1965 SPECIAL REPORT: "THE SOUTHERN NEGRO"

foreign [Music] laughs [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] the legend of the antebellum sound elegant neo-grecian mansions coquettish bells under the magnolias dancing with young men gallant and reckless ready to duel for a lady's honor the kindly master ruling his kingdom with justice and humanity and served by his faithful contented darkest [Music] my name is ossie davis i was born in cargill georgia the south and the southern way of life has always been an enigma a kind of sphinx on the american land one writer said white people speak of their way of life with pride and affection but one white man from maryland h.l minkin wrote fundamentalism ku kluxery revivals lynchings oguala politics these are the things that always occur to a northerner when he thinks of the south what is the southern way of life is it based on the myth or the reality of the past did it have its life away at shiloh and gettysburg or does it still live for the 43 million whites and 11 million negroes who lived there today i love the south a man said in 1958 i don't choose to live anywhere else there's land there where man can raise cattle that's what i'm going to do someday there are lakes where man can sink a hook and fight the bass there's room there where my children can play and grow and get to be good citizens medgar evers a negro said that our program in the history of the negro people series deals with the life of the negro in the south in the past and in the present the past is never dead william faulkner wrote it is not even past this is oxford mississippi where the past is preserved in granite monuments that record a tragic and glorious history but in oxford the past lives beyond images etched in stone it survives in the memories and in the myths of its people yet oxford is an ambitious community facing the promise and the problems of the 20th century perhaps oxford can best be described by its mayor oxford consists of some fine people both colored in white it's town of about 6 000 people uh people that like to uh tend to their own business then they like to try to help in every way possible in civic affairs in church affairs and try to build a better community oxford is in my opinion is one of the finest little communities to raise a family we've been used to more or less a segregated life this is something that that our colored people here are adjusted to they are happy and they're well satisfied a lot of them depend largely upon the white and i would like to say this the the white people here uh depend largely on them for help and so on and they will go to their aid that's that's what colored people like they like uh someone that if they get in trouble or sickness that church should burn or something the white people here step in and they help them out and and the color people appreciate it there are 1600 negroes in oxford mostly unskilled there are a few jobs except as janitors cafeteria and yard workers [Music] in the negro quarter large families live in two and three rooms [Music] as in most southern communities negro women are the main support of the family working as maids wash women and nurses seventy-three percent of oxford's negroes receive some form of welfare relief at the mary bewie museum oxford's most celebrated citizen william faulkner is memorialized mary rowland is the custodian of the museum as faulkner described so vividly she shares with most white southerners a sense of intimacy with their negroes the fact that we have a good set of negroes here and they don't want to be disturbed they really are i have one that i just love she knows my children for about six years and i wouldn't have her want for a thing if i found out that she needed something and i was right amused when my um daughter from arlington virginia came down she was one of the children that missy had nursed and i got my son to drive us out to see missy and she had also nursed him and his little boy was in the car with us and when missy came out she said look at my children and she put our arm right around william's shoulder and the little boy just looked up at him you know he didn't know what to make of it and i said listen billy uh she's there was a mother to him for a while i'll tell you she helped nurse him and so that's the association we had with them and i presume there's still some good ones around of course there are some getting some ideas and that's all right that's progress but um we've got some mighty good doctors here progress in the south has always been measured by the donkey and by cotton [Music] first there was tobacco rice and indigo to be worked but by the end of the 18th century there was a severe depression slavery seemed doomed then in 1793 the invention of the cotton gin cotton could now be mass produced and an economic boom was in the making black hands and black backs were needed again to support a land who else could work so hard so long and so cheaply but there were dangers in the system slaves could run away or fight or kill and so black codes were established that declared slaves were not persons but property these chapels could not leave the plantation without authorization they could not visit the homes of whites or free negroes and for those who had the courage or the foolishness to defy the code there was the whipping post branding prison or death as the country moved toward war white men had established a moral system to meet their needs at the heart of it was a belief in the negro's natural inferiority slavery was declared not only an economic but a social good south carolina's governor said in all social systems there must be a class to do the menial duties to perform the drudgery of life such a class you must have or you would not have that other class which leads progress civilization and refinement [Music] and the north destroyed all this all the gentility and pride and honor that white southerners called a way of life more than 600 000 died in the war [Music] one quarter of a million southerners [Music] black men also fought and died of 186 000 negroes who enlisted in the union army 38 000 died [Music] the south lay devastated hell has laid her egg said a georgian visiting atlanta right here it hatched galveston a reporter said was a city of dogs and desolation utterly god forsaken [Music] uh after the civil war everybody in this country in the mississippi delta was bankrupt all the shadows were gone and cotton and whatever kind had been ginned stored was burned and this country was destitute and of course the slaves or freed uh negroes were just as destitute as a land owner and they were both in a pretty difficult situation four million negroes were free free under the federal reconstruction acts for the first time to own their own homes free to go to school free to vote and hold public office the first mixed jury in the south was empaneled for the trial of confederate president jefferson davis half of the jurors were negroes before 1901 22 negroes were elected to congress there were two negro senators from mississippi thirty-three-year-old blanche k bruce was one john mercer langston a negro abolitionist who became a representative from virginia bs pinchback acting