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Virginia Deer 1-1588, Montgomery, Alabama.
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Here in Alabama now, in Mississippi,
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the law was changed in '73, but I do think thugh...
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I'm sorry, we ready to actually do this,
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so we're starting?
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That's why I'd like to get it flowing.
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But you're saying you've gotta be right...
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Well I'll do the best I can,
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and I hope that she'll refute me
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because she's a lot younger than I am,
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and she knows a lot more than I do about
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young Black women, because I don't.
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I know about some of 'em, but I don't know about other...
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Well we probably have to
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have that conversation another time. (laughs)
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I'm interested in these issues at the same time,
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but this is a documentary about women
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in the Civil Rights Movement, so we're gonna go back
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and talk about that, and should you wanna talk about...
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(laughs) We can't talk about this whole thing.
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But what I'd like to do is in three sections
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talk about your involvement and how you got involved
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in the Civil Rights Movement.
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And the historical (inaudible). The second thing is
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What do you see today that is an extension
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of the Civil Rights Movement?
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Your perceptions of where it's gone.
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It's come forward, and how much you were doing
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in the USA, and what is the legacy that is left
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by the Civil Rights Movement?
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And any conceptions you have now that-
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Part of the documentary talks about
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the Civil Rights Movement, in terms of desegregation,
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voting rights, and things like that, and at some point,
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because of the women in the movement and
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because of the women's movement itself,
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it moved into that more general human rights movement
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with women at the forefront.
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No it didn't do that then, not yet.
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Well, the whole classic women's movement-
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Took off some.
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Yeah, well that's where I'm going with that.
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And how far did you have to come,
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and how much farther do we have to go?
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Well you seem, okay, surprised, but I don't
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I would have to say that--I don't think the classic women's
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movement has stressed gender so much
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(inaudible) to really answer the question.
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Then that's fine
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And you know, I think that what we're up against now
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is a terrible economic crisis, and I think (inaudible)
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And so I think
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women have to be in the forefront, to make a living.
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Men and women, God help us.
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Well you start off.
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She's gonna ask you a question and...
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They have to make it stay on track
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because they're getting off on asking tangential questions.
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(everyone speaking at once)
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Well I got it--now, are you on or not?
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Yes Ma'am, we are ready to go.
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Well let's go.
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Go ahead.
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Well I went to Washington in 1933.
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My husband went up there
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to work for the Reconstruction Finance Corporation
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because all the banks were closed.
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And I got interested in the Democratic Party
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from Mr. Roosevelt and Mrs. Roosevelt.
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And so I began to be a volunteer
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for the Democratic National Committee Women's Division,
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and oddly enough, it's hard for you all to remember
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since you're so young.
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The District of Columbia was as segregated then
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as the governmental body.
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President Roosevelt's (inaudible) was segregated.
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I didn't know about anything,
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at that time, but it was.
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And every government building was segregated,
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and everything down there was segregated,
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and the whole of D.C. was segregated.
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So one of the first things that the women did,
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and one of the first things that Mrs. Roosevelt
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got interested in was doing away with segregation.
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And I have a friend named Paul Coleman from Atlanta
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who's the head of the paper there.
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And he had a black secretary.
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And you know, you never saw such carrying on in your life
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because he had a Black secretary
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She was very ambitious and a very nice woman,
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but he had to fight tooth and nail, you know,
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to keep her.
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And Washington was desegregated by a very fine woman
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named Mrs. Mary Church Terrell.
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She was an old lady that came from Memphis, Tennessee,
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originally, and she was married to a federal judge.
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And she went into some eating place with two men,
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and they wouldn't serve her, and so they brought soup,
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and that broke the segregation in D.C.
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So you see, I had my first experience working
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in the Civil Rights Movement
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in the District of Columbia and under the New Deal
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with Roosevelt, and having everybody on my side,
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I mean, the Supreme Court was on my side,
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and the White House was on our side.
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Everybody was on our side except the Southern Congressmen...
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(mumbles)
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Getting rid of the segregation was just wonderful.
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The difference was...
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But anyway, that's how I got interested.
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And then the next thing I got interested in-
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This was also through the Women's Division of the
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Democratic National Committee-
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Was the fact that women of the South black and white,
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were denied the right to vote.
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You see, when the Northern law had passed.
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How are you Mrs. Carl, Nikki Crawford,
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pleased to meet you.
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I'm so glad to see ya.
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Oh this is a treat to have you two here together
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This is Frank Rosso.
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I'm producing a program for (inaudible)
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And how about if we go ahead and finish this off?
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When we get to the Civil Rights stuff-
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And this is how I got into the Civil Rights Movement.
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I was talking about what happened in Washington with Chuck.
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How we had so many strengths on our side.
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And Judge Hastings, he wrote the bills for us.
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And Charlie Houston, do you know that man?
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No.
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Goodness. (laughs)
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Now black history has really got to be taught.
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Charlie Houston was probably one of the greatest
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black men that ever lived in this country.
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He was a great lawyer, he was the dean of the law school,
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and he was the man that won all these big cases.
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Howard Law School
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Well Charlie Houston was a really a brave man.
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Well anyway we had all this power on our side,
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so segregation was done away with,
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and the next thing was the right to vote.
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And the things was, when the Civil War was ended,
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and the laws were enacted, he gave the black men
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and the white men the right to vote, except of course
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the white men couldn't vote if he had taken part
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in the Civil War, but if he hadn't then-
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but the women - neither black nor white women
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had any right to vote at all
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So down here in the South, they didn't even pass
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the right to vote for women, you know
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The Amendment, it was a movement to get the vote.
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Started about 1917, but I was too young for that.
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The thing was that neither the white women
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or the black women of the South ever voted.
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And neither did poor white folks either, cause you see
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you had to pay a poll tax
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which not only meant you paid a dollar and a half a year
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but you had to pay back taxes, all the taxes you'd missed
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so you'd pay 45 dollars, before you could start voting.
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So the next thing that the Women's Division did
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was begin to struggle for the right to vote.
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And the man that carried the burden for us was
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Claude Pepper of Florida, who came from Alabama.
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He was a volunteer in Clay County
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and he went and got elected
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To the Senate from Florida, and he was the one
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but he, you know, had got rid of the poll tax in Florida
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and he was the one that fought for the right to vote
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for everybody in the South. And over and over and over again
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he would introduce the bill on the right to vote
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and eliminate the poll taxes
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And it took years and years and years
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to get the right to vote, so I got interested in that.
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And that was really occupied use of my time and energy
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It just seemed so incredible that we had to fight against it
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But they didn't want Blacks voting and they didn't want
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the women voting either
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And it wasn't until Lyndon Johnson came in,
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and that was 1950... something
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when he got the Civil Rights Bill passed.
