Civil Rights History Project: Wheeler Parker

from the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian National Museum of african-american history and culture Monday and Library of Congress in their history my name is history and yes we ripped the Freedom Trail they're gonna do like 25 markers and they mate'll markers at the brain grocery stores number one and it was a very moving overwhelming event and well put together I was very pleased with the marker and the program that they had there so I bought back memories I'm right down the road from where I used to live and across from where I went to school that's what about like a lot of memories of course the event of the store that day and that marker represented Marco tells us where we were 1955 where we are today and what we need to do so it was a very very moving event well put together and well managed and I give a lot of kudos to the people there I'm probably down about twice a year sometimes more you know I love to go to Mississippi that's home you know then wrong with the land and the dirt the people went to KU Mississippi's okay moved to summer ardor country country I saw you can see I think in money and me have been 50 people 50 people there about give or take a little bit and that's good rich Delta soil you don't want people on this for growing crops and it was ideal for that and that's what we did when we got there we got busy got our cotton sex and we went to the cotton field think I meet about eight bucks that week so it was a fun time for me it was swimming and you know 16 year we we did what 16 year olds teenagers they did and we had a great time until my grandfather can I say but I can't say about papa no nonsense we carried himself he carried himself with dignity and great respect and he got great respect from people gentle man always willing to help but he carried himself in that kind of way that people really respect him they looked up to him he's a man of means say what he meant I mean what he said everyone was easygoing grammar was so easygoing that her sons asked her wanna say mama when are you going to whip us that's pretty easygoing and now my mother I wouldn't - she was a schoolteacher very lovable lady and just believed everything a boy's yeah and now she's just a very likable person and you know - no worse deliver going down down fear rule and I can't get the directions ready going door fair rule from Brian's store to the left was like our body of what I could admit when I like seven years old we lived there and this I forgot what we called it it would just overflow and our houses on the other side of the road and water would run under the house all night watch the bridges out and you couldn't it was fun to us you know sell this water clear water see fish is gone but he wouldn't build up because it was going back to the opening in and back and we want to play in it didn't know the seriousness of it like just what happened you know but uh till in where the water was running that's for the crops crew I mean cotton go right up to the house we can go out to win and go to work right there everything is right there and I remember when we lived there we live next door to McGraw there's like a fruit orchard between we live next to a shotgun house brand new shotgun house we lived in the next to us was a sawmill axe the experienced lumber being made bring these big logs in hey man this big saw it will be screaming and you know cutting that wood so it was a right there was a congregation of a clump of people right there and of Annette you just got cotton fields no I'm much in terms of corn of edible vegetable cotton was the main thing they had a train that ran not too far away we had our church right nearby where I started school one room one teacher taught everybody and she had much order I remember one saw my uncle made the teacher kind of angry and he told us he laughed like a duck so she had him to go out and bring some switches in and I was terrified just it's ladies gonna kill us you know back then he was if he was open there like it open and just open to be had you know so she had no trouble I mean I was long about seven years old and of course the next year when a town I laugh becomes uptown is still very rural very country and I went to school up there what we did have classrooms so it was a very wonderful experience and I remember and the cemetery was right by the church I understand not because didn't having a hearse anything to take anywhere so they buried you right outside the church same place they had planned they had dug a grave for Emmett Till so that's what I remember and some people live back down and it would like it was all surrounded by farmland everything is farming few settlements but everything related to the farming and uptown we had three or four stores whatever very few stores and I'm that was the extent of I mean you didn't know anything about fast foods a little fast food so they had to cook three times a day I mean you had to eat you could not go into the cotton field with no conflict we never heard of corn flakes and cold cereals like a yeah eat some rabbit some chicken and some corn oh I that feel oh that son was that that milk idea real quick so we had a wonderful it was a wonderful time you know just didn't know anything else I tell people are saying I love picking cotton I love the country they say you didn't win the bet so Hayden stay he'd that low enough but they would brag on us and then and I can remember in the fall come time because she could only go to school after the Cardinals in so my dad was like eighteen years old when he got better is my eighth grade because you have to put in so many hours to be to finish a grade so you started after the Cardinals and maybe November so you're always behind and I think what's remarkable is that they held to the fact that you had to have so many quarrels or whatever it was in the