governor of louisiana there was graft and corruption but during this time negroes were influential in passing bills for free public schools abolished property qualifications for voting and ended use of the whipping post and branding iron today these laws still exist for everyone but the negro i think the thing that reconstruction did was not as important as the fact that the the slave was now free and a place had to be found and the the number the sheer number you see of these untrained people well it was a tremendous problem a tremendous problem that has always haunted the south jobs for negroes negroes who were often stronger more capable for the work required a label is landless and homeless class lincoln called them caught in a hazy realm between bondage and freedom but in 1866 union general hatch said at issue in the south is not what shall be done with the negro but what shall be done with the whites they were the victims of poverty and poor land of malaria and hookworm about whom the negroes used to sing you can't make a living on sandy land i'd rather be a [ __ ] than a poor white man and to these whites there was horror at the specter of black supremacy blacks winning control and competing for what had been exclusively theirs lands homes and jobs birth of a nation a movie classic produced in 1915 dramatized what had now become the prevalent white attitude the fear of incompetent criminal and savage negroes who with federal bayonets ravaged an innocent south [Music] and so to save the south the ku klux klan organized in 1865 on horseback with guns sword and the cross they terrorized negroes and their sympathizers with violence arson and murder today though their techniques have progressed to air-conditioned limousines they're still active still dedicated to their faith that jesus christ was not a jew that the pope of rome is antichrist and the negro is a beast who must be suppressed to describe that bunch i'd have to use a whole lot stronger than i'm permitted to use being a minister of the gospel amen they go into the auditorium of the gymnasium for the uh perhaps the football game dance then comes along one of the [ __ ] football players and they all go piled in there together like that you are here tonight just like a bunch of who i sees and berkshire hugs all trying to loosen a lot together they go in there and they get to rubbing around smelling that vanilla flavor could you conceive the height of your fair-skinned daughter her dancing partner be tagged on the shoulder by some birdhead liver lip goat smelling a face [ __ ] [Applause] negros has been an eyewitness to the vigilante system of negro control at 14 he remembers the punishment of a negro father and son who had killed a white man's dog they took them and put them in jail and they beat them and then they got together on a saturday and they tied them with barbed wire hand and feet they put barbed wire around the neck and put the father on one side of the bumper and the negro and the sun on the other side of the bumper they drug them all over the uh town and uh after that they were drove through the neighborhood negro neighborhood they were told that this is the way that we're going to keep the [ __ ] in this place and they took gas gasoline and they poured it on them and they burned them up freedom and truth for former slaves required new definitions sheriff boyce bratton comments i feel that the negro here in lafayette county in mississippi has freedom all the freedom he wants he's not tied by any laws a man-made laws or made by congress or any other law-making body he has all the freedom that he wants the [ __ ] is not deprived of any uh freedom here in mississippi jim crow it was called beginning in 1870 signs went up all over the south separating the races and taking away the negro's newly won rights negros and whites were separated on trains and buses negros were bought from white hotels restaurants barber shops and theaters i've also also heard a number of times that the color and the white we're not equal on the law that's true the colored gets the break and the white man doesn't for instance two men one white and one colored breaks into a store here and all probability the colored men would get a very light sentence and the white men would get a heavy sentence but that's not equality under the law but it goes back to the thing that i said to start with that the white man of the south feels like it's actually his job to look after his colored citizens of the college citizens and they are not held accountable uh to the same stringent letter of the law that white man is that no amalgamation of races should be allowed in other words they did not commit in a marriage it was made death to maim or kill a horse or cow or a slave by 1885 separate schools with a new order at white and negro schools children using the same textbook learn the traditions of the past and absorb the values of the present in their history of mississippi textbook they read of life on a mississippi plantation the master and the mistress taught the negroes truthfulness and honesty as they taught their own children by not tempting them and by trusting them with negro slaves it seemed impossible for one of them to do a thing without the assistance of one or two others of course some kind of occupation had to be devised to keep them employed a part of the time but it was very laborious to find easy work for a large body of lazy and inefficient people and in their churches too white southerners sang and prayed to a god that to them decreed segregation well certainly i i believe in uh in segregation i have stated that uh that i have believed in i believe in it now and i always will believe in segregation first because god teaches it i think it's god's plan that the races be segregated we find a lot of scripture on it and of course reasons that i've just mentioned that i feel that their standards is not up to the white standard i'm not going to force somebody to go to church with me uh and that's what they're trying to do to the colored race that's what the outsiders is trying to do they're trying to come down you enforce them to go to our church i build a house i have a right to live in that house you don't have a right to come in and move in with me i build a church it may be this house of the lord but yet i maintain if i build it i have a right to say who and who will and who will not come in remember it's come by invitation only by invitation only became the right of negroes also as they found ways to live as free men in the south seek the salvation of our kindred and aquinas walk circumspectly if you just ah somebody knew it and if you're just in your dealing ah it'll soon be that folks will take your word but if you're unjust in your dealing with nobody nothing you say see what i mean in 1895 booker t washington declared in all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers yet one as the hand and all things essential to mutual progress by the end of the century segregation was complete the new south rose out of the ashes of the old and the good [ __ ] was the one who once again knew his place [Music] [Music] [Music] and but as as a rule they are a very happy people they uh large