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1965.
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Was that 1965?
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He did it.
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He got the bill passed, he got the poll tax
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removed and the right to vote, but not 'til '65.
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You see, that was a long time.
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But intelligent people are mad at him still
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on account of the war
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And I think he was wrong about the Vietnamese War.
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But still he got Southern people the right to vote.
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And one of the things that happened when we came back South
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and my husband opened his office here
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was that the woman didn't, blacks didn't vote,
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and very few of the white men voted.
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Because, you know, the poll tax kept them from it
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And in Alabama, when the time to vote would come,
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and it wouldn't be more than 15 percent
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of the voting population that would cast a ballot.
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Isn't that right, John?
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That's right.
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A tiny, you know, minority ever cast a vote.
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Well, it meanth they had no power
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and that everything was controlled completely
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by white men, and it was always the same white men,
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you know, they just had bigoted views, they called them
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About everything.
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So it really wasn't when they started
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the fight for the right to vote here in Montgomery
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had gone on before we ever came back here in 1951.
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Now Johnny can tell you about that because that started
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back before we got here in 1951.
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Mr. Nixon I think it was started the, uh,
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Did he start the voting club, or who did?
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Cooper Lewis
Cooper Lewis?
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Well, you tell about it
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Okay, if we're gonna do that then,
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we'll get Charlie.
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And I wanna hear about the Women's
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Political Council and how you started that
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and the work that you did.
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That's really important that we hear hear that.
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(inaudible) that I started the women's political council?
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Well you and Joanne Robinson.
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Joanne Robinson.
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Joanne Robinson, Mrs. West, and some others.
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But I did not start it, but I was part of it.
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And as part of the community and because of
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my work in the community, I was invited
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And I'd like to know how you all met each other.
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(laughter)
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We couldn't help it, it was inevitable.
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Well we belonged to something called the Churchwomen United.
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And later, Mrs. Tilly, over in Atlanta Georgia, who was
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a great Methodist lady, and who was head of
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the Methodist women, she came over and she joined something
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called the Fellowship of the Concerned.
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And that was in (inaudible)
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And somebody oughta write a book about Ms. Tilly.
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She was a wonderful woman. But the first thing that started
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was called the Churchwomen United
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and that started here, and we used to have integrated
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meetings in various churches and Mrs. Johnny
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was one of the leaders, and then there was
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Mrs. Olive Andrews
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who was a white woman, and she was one of them.
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And Mrs. Rutledge
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And Mrs. Foster whose husband was president of Tuskegee
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She used to come to meetings
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And there was a Mrs. (inaudible) whose sister was named
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(inaudible) the college, you know? Simpson?
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And Ms. Campbell, Ms. Alexander
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And we'd meet and we wouldn't do actually very much
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but meet together.
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Did you know Clarie Collins Harvey
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in Mississippi who was president of Church Women United?
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She was a Black woman and (inaudible)
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The national Church Women United?
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Clarie Collins Harvey, who became later, this was 1975,
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became national president of Church Women United
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00:16:33.250 --> 00:16:36.463
Mississippi, from Jackson, she was the first Southerner
261
00:16:36.463 --> 00:16:39.808
and the first black woman.
262
00:16:41.080 --> 00:16:44.043
I'm trying to remember, I didn't know her at the time
263
00:16:44.043 --> 00:16:45.738
But I had met (inaudible)
264
00:16:45.738 --> 00:16:49.777
I'm trying to remember her husband
265
00:16:49.777 --> 00:16:54.062
Hmm-mm.
266
00:16:54.062 --> 00:16:58.977
I have one of his books, but I never, you know, met her
267
00:17:00.760 --> 00:17:05.760
Because I didn't get involved in the national until...
268
00:17:08.452 --> 00:17:11.274
(inaudible)
269
00:17:11.274 --> 00:17:14.670
'77. It was '77.
270
00:17:14.670 --> 00:17:19.670
We really didn't do anything except meet together and pray.
271
00:17:19.810 --> 00:17:22.975
And we usually met in black churches, 'cause no white church
272
00:17:22.975 --> 00:17:27.975
would have us, but they did have us at the
273
00:17:30.730 --> 00:17:35.715
Orthodox Greek Church.
274
00:17:35.715 --> 00:17:38.724
Remember that one time?
275
00:17:43.691 --> 00:17:44.610
(laughter)
276
00:17:44.610 --> 00:17:46.955
And then the Catholics had us at St. Jude's.
277
00:17:46.955 --> 00:17:51.930
That was the day that they attacked us.
278
00:17:51.930 --> 00:17:54.030
There was a man here named John Collin
279
00:17:54.030 --> 00:17:56.609
who had a group of people.
280
00:17:56.609 --> 00:17:58.300
What was the name of his organization?
281
00:17:58.300 --> 00:18:00.913
Anyway, it was extremely racist.
282
00:18:00.913 --> 00:18:02.913
What was the name of it?
283
00:18:07.336 --> 00:18:11.910
Anyway, he came that day and took our names, and addresses
284
00:18:12.779 --> 00:18:15.873
and telephone numbers and got them
285
00:18:15.873 --> 00:18:18.794
all on a license to pay.
286
00:18:18.794 --> 00:18:22.694
Then he began a series of calling people up
287
00:18:22.694 --> 00:18:26.027
and annoying them, threatening them
288
00:18:27.350 --> 00:18:30.411
What did your husband say about you all women
289
00:18:30.411 --> 00:18:34.110
being in this situation? (laughs)
290
00:18:34.110 --> 00:18:36.018
Did they go along with this idea?
291
00:18:36.018 --> 00:18:39.733
Because certainly that was radical at such a time.
292
00:18:40.769 --> 00:18:43.767
(laughs) It's funny you say it was radical.
293
00:18:43.767 --> 00:18:46.544
At that time!
294
00:18:46.544 --> 00:18:50.627
Well my husband thought it was my idea.
295
00:18:51.814 --> 00:18:55.314
(inaudible)
296
00:18:57.800 --> 00:19:01.278
Okay, we are just about ready to go.
297
00:19:01.278 --> 00:19:03.742
Mrs. Carr, would you say a couple things
298
00:19:03.742 --> 00:19:07.048
so we can make sure of your sound.
299
00:19:07.048 --> 00:19:12.048
Ms. Virginia, how you feelin' this morning?
300
00:19:12.250 --> 00:19:13.306
Okay.
301
00:19:13.306 --> 00:19:15.438
That mic might be too low.
302
00:19:15.438 --> 00:19:19.180
I think it might have slipped.
303
00:19:26.070 --> 00:19:27.903
Apparently so.
304
00:19:31.580 --> 00:19:32.431
How's that?
305
00:19:32.431 --> 00:19:34.931
Testing one, two, three, four.