past and so he's 18 now that a degree but they held to the LAN guy one his history got one his school books from nineteen I think 25 and he's telling about he met my mother and his heart was made happy that day so we so we have a lot of history that and those are the things you kind of remember the little things like that that happened around fun we'll head down to Mississippi in 55 with what you moved just one of general enthusiasm and looking forward to tripping over did you also carry with you some sense of it's not the place I now know it's not Chicago it's a different place I need to shift my behavior for sure I said I was born and you always look at the stories very much aware of where you're going so you're going be going down behind the Iron Curtain they equated it with going to at that time Russia was called Iron Curtain you knew exactly at least I did I knew exactly where you were going and what could happen because I told you the stories of things that had happen to people and you knew that you had no protection under the law anything happened while you were there and when I went into that store that's one thing that struck me when I got down there I was very much aware of it but dear friends we had so much fun man it should have been a lawyer yes you know we just said get fun with nothing you know and swimming and just and most telling a lot of jokes and lies that's what they were telling sorry it was are you very much aware where you were going at least I was they made you that because they weren't you survived and they know what could happen they know what had happened what was happening and what could happen and what did happen that's what they were looking for you though I don't know I think we're gonna say a few weeks definitely longer than we had then we stay here we don't say the week yeah we want were there three three days where this incident happened from Sunday to Wednesday you know and everything just got out of kilter right there picking cotton and then I was I was right at home you know I think I'm picked about said no when I left at six years old I could pick a hundred pounds of cotton right now I could have probably picked a hundred but it was so hot kinda saw a blooming later August it's not the full bloom and it's so hot you cannot stay out there all day so you picked a half a day and sometimes we we'd go swimming they said snakes wouldn't bite in the water so we beat the water and tried to run the snakes on the seat snakes a little hits women and we jump in there I didn't have a good sense jumping it with the snakes swimming and go with some out of watermelon patch and gather up and jokes is the number one thing down south I mean everybody just seemed like a new jokes with me you know and my uncle's driving the car he's my age and we riding around on a car and he let me drive man it was it was a fun time we were I was having a ball and the girl rolls around and it's just you know we got that at Sunday and Wednesday was the first day that we rode to this little town I guess there's about three miles down this gravel road and still excitement but teenagers got a car to yourself so that was great and yeah near the end of the day thus well quite the square by the time we left we'll see I can't remember how long we see there so we get to town and people gathering up from the little solace there and it's still a small town it's not like Greenwood and the guys out there playing checkers and and I decided to go into the store and purchase some things don't know what I purchased but I went in there and purchasing things and while I was in the store image came in and when himmat came in I felt you know this apprehension because I knew how he was and I knew where we were it's good so I left him at any store and Simeon came in right behind him then the both of them came out of the store and after they came out and facing the store mr. Bryant came out she's walking to face in the store to the right of the store and him it whistled and we just could not believe I mean this is like something out of the sky-blue you know where did this come from what's wrong with him and even now we don't know what possessed him he had no idea where he was he had no idea didn't have an idea to danger and so she proceeded to go around and if somebody said that she's going to get a gun I think that's when we started rushing to the car I don't know how many it was saying it gave us a lot of ass in the car we rushed to the car by this time a man is scared we get in the car and someone has dropped a cigarette on the floor too young to be smoking anyway but anyway someone dropped a cigarette so Amy is telling my uncle let's get going let's get going us they're gone and they won't find this cigarette before we stop going off so my uncle fan take take off he's younger than I am but he's 16 so we found it take it off and then we going down this gravel road across the river we'll track down a gravel road we look behind man dust is flying every and there's a car behind us oh my god where did it come from I mean this is country we didn't see in the car also there's a car right there and so we my uncle sped it up and pull to the side and man I don't know if we let it continue stopped before we jumped out and running through the cotton field I remember a man running and falling and people falling over one another and the cotton bolls that were not fresh they were still having fresh to open up they were beating our legs and I went right back nothing to that we regroup at the edge of the road and send him he I don't know why he's sitting up in singles 1212 was different from 16 you know he's still sitting here in the car you know so somewhere in between there we started talking and Emmitt asked us not to tell my grandfather and of course there was a girl that she said I know those people and this is not over with you're gonna hear more about this