percent of them do not worry uh because they know that they're gonna be taken care of i've had a number a number of them to remark to me that uh well they know mr brown and mr jones mr smith's gonna take care of us they know that uh they know they're not going hungry and they're not going to need for clothes as long as they work and do halfway right they know that they're going to be taken care of so they have no worries white folks were so good to meet us when i got sick and able to work to just come in and bring me something teeth clothed and everything fed me clothed me and i had a house full of chillin and it said my chillin yes sir been workin all of my life and the whites will crave man mister i tell you truth i don't know what in the world i do without white folk now that's the truth and misters i'm just a white folks [ __ ] i'm a [ __ ] and all of my children's in need and all this community in here of mississippi to recognize appreciate it and work for the white folk he's not the [ __ ] is not a part of my family as a result i don't elect to have him sitting eat with me as a result i don't elect to have him belong to a club that i may belong to i i don't elect for judge obama as for most southern whites out of the past has come a philosophy he calls the southern way of life the negro and his place is at the heart of it this is the way it has been it's the history of the south is because we've been brought up like this we have been taught like this and we teach our children like this and they'll teach their children like that i think it is a matter that has been history all down through the years and will remain in history well i guess it's just plain boring in us instilled in us um there in spite of the fact that you have great respect for some negro individuals respect them as people and not just as a servant there is some physical reversion i think it's the the skin is dark and i guess it's just something that we are so uh familiar with it it's just impossible really though coming for 11 million negroes in the south there is also a southern way of life but rarely have they been asked for their interpretation well uh the white man feels this that if the negro get equal education that he will be out of his reach for to do the job that he he had for held on for him and he figured that he was going to have to pay the negro he could say already that he would have to pay the other boy which actually is not the skin of the negro that the white man dreads is that negro is going to demand the dollar that the white man demands uh the southern way of life for the uh negro woman means that uh she is addressed all the time by her first name or she's called andy or she's called girl by the uh other race and the southern way of life often means that our children wear some of the things that have been uh given by others now a lot of times these are good things and they are highly appreciated and the southern way of life means that you can uh purchase food from a side entrance or a back entrance or you can get someone to fix something for you to carry out the southern way of life means that you are to say uh yes ma'am and uh yes sir no ma'am and no sir sometimes that's expected even down to the uh teenagers in order to segregate the negro we essentially must segregate ourselves you see you cannot enslave if you want to use that word or hold down or discriminate against someone else without in turn having the same thing happen to yourself uh the changes that will happen uh as they go along uh will release us free us if you will so that we can have a much broader perspective on human responsibility and human dignity and human rights whereas before we thought in terms of white only we will be able to think in terms of all of all men we live in hope uh we have faith to believe that uh the good thing that we hope for as human being and as god's children will finally come to pass uh that's a part of my christian life here in the way of life here in the south oh as we moved into the 20th century for the older generation of negroes there was often only patience and faith and a better future but in the middle of the 20th century for the younger negroes something else was stirring something that would change the south and the southern way of life something that was a long time are coming and was too explosive to contain touch me touch me lord i want to be home [Music] [Music] touch me touch me oh [Applause] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] have rolled away but we'll understand [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] i have never been belonged to anything as serious as this and i want to tell you i when when i made this step i call it taking a giant step the things that we do in the street that's in the street but what we do here is something like a person treasure locked up in a boat it's here to stay person here bow down on both knees his left hand face in the bible and his right hand up to god i know who want to be first name look mr jackson you're on just like that repeat after me i'll do solomon swear that i will not i will not reveal or invade or invade any any are these are these are above secret secrets within john fisher was interested in organizing an organization for the protection of negro people i will and um he invited me to his first meeting and we had we met we took oats the swallowing swole that we would uh give our lives to the organization and nothing ever happened he promised it would be more meetings next week the next two days but never another meaning it was just a complete nothing was done [Music] my wreath all i wants my money i will be back tomorrow or this evening all right if you want i mean you know and nursing right there ain't nothing over there you're stealing like a dog when you're always sitting down i'm not gonna work on that money hey he's straight wait a minute listen i'm not telling you you you are you didn't hire me and listen get off of me here i am oh i ain't following stuff this morning don't argue with me don't sign unto me because you didn't hire me you understand me now don't get me wrong sorry but i ain't doing it right here you didn't hire me i said this every day foreign [Music] down wow [Music] uh [Music] [Music] there are men in natchez there are women in natchez and there are children in natchez if the children can walk the line you can protect them [Applause] i want to ask of them i want every man in here [Music] all i want to say is every man in here with idle time if you can't walk the picket line from tomorrow won't you come by sit on the side somewhere and see what's happening so that when if some of those people come up to hurt some of your children your heart will be right and i want to see every man who stood up and said he was a man action the average guy would say now if i'm on that picket nine and get shot dead they would say in their mind they would go around and talk and say if he hadn't been on that line he wouldn't have gotten killed and that's a lie i could have been at home i still would have somebody one i'm like people people say one with one good [ __ ] that's a dead [ __ ] one good white man that's a dead a lot of white guys afraid just just like