306
00:19:36.868 --> 00:19:39.084
Mic check one, two, three four
307
00:19:43.783 --> 00:19:46.952
That's gonna be low, I can tell
308
00:19:46.952 --> 00:19:48.749
by the way that mic is situated.
309
00:19:48.749 --> 00:19:49.832
Yeah.
310
00:19:53.709 --> 00:19:57.792
(group chatter)
311
00:20:05.460 --> 00:20:08.019
Mrs. Carr, are you from Montgomery?
312
00:20:08.019 --> 00:20:08.936
Originally?
313
00:20:13.132 --> 00:20:16.989
Mrs. Carr's a great friend of Mrs. (inaudible)
314
00:20:16.989 --> 00:20:21.317
they went to school together as young women, girls
315
00:20:21.317 --> 00:20:25.532
and they've been very close friends for years and years
316
00:20:25.532 --> 00:20:29.699
(inaudible)
317
00:21:01.861 --> 00:21:06.769
(inaudible)
318
00:21:10.198 --> 00:21:15.197
(inaudible)
319
00:21:16.860 --> 00:21:18.172
What's the matter?
320
00:21:18.172 --> 00:21:19.350
Well, we have just a little bit of a sound problem.
321
00:21:19.350 --> 00:21:20.700
Let me check one thing out.
322
00:21:22.760 --> 00:21:27.498
Test one, two, three.
323
00:21:37.478 --> 00:21:39.731
Not bad.
324
00:21:39.731 --> 00:21:43.981
Can you hear anything through the head set?
325
00:21:47.023 --> 00:21:48.400
One, two, three.
326
00:21:48.400 --> 00:21:50.740
There is a little hiss.
327
00:21:50.740 --> 00:21:52.957
Well we're gonna have to go with it.
328
00:21:52.957 --> 00:21:55.315
We don't know what's wrong.
329
00:21:56.183 --> 00:21:59.302
I'm gonna get my daughter (inaudible)
330
00:21:59.302 --> 00:22:00.681
(laughter)
331
00:22:00.681 --> 00:22:01.623
Okay, we're ready to go.
332
00:22:02.520 --> 00:22:04.588
Let me know when you get tired,
333
00:22:04.588 --> 00:22:06.265
and we can stop.
334
00:22:06.265 --> 00:22:10.856
Cause they are editing this so we don't...
335
00:22:12.648 --> 00:22:17.065
I just don't know how long it's gonna take.
336
00:22:21.480 --> 00:22:22.541
Okay, please.
337
00:22:22.541 --> 00:22:25.379
Well, you have to realize, and this is the last thing
338
00:22:25.379 --> 00:22:26.962
I'm gonna say. You have to realize
339
00:22:26.962 --> 00:22:31.730
That this is what makes T.V. very difficult.
340
00:22:31.730 --> 00:22:32.756
Absolutely.
341
00:22:32.756 --> 00:22:35.900
Because the thing is when she asks what you're
342
00:22:35.900 --> 00:22:37.680
saying or what you're doing-
343
00:22:37.680 --> 00:22:39.410
I've been on T.V. a number of times,
344
00:22:39.410 --> 00:22:41.710
and I've never known it yet not to break down.
345
00:22:42.790 --> 00:22:45.200
So you really do-
346
00:22:45.200 --> 00:22:47.398
It's just constant interruption.
347
00:22:47.398 --> 00:22:50.021
And you do feel, you know, that what you have to say
348
00:22:50.021 --> 00:22:52.829
is all rolled over the (inaudible)
349
00:22:52.829 --> 00:22:55.800
And trying to get the story.
350
00:22:55.800 --> 00:22:59.176
When the damn thing breaks down all the time!
351
00:22:59.176 --> 00:23:00.960
Ms. Dare, I've been in the business for 15 years,
352
00:23:00.960 --> 00:23:03.550
and I've had the exact same experiences you've had.
353
00:23:03.550 --> 00:23:05.630
I have not been anywhere where the machinery hasn't
354
00:23:05.630 --> 00:23:06.490
broken down.
355
00:23:06.490 --> 00:23:07.740
Why does it break down?
356
00:23:07.740 --> 00:23:10.460
Because you're dealing with 8,000 little tiny bitty
357
00:23:10.460 --> 00:23:12.850
parts that all have to work, you know?
358
00:23:12.850 --> 00:23:14.850
And writers have it relatively easy.
359
00:23:14.850 --> 00:23:16.810
They can take a pencil and an old piece of paper,
360
00:23:16.810 --> 00:23:19.103
and write down a thought.
361
00:23:19.103 --> 00:23:20.846
Well that's why I choose to write.
362
00:23:20.846 --> 00:23:23.010
(laughter)
363
00:23:23.010 --> 00:23:26.939
Well because... and this was a problem.
364
00:23:26.939 --> 00:23:29.502
When I went to Mississippi to (inaudible)
365
00:23:29.502 --> 00:23:31.890
You know, these people didn't know me
366
00:23:31.890 --> 00:23:33.610
I had to sit down with you for two hours
367
00:23:33.610 --> 00:23:36.528
and tell you what I did with my story.
368
00:23:36.528 --> 00:23:38.880
And I had to get to know people first before
369
00:23:38.880 --> 00:23:42.180
I was even able to talk to them.
370
00:23:44.310 --> 00:23:47.687
Well, we have been here now, you know nearly 45 minutes
371
00:23:47.687 --> 00:23:51.787
and we have had about 5 or 10 minutes of conversation
372
00:23:51.787 --> 00:23:55.820
Twenty. We've had twenty minutes of conversation.
373
00:23:55.820 --> 00:23:58.390
And actually 50 percent of the time being done on tape,
374
00:23:58.390 --> 00:24:00.153
it's not a bad ratio.
375
00:24:00.153 --> 00:24:01.734
So we're ready to go.
376
00:24:01.734 --> 00:24:02.592
(laughter)
377
00:24:02.592 --> 00:24:05.067
alright, we're rolling
378
00:24:07.488 --> 00:24:11.303
Why don't you, you were giving a talk about...
379
00:24:11.303 --> 00:24:12.810
I asked you about your husbands being
380
00:24:12.810 --> 00:24:15.675
supportive of your work
381
00:24:15.675 --> 00:24:19.184
about this inter-racial prayer group.
382
00:24:19.184 --> 00:24:21.020
In the first place, inter-racial prayer group...
383
00:24:21.020 --> 00:24:24.088
The fact that everybody took exception to it showed that
384
00:24:24.088 --> 00:24:28.669
They were absolutely madly racist because we were as
385
00:24:28.669 --> 00:24:32.800
respectable a group of women as you could find anywhere.