no no she was weak we met up with some uh uh we stopped at someone's house the thing who got the house and of course she says she was driving the car now the imagination is powerful but anyway we met and we talked in at this point we didn't take it serious I felt a relief you know the car went back in it's like it's gonna go away you know I didn't I didn't feel we're gonna really hear anything more from this I really did you know I knew what he did was a no-no and so that night went by I didn't tell my grandfather I'm saying anybody told my I don't think he really ever heard there's been questions about that but so Wednesday went by there's nothing we we'd even talk about it again I don't ever remember us talking about it again at all we forgot about it to some degree Thursday's went by Friday went by Saturday and Saturday in the country if everybody goes to the big town man we went through a Greenwood and people from everywhere all the girls and the guys and get walking down Johnson Street man just it was just excitement to see all these people coming though in that car there wagging there doing their shopping for the week whatever and we stayed there and then about 12 were there about we left stop by a place called 4/5 ugly and I still there out someone was talking about it the other day and it's one those they called juke joints or somebody's house they got drinking and stuff and we stayed there we got home I guess so we left there and on the way home I'm out Reese Emmitt and myself in my uncle Maurice he even got a little hat and he ran over dog and when he ran over the dog image start crying you know I mean to me the dog should have shouldn't have been in the street you know what anyway amy was very fond of animals he had a sensitive side for animals so we got home and went to bed my I slept with Maurice and image that was Simeon and my cousin Curtis is here by now no it's just we get we get it right home Curtis is that we haven't seen him but he told the story would have a distort what I have to come back to our where we live you know he kind of guy you know pranks and what he thought was funny wasn't funny all the time we go to visit him as he moves Chicago 64th and Sam lost so we walking on the street my cousin Sonny he got a cousin of Oviedo surprise I didn't meet him too but anyway we walking on a street all sudden image says and he stutter bad he said I got my two big cousins here from our go he'll annoy and came nobody beat him up and look at him I feel also man we grab real quick how the gains were bad in Chicago and in the server you know gang orientated so those are kind of thing he would do and it was funny to him it was funny to us in our code why we're concerned because a guy was killed so I knew how he would I knew things and other things he'd done you know as we grew up you know just just off of color type stuff you know and I just knew when he come in something could happen I didn't think anything don't happen but I knew something could happen angry or bitter at anybody never never I live next door to him he's always doing something because he was the center if he was there he was the center of attraction and it wasn't planned it's just natural what some he's Leo the Lion he's just a natural leader just needed some direction sometimes but he's gonna do something to get their attention well image image didn't he were really you right when your earlier age you won't stay within your age it's not like now it can span from 70 to 80 but when you 16 and 14 you 16 18 14 you know in singles toil he was similar send me send me was like didn't count you know back then he didn't count because he was not a yeah he was not he wouldn't be any player with us okay yeah these different thing and you know it's kind of like when you go into school if you were man you're not gonna have a girlfriend as several she got to be nine - you know she's gotta be in your class so there was an age distinction in image he wanted to when his mother would take him places she would take me too you know so he kind of like looked up to me you know and I'm not interested in being his leader but you know he just kind of I'm not I'm the upperclassman I'm the older person so I knew it I knew what the deal was you know but he was gonna listen to me anything but he looked up to me and that age distinction definite was there and you knew it and we got home I think about 12 o'clock it was dark and it's so dark on it and I mean if the moon did not shine you just cannot see your hand before your face just dark you know so we got in with a bed like I said Maurice gotta be able to my recent see me above all and we till got a bed with uh with Simeon it was a big house everybody paints it as a shack they insist on calling it a shack it was a former landlords my mother didn't mean anything if you look at the house that's a screened-in porch across the father that's money I was full screened-in porch all across the front of the house then you got four big rooms you got a little space in between the kitchen is off to the back so it was a very large house and I and I guess about two going forward I guess about two 2:30 in the morning my grandfather said was I hear these guys talking I woke up hey man I've become alarmed cuz they talk about what happened at the store and my man is just recent they said we're looking for a fat boy from Chicago that's a man I'm getting rid of daddy's people are killers cuz I heard Oh st. Simeon my uncle's live there they had a different take on the south than I did I heard all these stories and I took everything literally there was one of my problems in life whatever you said like my mother told me one day she sound killing I'm are killing you work so I hear you gonna kill me I took off I took off running and you know she had Michael to catch with he got a whipping in the cornfield she'd be even with the corn stalks so when he said we