we are you know so i when i grab that sign to get on that picket line i couldn't say that i'm not afraid man i'm not afraid but i still still yeah i feel you know right there before i turn around that's right i got something enough to know man that uh you don't die until your time comes yeah we need people that if you see people around here who could go down and pick it on main street okay i'll show you i just have these little kids around 12 and 13 year old and they've been picking it all day and everybody's gone yeah and they're going to get a sunstroke if they keep on so i'm i'm going down oh these little kids little kids either 12 and 13 year olds you go up and give them my aims no i woke up there like i am i'm blown from last night man [Music] [Music] hey [Music] ever since the two civil rights project came to natchez nate rhodes would sit around and discuss how they want to fight for that freedom and how they're ready to die for it and soon as the man said okay man come on let's go up here and pick it and that's why everybody do all their dying right at this time man i sure wish i could come up there and help you out man hot dog i didn't know it was gonna be a picture today i gotta go to a film today nobody never dies until until there's gonna be a march of pickets you know but uh and it started me thinking that the negro was just fooling himself that he was still ready to do nothing yeah like man i was uh just about ready to give it up just about ready to turn around and all of a sudden boom here is a repeat of an earlier news bulletin from wnet george metcalf president of the natchez chapter of the naacp was critically injured in natchez this afternoon when dynamite hidden beneath the hood of his car exploded when he turned on the ignition the injured negro was rushed to jefferson davis memorial hospital where he was given emergency treatment officials at the hospital declined to comment on his condition metcalf has been active in the voter registration drive in natchez and has been a signer of a school immigration petition i mean they have something on what now one of them was you see the right side was a big knot over this one but the other one was swirling real bad and close too what would he be able to see i heard that there's a possibility you may not be able to see it well it's of course what got in it you know that america thinks that negroes and natchez are afraid as they've said many times we ain't here to let them know that we aren't afraid and this is cbs news and they wanted to let the world know that we're not afraid anymore it doesn't mean that we're going to surely turn mississippi into a blood vessel [Music] what's going to happen here well i'll tell you right now from the way all frankly all the negroes feel it feel like the thing is about to happen what it happened in california whatever that you called that happened in california a war race ride or whatever it is that's what's about to happen here who will start such a ride anybody he'll start it right now really is that the question thank you look how is yours looking i don't want to see it i don't want to because i i might go back out and start shooting up the nurses [Music] yeah nobody's going to do something i shoot up the nurses let me tell you something about a soldier what is happening is that the people are arming themselves true but tonight people just want to serve notice on the city that's all that's right that's all they want to do is serve notice and the protest is just that we're just going to let these people know we tithe and like mr ever say before we be a slave we'll be buried in our way go home to our lord and be free that's all look uh i i um i had this fella to go pick up me a dress you know my wide dress you know that big black green one i had him go pick it up because i i can't hardly make it in this little tight thing um we got to call him hello yes oh well this meeting is tonight at uh six o'clock uh over here at the how at the office and of course it's um it's a somewhat of a protest meeting well mr evans will be one person here and uh of course i think the city of natchez will be here i'm just about sure the negro community will be here because uh you know this is a bad time white man understand violence unless we meet down violent with violence we're not going to move anymore it's just going to be the civil rights movement going to take 100 years the quickest way in freedom is to meet violence with violence battling with violence black muslim we all are saddened tonight as we were saying today amen about this brutal attack upon our own i know all of us are angry and nobody's going tonight we all are tired of being mistreated and we know who responds for this and we must use the weapon that we are soon going to have to get rid of [Applause] now that weapon is very quiet please the weapons the most effective weapon will be you know is the vote we know that no yesterday keep them straight man even keep them safe keep them straight on their heads that's what i see yeah when you want to go out and get them that's you know what he's saying together we've got to stick together we've got to listen and be obedient and do what you're told this is most important now we cannot go off on no wild goose chase we can't be as ignorant as they have been [Applause] now i was just told that father marcy here has something to read the mayor and the board of aldermen have agreed at one o'clock tomorrow to have a meeting and uh to meet with representatives of the various elements of our community the purpose of this meeting is not merely to talk things over for the first time according to their promise the purpose of this meeting will be to actually form a permanent community biracial committee and the purpose of that committee will be to hear grievances to sit down and discuss grievances to look into what is wrong with our community and the justified complaints justifiable complaints of our negro citizens i guess the next day uh they selected the committee i really don't know about it but i had heard that the freedom democrat party kids and everest had some kind of fight and from the looks of the committee it was must have [Applause] [Music] no yes i will too yes i will is the reason why they will not talk to younger people because we don't like things but we are going to hold on man i think some ladies should be on because they've been out of town picketing when the men are sitting down and haven't been doing anything yeah suppose you put men on this thing all right should i say something when we go down there i can go out and tell that man i paid 216 dollars taxes and these thieves down here we are paying them to do a job and we're going to let them know we're paying them to do a job and we want it done these are local national citizens tax paying voting citizens then that gives the thing a little weight another thing i might add in my own mind anyway it just doesn't make sense in the space of 24 hours to uh try to recruit from the small group that we might have present today a permanent committee maybe i don't understand i think this committee here that we get we hope will be a permanent committee to represent if you until someone want to resign