386
00:24:32.800 --> 00:24:36.340
In the wide world. We were all church-goers, we all believed
387
00:24:36.340 --> 00:24:41.098
in the Christian religion as far as I can remember.
388
00:24:42.620 --> 00:24:46.383
We opened with prayer and closed with prayer.
389
00:24:47.625 --> 00:24:51.356
And the thing was that I think we were carrying after
390
00:24:51.356 --> 00:24:54.930
the very best that women could do
391
00:24:54.930 --> 00:24:57.513
in the situation that we were in
392
00:24:57.513 --> 00:25:00.190
This was the one place we could meet together
393
00:25:00.190 --> 00:25:05.190
without being, you know, arrested
394
00:25:05.197 --> 00:25:07.887
taken to jail
395
00:25:07.887 --> 00:25:11.115
and you know it was so hard for you young people to realize
396
00:25:11.115 --> 00:25:14.056
That just being together in the same place could cause
397
00:25:14.056 --> 00:25:16.656
them to arrest you
398
00:25:17.606 --> 00:25:22.606
That's just awfully difficult for you to imagine
399
00:25:26.827 --> 00:25:29.000
You asked me if my husband
400
00:25:29.000 --> 00:25:31.209
went along with it.
401
00:25:31.209 --> 00:25:34.371
My husband had been supportive of all of the work
402
00:25:34.371 --> 00:25:36.692
that I had been doing, the civil rights work
403
00:25:36.692 --> 00:25:40.693
even before the movement started in 1955.
404
00:25:40.693 --> 00:25:43.876
Because Rosa Parks and I both worked with the NAACP
405
00:25:43.876 --> 00:25:46.884
of which Mr. Nixon at one time was the president
406
00:25:46.884 --> 00:25:49.317
And we worked together in the community
407
00:25:49.317 --> 00:25:54.250
So we had a relationship with each other, Rosa and I,
408
00:25:55.178 --> 00:25:59.577
and also my husband supported me, whatever I was doing
409
00:25:59.577 --> 00:26:01.859
with Civil Rights, all the time.
410
00:26:01.859 --> 00:26:03.290
So I had no problem with that.
411
00:26:03.290 --> 00:26:07.209
Two things I had in my favor: my job and my home.
412
00:26:07.209 --> 00:26:11.451
I worked for the Atlanta Life Insurance Company,
413
00:26:11.451 --> 00:26:15.618
and I had no problem with it agreeing with my job.
414
00:26:17.968 --> 00:26:21.720
'Course I had the support at home from my family.
415
00:26:21.720 --> 00:26:24.470
Okay, can you all talk a bit about the Freedom Riders?
416
00:26:24.470 --> 00:26:27.548
That first came into town in 1961
417
00:26:27.548 --> 00:26:30.421
How you (inaudible) going in
418
00:26:30.421 --> 00:26:33.170
What was your reaction?
419
00:26:33.170 --> 00:26:36.144
Well, we'd been hearing about 'em comin',
420
00:26:36.144 --> 00:26:38.350
and my husband had an office right across
421
00:26:38.350 --> 00:26:42.033
from the bus station, and there was this group of men
422
00:26:42.033 --> 00:26:44.146
that were hangin' around the station all the time,
423
00:26:44.146 --> 00:26:47.849
and everybody knew they were Ku Klux's.
424
00:26:47.849 --> 00:26:52.471
You know, uh, what did you call them?
425
00:26:52.471 --> 00:26:56.920
White Citizen's Councilmen.
426
00:26:56.920 --> 00:27:01.580
So we knew that the Ku Klux was comin',
427
00:27:01.580 --> 00:27:06.580
but the morning it came, I went down
428
00:27:06.677 --> 00:27:08.218
to pick up the mail
429
00:27:08.218 --> 00:27:10.895
and I had a friend with me, named Jessica (inaudible)
430
00:27:10.895 --> 00:27:15.369
who was a writer, (inaudible) is her novel
431
00:27:15.369 --> 00:27:20.190
and so we got to the office,
432
00:27:20.190 --> 00:27:22.883
and she went down out of the car and
433
00:27:22.883 --> 00:27:26.337
went into the bus station, because she saw there was a crowd
434
00:27:26.337 --> 00:27:28.479
and I was left with the car,
435
00:27:28.479 --> 00:27:32.745
so I finally parked it and went up to the office
436
00:27:32.745 --> 00:27:36.621
so I could see what was goin' on, and there was a riot.
437
00:27:36.621 --> 00:27:40.270
And the bus had come in and the people had gotten off
438
00:27:40.270 --> 00:27:43.878
and they were being beaten up, and it was just a terrible
439
00:27:43.878 --> 00:27:48.868
sight to see, and being hauled off, you know, in paddiwagons
440
00:27:51.395 --> 00:27:56.395
And then some of 'em being put in (inaudible)
441
00:27:59.460 --> 00:28:04.460
And then the next night, we drove by the, uh,
442
00:28:06.608 --> 00:28:11.001
Grace Baptist Church
443
00:28:11.001 --> 00:28:14.150
and they were having a Mass meeting, and that church
444
00:28:14.150 --> 00:28:17.475
was just surrounded by a mob.
445
00:28:18.402 --> 00:28:22.261
And Jessica (inaudible), the writer, said she was goin' in
446
00:28:22.261 --> 00:28:26.050
and we told her she'd be in trouble, but she went anyway.
447
00:28:26.050 --> 00:28:30.990
We took my car, and the car got banged up, and she got
448
00:28:30.990 --> 00:28:33.757
caught in that church 'til four o'clock the next morning,
449
00:28:33.757 --> 00:28:35.890
when the national guard got out
450
00:28:35.890 --> 00:28:38.006
and it was just a terrifying picture.
451
00:28:38.006 --> 00:28:39.630
Everybody was just terrified
452
00:28:39.630 --> 00:28:43.127
you were scared people were gonna be dead
453
00:28:43.127 --> 00:28:48.110
Because it was just a mob, and Dr. King came over.
454
00:28:48.110 --> 00:28:50.960
And he tried to, you know
455
00:28:50.960 --> 00:28:54.251
And then I do think that Bobby Kennedy said it was a mob.
456
00:28:59.966 --> 00:29:03.020
I can remember very well that
457
00:29:03.020 --> 00:29:06.243
it was on a Saturday, and we had gone to Tuskegee
458
00:29:06.243 --> 00:29:09.176
to take a group of boys out
459
00:29:09.176 --> 00:29:13.685
on the tour, and I was incidentally carrying my little
460
00:29:13.685 --> 00:29:16.994
small transistor radio with me
461
00:29:16.994 --> 00:29:20.644
and I put the radio on and we heard all this commotion from
462
00:29:20.644 --> 00:29:25.644
the police, saying "move over, move over. Cross over."