looking for a fat boy from Chicago and I heard what they had done to people killed people and to people in river and all that I said man I'm really getting ready to die in this house so first thing I come back to me as my religious upbringing I started praying I thought I live it start playing and I just say God if you just let me get out of this I'm gonna do it it says something about when you think you're getting ready to die all the wrong things you were done saying I could come to your man I was watching we're world to film another day and this man ship had broke up and he was out in this ocean and he said I shot was coming straight for him he said God if you let me live I'm gonna treat my little brother right he said my marry a young girl and I'm gonna treat her right your mind changed when death you feel definite he sort of shock went that way and he saw his friends leave go up in air but what I'm trying to say it's something about when you think you're close to death you don't have to be so much you think you are your whole demeanor attitude and value life just change nothing else was important to me at that time but trying to survive in the 16 I was not ready to die according to my religious up training or bringing and I wouldn't fit to die so I pray you know and I could hear them coming and they come in tore my room I'm the first room on the right facing the front of house on the first room on the right my grandfather was the first room on the left so Tammy said we look for a fat boy from Chicago my grandfather had no idea where he was so they started he started yet starting and around when finally Papa Papa met him on the place came they came into my room and um and I could remember he's I'm stretching my eyes I'm shaking like a leaf on the tree and and I just didn't even walk this guy with the gun in one hand I was always afraid of guns I was always afraid of God Amy wasn't really afraid of guns because there was a gun left in a house once and he got it could've killed us you know we playing with the gun in the house you know that we had those little shifter roles and you know but I was afraid of guns so they came in and this guy had this pistol in one hand and a flashlight another it was pure of terror he's just like if you could just disappear and just go away it's like a nightmare and things are not ending fast enough you know and I'm waiting and we're gonna be shot and I remember closing my eyes and they walked past me they didn't say anything and they didn't do anything still scared they went to the next room Curtis is there he's there now Curtis didn't wake up passed by my uncle Robert he didn't wake up they went into the third room where uncle Simeon and so I could hear him talking and they were aroused him out of the bed he had no idea what was going on so like I said even Simeon the guys they didn't feel about it like I felt about it seemingly know what was going on and I can hear him talking not a lot of audible or clear stuff but they were made at him he want to put his socks on shoes you know he think he at home you know he don't always dealing with him that and he's saying yeah I know he's not saying the right words and they were fears I think these guys enhance I think they had been drinking I mean you have to almost get drunk to do something like what they did I feel I have this feel human had to have some kind of assistance to do what they did to that kid so they finally left and it was dark I was not they didn't come clear to me I was I was told what she was doing later it just conversation going on and and I know and I was I know they was mad they were they were angry and I didn't hear anything in it really say but they were angry and it left and when they left my grandmother left and my grandfather though I'm 16 you know 16 then a different 16 now I mean this is the protection the protection is gone and in my mind they're coming back I don't know why but in my mind so I'm suffering from pure terror you know just just hell on earth so I say my co grandma would not see and she hey my grandfather take her to her brother's house cause me things up in Sumner so I got up I said man it's a they're coming back I'm putting my shoes on I didn't like that being deaf in a bare feet that much so so when they come back when they pulled on a yard I'm here the woods affect us I'm hidden for the woods in Australia see my uncle in a bed with me never woke up baris never Curtis never woke up robber never woke up they woke semi up and told him to go back to sleep so AC Milan and Bryant yeah the the original walk the rig they didn't just say wake up sitting in the Riggin when you have a conversation stuff he was awakened by that and I'm waiting for the it seemed like daylight would never come never never come it just so long's nobody talked to anybody I didn't wake my uncle I didn't go to the next room I just stayed right there so when the my plans if they come in the yard I'm headed out the back so daylight finally came you know no no well he came I don't know exactly what time he got back but he didn't he didn't he never really brought us together to talk to us and we just know that they we I knew they had taken him and there was calls being made Curtis was very courageous he went to the landlord's house and he called he was that kind of kid if curse I woke up he probably did part a lot of us probably got killed because he's gonna probably try to do something or say something that's kind of person he was and nothing he became a policeman and he was a bodyguard for me or Washington foot before he died so Curtis did call and then his mother called Emmett Till's mother my mother got involved and my daddy had a brother live there and he came over and again he come with his pistol so he is more terror you know so man this is real serious you know so he's gonna take me from money Mississippi up the duck hill and somebody in the