somebody they always add to a committee yeah i think you have a cross-section of everybody here across so you have everybody if you have a cross-sector of all you have labels you have businessmen you have ministers but there was a provision for adding to our committee and we find out uh before we go down how many because too many people talking at one time just won't make much happen what's going on now doesn't make sense that's right it really does know because these men all they are doing they're gonna be representing the different proposals that we're gonna make up now that's all they growing there for regards to who they are we're gonna make our proposal here now all right what are we gonna do i think we should tell what we want to go down and say that's right so now let's now start giving let's go answer too much let's ask for about eight or ten things we know we can get the thing that's most pressing now you got to be reasonable and important being unreasonable now let's ask let's ask the thing that we want and want some action on immediately first thing if it's possible to put on now that the mayor and the golden bottom denounce all radical organizations whether it's ku klux klan or any other radical organization [Music] uh police protection at our school police protection we got that yes i think one important area that we're forgetting and that's the equal distribution of tax funds and public funds the improvement of negro neighborhoods [Music] [Music] yes it is has the committee come back from the mayor's office yet well no it hasn't i see oh yes it has i see they're coming [Music] we don't know what has been accepted or rejected or what their reaction was yeah so the chairman hasn't come about the father got uncommitted good stuff he couldn't stop me he took it off he didn't take it over but we we all in our [Music] and uh on wednesday night we have another meeting and that to say they're going to work on every one of the questions on the list and we'll give a gift the complete answer and all that kind of thing and we had several close up with some of the older men afterward after the meeting and and i'm i'm i'm i'm of course i'm an optimist anyway but i'm very enthusiastic all of us everybody's here real good everybody in the main club they don't feel that's how you feel about the reception i don't know what the outcome was but it wasn't a hostile reception today we both point out they're going to do it so far as the mayor and all of it is concerned but they will not be able to direct people what to do with their privacy i know but so forth official from the mail board of all of them they said that's one of the things they're going to work on they said well i mean you know yeah but as long as they do it for it then other people follow them [Music] [Music] today [Music] he can't denounce the claim keep let things off your brains you probably can't become pressured and get you no pressure to get you you know i think that the men are going to have to give some more a little more consideration we did we see very honestly and you know what john it's these ladies miss people like mrs duncan mrs mcnealy mrs nazi mrs jackson these i don't know they weren't they didn't they didn't know about the meeting but they are the people who are really getting the job done around here no you got the message but it's not who gets the job that's the one who can represent nobody was being arrested out on the picking line and the men the ladies were the ones who fought off those dogs i think that would be so defensive about it not one it's naming one of them whose name is on the school desegregation thing not one of them walked out there on the picket line and over half of them never came and yet when it's time to go around to the city hall they can sit down there and make decisions how can they make decisions when they really don't know what's going on here is a repeat of an earlier news bulletin from wnat the mayor and board of aldermen of the city of natchez at a special meeting this afternoon has taken strong action to preserve peace and order in natchez by passing a resolution invoking a city-wide curfew effected at 10 pm each night until further notice beginning tonight no persons will be allowed on any public highway street or sidewalk within the city between 10 pm and 5 a.m with the exception of persons going directly from home to work or directly from work to home the only exceptions will be medical doctors and transits so no one's supposed to be on the street tonight except the clans yeah oh i'll bet i'll be willing to bet laura normally the deal that they all that their clan is having a meeting tonight yeah let's go back up to the museum see what's going on what the thing they should talk on the night and what are they gonna do if they don't give us anything i wanna get these things now we're gonna meet it we go as you said before i believe your applause okay that we're going to give our committee a chance we're going to give the city of natchez a chance to prove to us by wednesday that they mean business now if they're going to continue to give us the old run around as they have 100 years then we're gonna let them know thursday morning all right ever since the bomber and i have been warning fischer about another meeting because it's really needed now and uh he hadn't called another meeting so i figured that the best thing to do was to try to get something going so i met this guy that was familiar with the deacons for defense in louisiana and he said that i should've organized my own deacon right here in natchez local you know protection police is clean now that seems to be the uh okay this is the stronghold for the clan that's alex downing yeah i understand they got both plans here you know the uh grand dragons and the uh they live here man oh you look you knock down yourself you're working red balls we can organize our own dickens back yes you know the right steps to texting he says this man people all over everywhere i'm trying to he you know he doesn't even have time to get around to the people that are calling him man you know trying to get the scene the people in jackson man alabama even in new orleans man the guys in new orleans foreign and new orleans just like los angeles just like california man there's no segregation nowhere i know hey this city got suited up calls man yeah hmm fast cars man fast cars they got you know i didn't ask them but they said it fast man they got to be fair man fast forward catching them or keep catching and getting catching yeah the potential victim that they're going after and then getting away on say fancy now we gardeners plays you know someplace some guy comes by and shoot we got catching man shoot him that's just all to it man you don't have to shoot him to kill him now he says never shoot the kill at first now you you can move him you know like in the leg or shoot his tire stopping and you know put him in the leg taking right on down to police station man take him down you don't have to say that the police know first that they were going to take the law into their own hands in the negro community this is just for the defense so if [ __ ] isn't coming to the negro community just watching and that's it