463
00:29:26.053 --> 00:29:29.486
We got around the radio and began to listen
464
00:29:29.486 --> 00:29:31.528
and that was when we heard them saying that there were
465
00:29:31.528 --> 00:29:35.994
people being beaten, the ambulances couldn't get in
466
00:29:37.256 --> 00:29:39.868
But we were in Tuskegee with these children
467
00:29:39.868 --> 00:29:42.761
And we came home, and that night, they had a meeting
468
00:29:42.761 --> 00:29:45.567
At one of the churches, the organizers were getting ready
469
00:29:45.567 --> 00:29:48.915
for a mass meeting on Sunday night and a lot of people
470
00:29:48.915 --> 00:29:53.340
were afraid to go out over there with all this commotion
471
00:29:53.340 --> 00:29:57.581
At the bus station. But incidentally enough (inaudible)
472
00:29:59.379 --> 00:30:02.404
I went to find out what was going on, and they were getting
473
00:30:02.404 --> 00:30:05.284
ready to have this mass meeting at First Baptist Church
474
00:30:05.284 --> 00:30:07.484
That Sunday night.
475
00:30:07.484 --> 00:30:11.130
That Sunday night, when we went down to the church,
476
00:30:11.130 --> 00:30:14.020
I never got in the church, because I got within a block
477
00:30:14.020 --> 00:30:17.180
of the church, and it was so crowded.
478
00:30:17.180 --> 00:30:19.639
But later my husband was sitting on the porch,
479
00:30:19.639 --> 00:30:22.228
and he said, "You cannot get in that church,"
480
00:30:22.228 --> 00:30:23.454
and I said, "I bet I will."
481
00:30:23.454 --> 00:30:26.410
But I had two persons with me, and they weren't ready
482
00:30:26.410 --> 00:30:27.935
to go on, so we stopped at their house.
483
00:30:27.935 --> 00:30:31.533
I saw Mrs. Durr's car when it was being robbed.
484
00:30:32.620 --> 00:30:34.760
The guys got on the car and rocked the car,
485
00:30:34.760 --> 00:30:37.210
and flipped it over, and the gas started running out.
486
00:30:37.210 --> 00:30:38.960
It was a mess.
487
00:30:38.960 --> 00:30:41.456
We were looking at that when it happened, right down
488
00:30:41.456 --> 00:30:43.180
on the corner from the house where we were.
489
00:30:43.180 --> 00:30:46.399
We stayed at this house until about 12 o'clock that night,
490
00:30:46.399 --> 00:30:49.152
because we couldn't get down to the church.
491
00:30:49.152 --> 00:30:53.402
And these people in the streets were a mob.
492
00:30:53.402 --> 00:30:55.542
And that was the first time I had ever really seen a mob.
493
00:30:55.542 --> 00:30:57.794
People were running up and down the streets,
494
00:30:57.794 --> 00:31:00.381
and there was one white girl with long hair
495
00:31:00.381 --> 00:31:02.022
like a horse mane
496
00:31:02.022 --> 00:31:04.820
and she just kept doing a cat call.
497
00:31:04.820 --> 00:31:07.386
That was all she would do was keep doin' a cat call.
498
00:31:07.386 --> 00:31:10.843
But we stayed and watched inside this house where we were
499
00:31:10.843 --> 00:31:13.101
The commotion that was going on
500
00:31:13.101 --> 00:31:15.917
So when those trucks went down, with those marshalls
501
00:31:15.917 --> 00:31:18.034
and it kind of quieted down
502
00:31:18.034 --> 00:31:22.150
I told my husband and my nephew, I said, "We're going home."
503
00:31:22.150 --> 00:31:26.420
I said let's walk right on out, go close together,
504
00:31:26.420 --> 00:31:28.094
and don't stop.
505
00:31:28.094 --> 00:31:30.165
Get to the car and we're going home, and we did.
506
00:31:30.165 --> 00:31:32.055
We got home about one o'clock,
507
00:31:32.055 --> 00:31:34.175
but the people stayed in First Baptist Church
508
00:31:34.175 --> 00:31:36.732
all night that night, til about 4 o'clock that morning
509
00:31:36.732 --> 00:31:38.848
Before they were allowed to go home
510
00:31:38.848 --> 00:31:40.275
That was when they called out
511
00:31:40.275 --> 00:31:41.108
the National Guard.
512
00:31:41.108 --> 00:31:42.322
Right, uh-huh.
513
00:31:42.322 --> 00:31:43.411
And they had the National Guard
514
00:31:43.411 --> 00:31:46.566
and the Marshalls were there. To help people
515
00:31:46.566 --> 00:31:49.351
Because what the city was doing, was nothing.
516
00:31:49.351 --> 00:31:52.176
And so the National Guard had to come out
517
00:31:52.176 --> 00:31:55.044
I guess because (inaudible)
518
00:31:55.044 --> 00:31:57.787
But because of the leaders that were down in the church
519
00:31:57.787 --> 00:32:01.056
And they had communications with national leadership
520
00:32:01.056 --> 00:32:05.454
and that was what helped to get things (inaudible)
521
00:32:05.454 --> 00:32:08.180
And the days after then, Ralph Abernathy, who lived
522
00:32:08.180 --> 00:32:11.921
right down the street from me, on Hall St.
523
00:32:11.921 --> 00:32:14.513
And the days after then
524
00:32:14.513 --> 00:32:17.663
They were stationed around his house, to protect his house.
525
00:32:17.663 --> 00:32:20.596
It was just really something else
526
00:32:21.901 --> 00:32:26.015
We knew about the bus, I mean her car being burned
527
00:32:26.015 --> 00:32:30.267
and abut the people that were beaten at the bus station.
528
00:32:30.267 --> 00:32:32.633
Talk a bit about your personal involvement
529
00:32:32.633 --> 00:32:34.170
in the movement, okay,
530
00:32:34.170 --> 00:32:36.345
what roles you both personally played?
531
00:32:36.345 --> 00:32:38.240
Certainly (inaudible)
532
00:32:38.240 --> 00:32:42.291
To participate in the Civil Rights Movement,
533
00:32:42.291 --> 00:32:47.199
meant almost being judged as a pariah among (inaudible)
534
00:32:47.199 --> 00:32:48.897
can you tell us about that?
535
00:32:48.897 --> 00:32:50.555
Well you see, you gotta understand that my husband
536
00:32:50.555 --> 00:32:53.957
was a lawyer, and I was his secretary.
