with me. I received a letter--or, a telephone call from my mother, said that my grandmother was ill and I would have gone Tuesday. My grandmother is near death. if they just hadn't gotten out that rumor that if I came to that church that I'd be arrested, I would have gone Tuesday. And since they said that I feel compelled to go. - How did police act on the night of the shooting? - They thought it was my fault. (laughing) - (mumbles) with a child like that? - They stuck Ralph in prison to deal (mumbles), the funny thing was, you know, when they stopped us, they frisked us for weapons. - We're a dangerous character (mumbles). - You worried about the creek (mumbles)? I don't think I have met a more dedicated group since I have been here these 30 years. (mumbles) They came into Albany and I think my husband and I went to the first or second meeting and I knew then that I was going to stick with them. I haven't regretted it. - I've been in here for awhile. I've been in here (mumbles). And I've been asking people about freedom. Everybody in Terrell County's afraid to talk about freedom. I talked with some of the people (mumbles). I went up to some of the peoples' houses and I asked them. They said, "You one of them freedom rider!" (mumbles) "If you come here" they said, "we gotta move". I said, "No, I'm not a freedom rider." I said, "I'm in here trying to do the word of God. "Trying to work for the Lord. "I'm not a (mumbles) . "I'm trying to hold up and get freedom for myself." The people in Terrell County should wake up! - Somethin' keep telling me that our only hope is to get these people down to the polls one by one or two by two. Our hope rests in these people (mumbles). Believe it or not. I know that you can say that it's hard, almost impossible, but in the face of all of that it must be-- (group clapping and humming) (mumbles) ♪ I'm gonna tell them how you treat me ♪ ♪ I'm gonna tell them how you treat me one of these days ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ I'm gonna tell them how you treat me ♪ ♪ Tell them how you treat me one of these days ♪ ♪ I'm gonna get my freedom (hums) ♪ ♪ I'm gonna get my freedom (mumbles) one of these days ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ I'm gonna get my freedom (hums) ♪ ♪ I'm gonna get my freedom one of these days ♪ ♪ We're gonna eat at the freedom table ♪ ♪ We're gonna eat at the freedom table one of these days ♪ ♪ Hallelujah. ♪ ♪ We're gonna eat at the freedom table ♪ ♪ Eat at the freedom table one of these days ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Guide my feet, Lord ♪ ♪ While I run this race ♪ ♪ Guide my feet ♪ ♪ While I run this race ♪ ♪ For I don't want to run this race in vain ♪ - This is a mass meeting in Terrell County. - It is in a tent on the same site where a church once stood. The church was burned down last summer. The people of the county are huddled around a small kerosene stove. They look nervously at the tent opening every time there's a noise outside. Twice the county sheriff has broken up the meeting. But they have faith that they shall overcome. ♪ For I don't want to run this race in vain ♪ ♪ Guide my tongue ♪ ♪ While I run this race ♪ ♪ Guide my tongue ♪ ♪ While I run this race ♪ ♪ Guide my tongue ♪ ♪ While I run this race ♪ ♪ For I don't want to run this race in vain ♪ - Let us bow our heads in a word of prayer. Oh Gracious King as we come together. We pray that thou would bless our coming together. Bless this people. We pray that (mumbles) give us strength, give us courage, to carry on, to fight on and on until the victory is won. This we ask in the name of thy son Christ Jesus. Amen. Congregation: Amen. - At this time I'd like to say welcome everybody to the home of the brave. I think I use that name because of what we people in Terrell County have went through in order to get the few people that we have got registered to vote. Congregation: Amen. Because that valor (mumbles) your objective, it's a very hard one, although it shouldn't be, but it's a very hard one. - (mumbles) outgrowth from the Albany Movement but a lady was fired there because her child was one of the children who attempted to integrate the white high school in Albany. And all of them walked out. And it was just wonderful to see that sort of spirit and that sort of unanimity. - And it proved to me, when you really want something and you believe in it you gotta give up everything to try and get it. So I walk away filled with that kind of spirit. - I tell you what we need to do, we need to go on over here to Dawson and fall down on our knees and ask God to have mercy like he did in Albany. That same God in Albany is over here - You may remember that we were all pretty exercised awhile back. When seven people who had been picketing very peacefully in the middle of Albany, in connection with asking people not to buy Downtown or Midtown before Christmas, were arrested and thrown in jail. After they were bonded out, they went to Washington and picketed the Department of Justice with signs which read, among other things, "We can picket here, why not in Albany, Georgia?", which was a very good question. - We shall overcome. We shall overcome someday. How deep in my heart I do believe that we shall overcome someday. Would you stand, join hands right over left, and sing with us "We Shall Overcome". ♪ We shall overcome ♪ ♪ My Lord ♪ ♪ We shall overcome ♪ ♪ My Lord ♪ ♪ We shall overcome someday ♪ ♪ Oh, deep in my heart ♪ ♪ I do believe ♪ ♪ Lord, we shall overcome someday ♪ - We are not afraid. ♪ We are not afraid ♪ ♪ My Lord ♪ - "Revolution in Georgia: The Negro Struggle for Franchise". This has been the first in a series of four programs produced for radio by Larry Rubin, a white Antioch student who worked for the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee in Southwest Georgia's voter registration movement. Tonight, Rubin discussed the organization and function of the movement. Next week at this time, the series continues with the second program entitled: "Roots of Discontent", in which Rubin traces the origins of the conflict. These songs "Woke Up This Morning" and "We Shall Overcome" were sung by the Freedom Singers. ♪ The truth will make us free ♪ ♪ My Lord ♪ ♪ The truth will make us free ♪ ♪ My Lord ♪ ♪ The truth will make us free someday ♪ ♪ Oh, deep in my heart ♪ ♪ I know that ♪ ♪ I do believe ♪ ♪ Lord, we shall overcome ♪