man you know you can't stop people from you know just drive on the did street ask me if you had to burn anybody man you know no i i don't mean i i don't mean to wound you know i mean really boring man really boring i didn't talk on killing i didn't even talk with nobody killing man i just talked about you know getting set up and i didn't talk about bunning cooking nah he didn't say anything about killing you know i think freedom deserves another round finally came the time when man was gonna give us his answer and i knew one way or the other we weren't going to have to wait in the long run freedom i want to set out nothing in my yard under my fig tree like others have done for a hundred years that's right it is a fact ends up god wants a man and his negroes need to leave we thank god to know foreign and i want the devil to know i'm not a friend no [Applause] at more time i bring to you reverend shea barwin we do not have any good news for you on the report i talked with one of the almonds this afternoon and he said they are still working on the proposals and which we taken down saturday and on tomorrow morning at ten o'clock the committees will go back and meet with the mayor and board of aldermen [Music] last week when we were ready to despair when we were ready to take up arms this man had a way of bringing peace to a chaotic town this man had a way of changing fear to the feeling of freedom the freedom that we're going to have with the help of all of you and with our leader here in mississippi the field secretary of the nhcp mr charles evans thank you very much madam chairman i am just as sad and disturbed as you are although i'm not disappointed [Music] because i never thought they were going to do right we waited we met and we've sang we've done everything we know to do we prayed and we're going to keep on praying and we'll sing we're going to keep on singing but we ain't march [Applause] i'll yet we wait too long but there's nothing we can do tonight but wait till tomorrow morning we haven't planned to do anything tomorrow morning anyway so all we're saying is we'll win it let's keep the pressure on let's keep pushing forward let's march like soldier with our chest out and our shoulders up and i was looking straight ahead and let nobody turn us around and nobody turns around the 650 national guard stood by in the zip the national guard units arrived in natchez at 6 30 this morning following last night's executive order issued by governor johnson the governor and his proclamation said there was imminent danger of a riot mobs unlawful assembly and breach of the peace the guard commander agent general walter johnson told newsmen at the national guard armory in matches this morning that the troops ordered into service last night by governor johnson were not in the city to supersede civil authority but to ensure law and order [Applause] [Music] when i got on the scene that morning the freedom democrat protocol was trying to get the people away from elvis and was trying to march to the courthouse right then and there i'm gonna read everything on here i'm not gonna say anything else but what's on here which was submitted by the people of natchez one week ago okay says the declaration of the negro citizens of natchez mississippi the united states the mayor rejected all the demands i have announced olympic right now the announcement is that the city of castle i just been told by ms dorey ladner has rejected every one of these for everybody's the man rejected everyone see everyone that you submitted they've been rejected they said no you don't count that's what they say they say you can demand and demand and demand but nothing's gonna happen because we're gonna reject them we're gonna keep the ku klux klan the headquarters right there and we're gonna bomb metcalf again and any other person who puts his mouth up now the question is do you think that these demands should be resubmitted today by way of a march to the city council okay the guys who tell you to wait until tomorrow and the next day and the next day i am willing to go today with you down to the city council to present this you don't want no violence the man [Applause] [Music] i don't know who's gonna says this march listen people listen mr emerald is on his way here now that is why he is on the call trying to get you stirred up just be patient a little longer and wait on mr everett [Applause] number one all i want you to do is just wait the committee just came in we don't know what the committee has said now i understand that we have i understand that we have some eager beavers here we want to lead people off down the street without an understanding now we are not in this just to go out and raise a whole lot of hell we're in this to be sane and something now those persons who will mislead you here will mislead you in a place else now all we've asked you to do and i'll make this crystal clear that this is an naacp project along with the community of natchez and we're not going to let none the rest of you come in here and take over our project can you understand that let's make that clear [Applause] i want to make that clear now if there are any you people who come in here just to stir up trouble hit the streets now you're so bad i'm going to do something go ahead on throw it off [Applause] [Music] meet with the committee and we'll come back down to you what we're going to do thank you very much [Music] contemplating marching to the white house cafe how are you doing not for the call to the white house cafe uh imagine how the the chief of police told them that they could block off pine street march to the white house but that's all you're going white house is in washington d.c they were talking about going to the one on east woodlawn but we're not going there if we go anywhere we go to the courthouse that's right [Applause] all right all right the moon was decreased uh uh some kind of a thing where people learn to use their own mind make their own judgment or to say what they think about things and now they're gonna start letting people higher than they are make decisions people up in society make decisions instead of the people make decisions and that's that's what's happening here you know mr edwards has made the decision again just like the white man doing it [Music] when he come he's coming when he say if he say let's go to the white house regardless of whether it's going to the white house go go meet anything they're going to the white house because charlie ever said so they're not making them doesn't mean anything to go to the courthouse it means something i mean uh to me that's right the majority you i don't approve of anybody from jackson anyplace else coming out here and mapping out the plans he has organized and mapped out every single meeting the people haven't had a chance to save him if they wanted to i predict that you do not mind and further further i predict that there will be a minor i'll as a matter of fact as a matter of fact if there are people who want to march and present it to the mayor i'll go down with you charles evans has not made a statement yet we are organized we know what we're going to do but we have to wait for a time to do it and uh they're down