537
00:32:53.957 --> 00:32:57.812
And he was always the one that did the big doings
538
00:32:57.812 --> 00:33:02.707
He had all these people came to him as a lawyer
539
00:33:02.707 --> 00:33:07.025
and his clients, and his nephew's name was (inaudible)
540
00:33:07.025 --> 00:33:10.148
had begun taking Black clients
541
00:33:10.148 --> 00:33:15.116
Civil Rights cases, and then when my husband
542
00:33:15.116 --> 00:33:18.390
who was in the same office as (inaudible) he began
543
00:33:18.390 --> 00:33:23.390
to inherit, and Mr. Nixon who was the head of the NAACP
544
00:33:23.411 --> 00:33:26.330
was always bringing clients
545
00:33:26.330 --> 00:33:31.320
And there were always cases my husband
546
00:33:31.320 --> 00:33:35.928
thought were, you know, were really daring.
547
00:33:38.301 --> 00:33:41.170
And I look back on my life, and always feel that what he did
548
00:33:41.170 --> 00:33:45.940
He's the one that got Ms. Parks out of jail and he's the one
549
00:33:45.940 --> 00:33:50.940
and he's the one that Mr. Nixon made
550
00:33:51.010 --> 00:33:54.961
put up the bail money, who's dead now.
551
00:33:54.961 --> 00:33:57.503
He put up the bail money, but my husband
552
00:33:57.503 --> 00:33:59.920
did all the legal work to get them out of the jail
553
00:33:59.920 --> 00:34:02.590
That was the night we took 'em home, and that was the night
554
00:34:02.590 --> 00:34:05.080
that she decided she was going to carry
555
00:34:05.080 --> 00:34:08.070
the case on through the Supreme Court.
556
00:34:08.942 --> 00:34:13.285
And then that meant that Fred Gray who was the lawyer
557
00:34:13.285 --> 00:34:17.719
for the NAACP took the case over because the law...
558
00:34:17.719 --> 00:34:22.719
because the NAACP had to, you know, pay the bills
559
00:34:23.184 --> 00:34:26.176
and carry the case on through.
560
00:34:26.176 --> 00:34:28.926
But my husband worked with him.
561
00:34:33.860 --> 00:34:38.860
You know it was (inaudible)
562
00:34:38.884 --> 00:34:43.884
I told you before, I had gone all through this in Washington
563
00:34:44.165 --> 00:34:47.927
I'd gone through the whole struggle in Washington before
564
00:34:47.927 --> 00:34:50.360
and so the one in Alabama
565
00:34:50.360 --> 00:34:53.792
didn't have the support we had in Washingtn
566
00:34:53.792 --> 00:34:56.142
But by that time I was thoroughly convinced
567
00:34:57.322 --> 00:35:00.363
that, you know, we were right.
568
00:35:02.965 --> 00:35:05.534
I spent 20 years in Washington, and I certainly
569
00:35:05.534 --> 00:35:10.024
learned that segregation was wrong.
570
00:35:10.024 --> 00:35:12.620
People had the right to vote.
571
00:35:12.620 --> 00:35:15.018
(laughter)
572
00:35:15.018 --> 00:35:17.423
She's a revolutionary.
573
00:35:17.423 --> 00:35:21.165
For thinking people had a right to vote and
574
00:35:21.165 --> 00:35:25.465
shouldn't be segregated
575
00:35:26.719 --> 00:35:30.260
Segregation in the South was so blatant
576
00:35:30.260 --> 00:35:32.510
If you know what I mean
577
00:35:35.080 --> 00:35:40.080
If you were a librarian as a Black person in the South
578
00:35:40.429 --> 00:35:44.788
(inaudible) very difficult
579
00:35:44.788 --> 00:35:48.030
And I had a friend who was a librarian.
580
00:35:48.030 --> 00:35:50.024
And, now they did take after her
581
00:35:50.024 --> 00:35:53.943
She got so upset, she committed suicide
582
00:35:53.943 --> 00:35:58.932
(inaudible)
583
00:35:58.932 --> 00:36:01.523
But she got harassed a lot
584
00:36:01.523 --> 00:36:03.323
Tell us about your personal involvement.
585
00:36:03.323 --> 00:36:05.875
My personal involvement in the movement
586
00:36:05.875 --> 00:36:08.472
began when the movement first started.
587
00:36:08.472 --> 00:36:12.452
When Rosa Parks was arrested on December 1st, 1955
588
00:36:12.452 --> 00:36:16.089
That night Mr. Nixon called me
589
00:36:16.089 --> 00:36:17.951
'course we had been working together,
590
00:36:17.951 --> 00:36:20.910
and he said to me, "Mrs. Carr"
591
00:36:20.910 --> 00:36:23.077
he said, "they have arrested the wrong woman."
592
00:36:23.077 --> 00:36:24.612
I said, "Who have they arrested now?"
593
00:36:24.612 --> 00:36:27.452
He said, "Rosa."
I said, "Not Rosa Parks?"
594
00:36:27.452 --> 00:36:29.744
He said yes they had arrested Rosa Parks.
595
00:36:29.744 --> 00:36:32.665
And he told me he had been and got her out of jail that day
596
00:36:32.665 --> 00:36:34.537
He said, "I don't know what the end result's gonna be
597
00:36:34.537 --> 00:36:37.138
but they have arrested the wrong woman."
598
00:36:37.138 --> 00:36:39.905
And that was the end of our conversation.
599
00:36:39.905 --> 00:36:42.190
And on Saturday, when they were getting organized
600
00:36:42.190 --> 00:36:44.782
to have the mass meeting that was
601
00:36:44.782 --> 00:36:47.672
gonna be held that Monday night, they had some of those
602
00:36:47.672 --> 00:36:50.490
scrips of paper where they had made the announcements
603
00:36:50.490 --> 00:36:53.063
that they wanted to put out in the community.
604
00:36:53.063 --> 00:36:56.107
And I was called and asked to help distribute those.
605
00:36:58.377 --> 00:37:01.285
I was not able to do that because I had
606
00:37:01.285 --> 00:37:04.598
to go to Birmingham for a board meeting.
607
00:37:05.957 --> 00:37:08.197
And I could not help them do it.
608
00:37:08.197 --> 00:37:11.794
But I did organize my section, and had some other
609
00:37:11.794 --> 00:37:14.793
persons participate and put those things out.
610
00:37:14.793 --> 00:37:19.788
Little pieces of paper, the little announcements that we had
611
00:37:21.330 --> 00:37:23.792
And I've heard so many versions of this but
612
00:37:23.792 --> 00:37:26.570
(inaudible) related
613
00:37:26.570 --> 00:37:29.402
One said that a black woman got one and carried
614
00:37:29.402 --> 00:37:31.718
it to the lady that she worked with.
615
00:37:31.718 --> 00:37:34.126
And she notified the official that
616
00:37:34.126 --> 00:37:36.068
the Blacks were fixing have an uprising
617
00:37:36.068 --> 00:37:39.597
And some said that Mr. Nixon got a person who worked at
618
00:37:39.597 --> 00:37:42.513
the chamber (cross talk) and told him about it
619
00:37:42.513 --> 00:37:44.430
And he was the one that-
620
00:37:44.430 --> 00:37:48.724
But anyway, whatever happened, the paper that Sunday
621
00:37:48.724 --> 00:37:52.023
had a big spread about the Blacks that were going to
622
00:37:52.023 --> 00:37:55.546
have this uprising and boycott and whatever
623
00:37:55.546 --> 00:37:58.522
So then the ministers in the pulpit on Sunday
624
00:37:58.522 --> 00:38:02.120
told us to go announce that we had
625
00:38:02.120 --> 00:38:03.357
plus a spread in the paper
626
00:38:03.357 --> 00:38:06.107
and it was on the radio and T.V.,
627
00:38:07.122 --> 00:38:10.150
but in spite of all of that, that Monday morning,
628
00:38:10.150 --> 00:38:13.447
when we were asked to stay off the bus,
629
00:38:13.447 --> 00:38:17.330
the city officials put two policemen behind each bus
630
00:38:17.330 --> 00:38:19.504
that went on the run that morning
631
00:38:19.504 --> 00:38:21.753
cause they said "goons," or Blacks
632
00:38:21.753 --> 00:38:23.791
are gonna get people off the bus
633
00:38:23.791 --> 00:38:27.174
and we had no idea of doing anything like that
634
00:38:27.174 --> 00:38:29.380
But that's what they said. so those who didn't get
635
00:38:29.380 --> 00:38:32.010
the announcement or go to church, didn't hear the radio
636
00:38:32.010 --> 00:38:34.947
or see the newspaper, when they saw those two policemen
637
00:38:34.947 --> 00:38:37.783
behind those buses, they didn't ride the bus.
638
00:38:39.139 --> 00:38:42.718
It made it almost 100 percent effective, because people,
639
00:38:42.718 --> 00:38:45.176
who didn't get any of the announcements, when they saw
640
00:38:45.176 --> 00:38:47.307
those policemen, they knew there was something wrong
641
00:38:47.307 --> 00:38:50.555
and they did not ride the bus, so that December 5th
642
00:38:50.555 --> 00:38:53.971
When we were asked to stay off the buses
643
00:38:56.246 --> 00:38:58.404
We found that it was really successful
644
00:38:58.404 --> 00:39:01.082
Because the buses ran empty all day that day.
645
00:39:01.082 --> 00:39:03.524
And then that night we had a mass meeting
646
00:39:03.524 --> 00:39:06.649
and of course I was asked to serve in several committees
647
00:39:06.649 --> 00:39:10.240
on the movement, because of being a person in the community
648
00:39:10.240 --> 00:39:12.540
as I said, working for Atlanta Life Insurance
649
00:39:12.540 --> 00:39:14.490
free to do as I please as far
650
00:39:14.490 --> 00:39:17.082
as my job is concerned, and having support from my family,
651
00:39:17.082 --> 00:39:21.130
I was not afraid to participate in what was going on,
652
00:39:21.130 --> 00:39:23.644
and certainly I was involved in it.
653
00:39:23.644 --> 00:39:26.462
In doing the process of the movement,
654
00:39:26.462 --> 00:39:30.586
there were groups in different cities who wanted people
655
00:39:30.586 --> 00:39:33.936
from the movement to come and appear to tell the story.
656
00:39:35.014 --> 00:39:38.262
And I remember I had three engagements that I filled
657
00:39:38.262 --> 00:39:41.387
for that (inaudible)
658
00:39:44.873 --> 00:39:47.741
I went to speak to the NAACP state meeting.
659
00:39:47.741 --> 00:39:50.578
And the next one I went was to Chicago, Illinois.
660
00:39:50.578 --> 00:39:52.644
The Illinois Women's State Convention
661
00:39:52.644 --> 00:39:55.205
was having their meeting and I went there.
662
00:39:55.205 --> 00:39:57.371
And the next one was in Newark, New Jersey.
663
00:39:57.371 --> 00:40:00.537
The Council of Negro Women was having their original meeting
664
00:40:00.537 --> 00:40:02.476
and I was asked to go there and speak
665
00:40:02.476 --> 00:40:05.108
And as we went to these various places to speak
666
00:40:05.108 --> 00:40:07.520
They would send contributions back to help our movement here
667
00:40:07.520 --> 00:40:11.795
And I was able to participate in going to some of the places
668
00:40:13.056 --> 00:40:16.066
Rosa went to some, Dr. King, Dr. Abernathy
669
00:40:16.066 --> 00:40:20.241
well many of the leaders went to some of those places too
670
00:40:20.241 --> 00:40:23.363
To help tell the story and also to bring funds back
671
00:40:23.363 --> 00:40:25.461
To help the organization
672
00:40:25.461 --> 00:40:28.631
So I was involved in it from the very inception
673
00:40:28.631 --> 00:40:32.397
And I had been involved in the community with the NAACP
674
00:40:34.239 --> 00:40:35.072
What was the Women's Political Council?
675
00:40:35.072 --> 00:40:38.093
The Women's Political Council grew out of the fact that
676
00:40:38.093 --> 00:40:40.629
we have a League of Women Voters here
677
00:40:40.629 --> 00:40:43.545
The League of Women Voters did not accept black women
678
00:40:43.545 --> 00:40:45.887
in their organization.
679
00:40:47.545 --> 00:40:51.430
Mrs. Robinson and Mary Fair Burks and some other women,
680
00:40:51.430 --> 00:40:53.795
when they found that we could not join
681
00:40:53.795 --> 00:40:55.786
the League of Women Voters here, locally,
682
00:40:55.786 --> 00:40:58.192
they applied to the national that we would have
683
00:40:58.192 --> 00:41:01.187
a Negro League of Women Voters for the Blacks
684
00:41:01.187 --> 00:41:05.126
But they said they could not have two in the same city,
685
00:41:05.126 --> 00:41:09.003
and so that's how the political council of women
686
00:41:09.003 --> 00:41:11.442
or, Women's Political Council got organized.
687
00:41:11.442 --> 00:41:15.038
They decided to have a political organization of black women
688
00:41:15.038 --> 00:41:17.454
And this is what we were doing
689
00:41:25.901 --> 00:41:30.618
Well you know that the Women's Political Council
690
00:41:31.742 --> 00:41:36.262
I was called over to New Orleans, you know, by Jim Eastland
691
00:41:36.262 --> 00:41:39.029
And accused of trying to overthrow the government
692
00:41:39.029 --> 00:41:40.912
by force and violence
693
00:41:43.228 --> 00:41:45.727
So I got a Pell Grant
694
00:41:45.727 --> 00:41:49.610
They said, "Hooray, we'll call you," you know
695
00:41:53.000 --> 00:41:55.025
"We'll stand by you."