there tell them y'all come on let's go to courthouse for the nih you know charles evans is going to the white house [Music] is going to march to the white house and that they should go out and march to the courthouse and that is divine in the community and it's wrong and he's not here for any good and we can do without people like him we don't want nobody agitated we mean we for strictly business not no agitator that's right and we don't want no if we don't want no crack here following him now to make trouble we don't need nobody with a long beer looking like castro going around without a penny to pay going around here telling these kids to get put in jail he won't leave somebody lead all these dropouts back into school along with him and he'll be doing something [Music] [Music] i don't want a problem you got about 10 people who are black for every white person you have down there and they haven't come in any crime so you're still going to deal when you commit crimes or not some cats come up with the wrong stuff you know leaving about anywhere you know like if you can get a priest or wrong thing and be a ride right yeah man nah i'm not gonna say this i want you to say it though see whatever you want to say wait till [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] they go down and stretch their heads and they come back and say that we didn't get anything just like they gonna say when they come out here yeah watch [Music] [Music] at this time you're here now yeah we've come to give you a symbol of the report which at this time we cannot spell out to you all of the details we feel that we will have to be committed we have to study this report and then tell you at a later date right i feel secretary mr charles [Applause] thank you very much i guess you can look around you and see that we're not outnumbered on the ground we're abnormal ahead too the committee and the local leadership here along with myself and i'll make this clear feel that maybe the tension is too high and there's too much of a chance to risk wrestle bloodshed to ask you to march down the streets of natchez now i'm only going to give it to you like we feel [Applause] [Music] now i'm here to do whatever the local people want done with the local people as we said before and i'll make this crystal clear this is an naacp project we're not going to let no other organization come in and take over we're going to do it the way we want it done and everyone's [Applause] if anyone here who don't like the way we conduct our business and i've heard it's been said that we don't collect the way they want it done i want you to let you know you have my permission to go ahead on nobody's going to stop me but now since if we're going to pay the bail bond we're going to find your lawyers then we're going to tell you when they're marching harlem [Applause] all right hopefully we could have marched to the courthouse but i understand the quran is closed i still said that we didn't get what we wanted we didn't get anything amen we haven't lost the faith but the mayor said that he would meet with uh groups after the thing cooled off but we got the group ready to know that things ain't gonna never cool off until they get something done downtown but all we do keep praying the lord is able and i'm trusting him and he and he'll make the way for us that's right all we do stand us prayers and be right and are we not out there for no violence be for the right thing and let's look to the lord and we pray for this right now lord you take it in charge and fix it for all poor people down here well they're not going to get in the way organ among themselves and fighting among themselves bill ware got up and had something to say now he wasn't telling anybody to hit the streets now all he was saying is do you want to march and he was putting it to you he know that they want to march that's the reason they were here they thought they were gone tomorrow that's why do you think it was right for that other guy to get up and interrupt him like that did you think that was fine yes it was right because a lot of them was ready to go and didn't know what the hell they was going for now they came to the box yeah they came to mars but like i said it was a lot of kids they didn't know they were going to mars but they it's just like being in a parade to them you just contradicted yourself really yeah i want freedom i want freedom just as bad as anybody else you know huh did you want to march or didn't you yeah i want the marching when everybody else march i'm gonna march too just like she's but i beat them if i'm going down there by myself [Laughter] like she said though you got the weight you got the weight you got the weight you got [Music] no that's up to you but i'm gonna wait on it i'm wrong wait ain't nothing wrong with pride guys they got them here for the help the white folks and he'll fix it let's see if they start jumping on you the president of the united states can federalize them like it did in alabama well maybe we'll get that well how are you gonna get it maybe got somebody who's the leader they got field men's ain't it i mean you ain't no field man if that man has been yeah we wouldn't have no singing up here who would know that's been out you got to buy leads here that one here when we started here we wouldn't [Music] a change is going to come oh yeah all we gotta do is hide in the midnight hours i'm sick man i'm tired that's why i just went on and just hustled up the money let's say i'm just gonna do something man you know what man i'm tired of [ __ ] i'm gonna say [ __ ] man well that's what they are lying meeting you know gonna do this man you know and never do nothing just playing negroes the planning is people i was seeing boy we were playing too damn much man and never dudes nothing so i'm not playing on this song i'm just gonna go do do it on my own no man man i don't been to 135 meters and that's all i ever did was meet man did nothing else you know they talk the same thing all the time man you know it's probably good you know but i don't understand i don't see why people should meet all the time and do nothing okay i got out on my bender leaves man took a oath you know we met that night two months in the past now i'm in another meeting the next day we got five guys together that i thought i could trust and we had our first meeting i believe just like my new king everybody else i believe in non-violence you know i really do man i think nonviolent is the only way to solve the problem you know then i on the other hand i believe that our people should stop getting killed man like you know people dying by killing them like a lot of people would be in the movement man like business people if they had some protection we don't have to take it from the police so you know we're in one two three four things like this oldest night face was black brothers they didn't do nothing next thing this one i mean we did it yeah next thing was the deacons that we were just ending with some other guys they didn't do nothing and a few more things that was full of them do something so it's no need man like i'm just saying man no need to start this yet don't go on through all this yeah we're not gonna do something simple