696
00:41:55.025 --> 00:41:57.050
Women's Political Council.
697
00:41:59.759 --> 00:42:03.315
And I got home, they invited me to a meeting, and I said,
698
00:42:03.315 --> 00:42:07.040
"Why did you have them send me a telegram?"
699
00:42:07.040 --> 00:42:09.491
They said, "Jim Eastland's against you,
700
00:42:09.491 --> 00:42:12.041
we figured you were OK."
701
00:42:12.041 --> 00:42:13.970
(laughter)
702
00:42:13.970 --> 00:42:16.514
Why would Jim Eastland say that
703
00:42:16.514 --> 00:42:18.557
you tried to overthrow the government?
704
00:42:20.360 --> 00:42:22.835
Well he said that about everybody that
705
00:42:22.835 --> 00:42:27.821
was trying to do away with segregation, and get the vote
706
00:42:27.821 --> 00:42:32.454
because he claimed it meant you were a Communist
707
00:42:32.454 --> 00:42:35.412
and you were trying to have a revolution
708
00:42:35.412 --> 00:42:37.930
to overthrow the government by force of violence
709
00:42:37.930 --> 00:42:41.263
And he thought everbody was trying to...
710
00:42:41.263 --> 00:42:43.646
Fannie Lou Hamer, you know who she was
711
00:42:43.646 --> 00:42:48.274
She was on his plantation, and she finally had to leave.
712
00:42:49.297 --> 00:42:51.410
But he was probably one of the most racist men
713
00:42:51.410 --> 00:42:54.307
in the South, wouldn't you say so?
714
00:42:55.433 --> 00:42:58.541
(inaudible)
715
00:43:08.004 --> 00:43:11.875
He just built a statue, a monument
716
00:43:11.875 --> 00:43:15.283
(inaudible) himself and his brothers.
717
00:43:20.712 --> 00:43:25.706
The thing that was (inaudible) about the women is
718
00:43:25.706 --> 00:43:30.247
that there was a very natural
719
00:43:30.247 --> 00:43:34.130
group of black women in Montgomery
720
00:43:34.130 --> 00:43:36.731
who were already leaders like
721
00:43:36.731 --> 00:43:41.731
(inaudible) and Jo Ann Robinson
722
00:43:41.829 --> 00:43:46.828
and the thing is that they had leaders in their churches
723
00:43:46.828 --> 00:43:50.686
(inaudible)
724
00:43:50.686 --> 00:43:55.149
but there was a very large group in Montgomery already
725
00:43:55.149 --> 00:43:59.698
of women who were already leaders
726
00:44:01.428 --> 00:44:05.403
And so the thing is that the whole thing with the women
727
00:44:05.403 --> 00:44:08.744
they were just such wonderful and remarkable leaders
728
00:44:08.744 --> 00:44:13.635
And the women that worked as maids over in the white homes
729
00:44:14.970 --> 00:44:19.970
they were so remarkable, because they would walk to work
730
00:44:20.472 --> 00:44:25.249
And they would just show
731
00:44:25.249 --> 00:44:30.249
so much bravery and so much good sense.
732
00:44:31.260 --> 00:44:35.825
It was just marvelous, the control they showed.
733
00:44:39.676 --> 00:44:41.993
It was really a remarkable group of women.
734
00:44:43.112 --> 00:44:46.962
And Jo Ann has written about a few of them
735
00:44:46.962 --> 00:44:49.611
Jo Ann Robinson, but
736
00:44:49.611 --> 00:44:52.669
and Parks has been written about
737
00:44:52.669 --> 00:44:55.624
I just feel like there ought to be a whole book
738
00:44:55.624 --> 00:44:57.875
written about them.
739
00:44:59.042 --> 00:45:04.042
And I don't say that the men didn't help too, but I think
740
00:45:04.699 --> 00:45:09.640
that the women were the ones that won the battle.
741
00:45:12.456 --> 00:45:17.385
Well, I feel like (inaudible)
742
00:45:17.385 --> 00:45:22.164
during the movement, in 1955, there was one time
743
00:45:22.164 --> 00:45:26.829
that we found that all people came together.
744
00:45:26.829 --> 00:45:31.051
We had a lot of passion and we had a lot (inaudible)
745
00:45:31.051 --> 00:45:33.101
But we had people who had been afraid
746
00:45:33.101 --> 00:45:36.027
to come out and participate in anything
747
00:45:36.027 --> 00:45:38.633
but when this came about they just lost their fear
748
00:45:38.633 --> 00:45:41.866
or whatever it was and they came and got together
749
00:45:41.866 --> 00:45:45.777
and Dr. King used to say that we had youths, (inaudible)
750
00:45:47.406 --> 00:45:52.406
PhDs and Northerners all working together.
751
00:45:52.476 --> 00:45:56.826
And incidentally this week I was in the archives
752
00:45:56.826 --> 00:46:01.826
And I saw that (inaudible)
753
00:46:02.499 --> 00:46:06.407
where in eighteen sixty... sixty something
754
00:46:08.463 --> 00:46:12.380
that there were no women voting, only white men
755
00:46:13.738 --> 00:46:16.863
and they had to have a certain standard
756
00:46:16.863 --> 00:46:18.896
if they were able to vote
757
00:46:18.896 --> 00:46:20.997
And black men were able to vote at that time because
758
00:46:20.997 --> 00:46:24.428
if you remember, we did at one time have Black senators and
759
00:46:24.428 --> 00:46:27.873
representatives and that type of persons before they
760
00:46:27.873 --> 00:46:31.573
came along and set up the poll tax and all of the barriers
761
00:46:31.573 --> 00:46:35.519
that came up and destroyed their right to vote.
762
00:46:35.519 --> 00:46:37.860
And that's why we had to go back and fight so hard
763
00:46:37.860 --> 00:46:39.976
for the right to vote and that's why
764
00:46:39.976 --> 00:46:44.218
1965 was so significant
765
00:46:44.218 --> 00:46:46.468
That everybody was given the right to vote
766
00:46:46.468 --> 00:46:48.692
and the League of Women Voters here, I am a member
767
00:46:48.692 --> 00:46:52.521
And I work with the League of Women Voters here
768
00:46:52.521 --> 00:46:55.459
but at one time, we were not privileged to be members
769
00:46:55.459 --> 00:46:57.271
of the League of Women Voters
770
00:46:57.271 --> 00:46:59.973
And I don't ever let them forget it
771
00:46:59.973 --> 00:47:02.125
but I will continue to talk about what we have done,
772
00:47:02.125 --> 00:47:05.056
that we realize that we have come a long way,
773
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because now we have a black woman president.
774
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Of the local League of Women Voters