uh can i say something now i have heard about those sort of things that the swordsman going on and all this man it's no use in trying to start something if we're not going to do anything we're not serious about it and i think that we should i mean it's time for us to do something right now yeah if there's anyone in this room right this moment that isn't serious it's not the time to say it man you know like there's no need to wait you know you're not moving yeah john i mean i i was on my knees like this man about three weeks ago taking hold that i wouldn't do this and wouldn't do that you know and i mean that was the end of that man ain't seen the number one man i knew all you guys growing up together like brother yeah this is one thing and in a way by the other organization didn't have make it off the feet some of them that is is because we had guys to take these off and they were doing it just for the hell of it just to be in something but they didn't mean it you know we're not going to take over we don't we we don't need to do that we're just going to have an understand a good understanding you know i i i like you i like you him and him and i like myself you know and i figure silence you know you know but your tongue is the worst weapon against you any man and i want to say this and i mean it from my heart that i i swear before god may kill me now if i don't mean it for something as important as this i'd burn my breath i'd blow his damn brains up and and i'd do the same to you to him to him and to him you know [Music] before i let one guy mess up a lot of guys it's small now it you know you see the numbers you know i'm not directing anything to any one individual you understand because i i would want everybody in here to feel the same way about me yeah and i feel like we all feel that way yeah then we're going to then we're going to you know we're going to respect each other we're going to learn to love each other to live together to drink together and above all fight whole together push man push you know all of us push in the same direction let me say this do you think um now i mean i'm as fresh as next man you know i'd be a damn liar sit here and say that um man i'm not scared of nothing you know i'm scared man you know you know i'd be nuts if i want that you know but you know like if they give me the police stations put a gun on my head and [ __ ] and said [ __ ] i'ma blow your brains out if you don't tell me so and so on something i gotta send enough know man that he gonna blow my brains out if i tell him if they don't blow it out yeah and you get out one of us will yeah i want you to do the same thing to me this is what i mean your brother dude it'll be more like a mercy killing you know [Music] me [Applause] i guess the freedom democrat party people still thought they could do something because they called a meeting at the bright stock church and all their big leaders and things came down from all over the state and they tried to get the people to get up in mars that night freedom democratic party is committed to do what you want to do we feel you've been disgraced here after getting the whole world to believe that the black people in mississippi and natchez were going to move on thursday nothing happened i don't want to mind you on this chord i'm not a friend of mine and i've never merged but if a man a woman really i am a woman and if man or woman hits me i'm going to get him back and so i don't want to get in there since it's non-violent i don't want to get in there and upset you know your plans that you have before you i'm not a friend too much but if he hold hold my hand if you stand in front of me i'm going to spit on it i'm not afraid of it you blame you you might be the next one or you you and the pitiful thing is it's not up to you to decide so if you want to see bill left out one form of demonstration he talked about picketing he talked about staying here after 10 o'clock he's talked about marching he talked about sitting in and he talked about the kind of demonstration that you have been doing for years that's the kind of demonstration by being quiet and doing nothing you're demonstrating you're demonstrating like other you're demonstrating in the opposite fashion from the rest of africa and the rest of people who are moving but you demonstrate you're being heard and you're being understood by simply being quiet and sitting back and staying in your places the most cowardly thing i have ever heard is for someone to say i would go with y'all but i ain't nonviolent it's downright pitiful the man is in critical condition and people are walked out everybody's in a big hurry to go home and you know i was sitting there thinking about my child is at home he's pointing his leg i need to be there too see that's that's where we can all go back and think of things we need to be doing you know but i i am concerned people i am really concerned and that's when i'm here tonight i'm from it's a queen of county the smallest county i think in the state but people i just i i came here with such you know folks got here national guards out everywhere police running around everywhere and people sitting up just just ain't look like they ain't concerned it's it's pitiful and i'm just poor you know because right now all of us need this church need to be packed we should move when 10 o'clock come people should be talking about anything they want to talk about you know people not here not even understand what i'm talking about but i still want to do it because i am concerned about what have happened to us black people and we sit up and and and holla yes ma'am and no ma'am i don't know about y'all but i'm tired and i'm tired of people telling me that this here is curfew and i don't know nothing about it somebody has set in a mail now we can't even draw a piece of paper and take it up that tom don't they tell you go home [ __ ] and shut up see and i get to madder and mad and i understand see you you're right you ain't qualified to go because you ain't mad enough i don't know don't know about they don't tell them you have that folks there ain't no telling what i might do well here they and they don't tell them what all of us might do but at least get up people and try [Music] everyone's finally gotten around to putting the boycott on the town and uh we thought we were getting somewhere then they got some of the demands and then after that the elvis and the nwa called the boycott off then everybody got discouraged including me i got out of the deacons and i also got out of the civil rights movement then february 1967 wallace jackson got bombed and killed the same way george metcalf got bombed we're almost just about right where we started right back where we started [Music] this has been net journal a weekly look at the events issues and people of the world today this is net the national educational television network

Channel: Hezakya Newz & Films

Views: 1,138,229

Keywords: BLACK SOUTH, SLAVERY, JIM CROW, JIM CROW SOUTH, SEGREGATION, RACISM, BLACK HISTORY, MISSISSIPPI, HEZAKYA, HEZAKYA NEWZ, CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, KKK, ossie davis

Id: MdZ-M8GYZcc

Length: 89min 33sec (5373 seconds)

Published: Fri May 07 2021