crowd I was always a very serious man and kid somebody crown said look we don't send him up there they get you just like that they did not believe that he was gonna be killed they still that kind of joking about it other man told me I don't take them and you know punishment bring him back so we're gonna send him up there to get you I didn't sleep a wink from that time to 34 24 hours I did not sleep well I looked at my uncle's house and every time a car would go by I'm looking for him you know I'm looking and eventually my uncle he took me to the train station a couple of times to get on got letting hammer reservations and eventually I caught a train earlier that morning think of a 5s dark I caught a train got to Memphis thinking I'm in Chicago and I'm going to a washroom and everybody said you can't go inside you know you can't go on that I'm scared all over again I'm thinking I'm just so big and it strange so you don't think I'm in Chicago I'm in Memphis they got the sands call it and it seemed like I was never gonna get where I could just relax so that's this way went that day yeah they did they took him from the house mmm I arrived at the train station I can't even remember who picked me up but I know that they whisked me off to miss Steele's house over on 64th and st. Lawrence and when I and I got upstairs you know everybody's sitting around solemn because they don't know what happened to him it and they had not found his body and they looking at me and you know and miss teal told me to go hug my mother you know and I did that it wasn't too much say it because people just in a grieving state and by now they they think that something has happened and I'm saying they had been searching around bridges and normal places that people are found so I got back to our door and to me was like a nightmare and my life kind of resumed as it was people would ask me about it and one day I was writing talent I saw a guy his name is JP he had a jewelry store and I saw him and he looks just like Milan and me and my heart just boomed like I stopped beat some Andes here because I I didn't put it past I'm pursuing to do what if they wanted to do something to tell me and so and I got past that because I realized later that it was the doers and I knew him but he looked so much like him you know so it changed my whole life really it changed I mean I could never forget it and it's like since 1955 it's a constant thing I just learned how to handle about my religious upbringing taught me how to deal with negative situation you know you got to exhale you got to let it go and you have to I talked to you full of troubles how you handle the trouble one thing that always bothered me and I don't know if it's bother me but I can't understand can't explain is that I went to the funeral I said this is not imminent I said it's like it never happened and I said maybe I'll say save some people actually said maybe didn't stay the shot I saw mercy anything I'm going to show no remorse no sadness whatsoever and that's where I live doing those times and now I go in I talk about who I see that video and then I'm crying so I got to all be crying now but during that time that was not image it's not the guy I knew that was amongst in there you know I always hated in here I'm gonna see him again you know that's what I say it and and we would even here after so we can meet again so I guess that's what I was trying to say I don't know but it changed my whole life I could never I could never be the same again because it always came to my mind the promise that you made and it was always brought to my attention a lot of people just conglomeration of people you know the solemn a atmosphere there you know it's just he's just unbelievable I guess you could say just the air was filled with just I guess unbelief and how how could it happen to a kid and just people just felt helpless because the south is even now if you were on solid ground fourth of July the highway is gonna be packed all the way down you know because people love to go south it's like it's like going to Mecca you know and this happened this happened so that atmosphere was just a lot a lot of sadness and you know a lot of unbelief because yeah you know he didn't have history of too many kids being suffering there was one I'm I don't know if you've seen a book without sanctuary the photos and ask what fifteen-year-old kid was wrong with his mother but for the most part children were kind of exempt after this I have to know we did because 16 then there were not many automobiles like this I'll I've transportation were by bus and when I did go over there we rode the bus to see him so and it changed her life to her lifestyle changed and not only was she working she went back to college and she got a college degree so she's going on with our life she's she got married you know there was a lot of things happening all right so we didn't have a have a whole lot of interaction with her just kind of close and my father had six kids so couldn't afford you know we didn't have a car so we just didn't see her that much we did see her and you know there was times we did see her not that much yes well sure there very often and because the promise that I made there Knight to God I soon forgot about it you know trouble pass all things right at God is forgotten in the soldiers slighted the old saying you know and but every now and then I were reminded of that promise that I made so it was always there until I got it right so at age 22 it was 16 so 6 years it took me that long to keep my promise you know yesterday I started feeling that if you didn't do it and the Bible tells the best not to make a promise and to make it and break it so I said that uh-huh I got to get this right so when they asked God to help me and I just changed and very few people in in any Church in any denomination in their 20s you're not gonna find it are we trying to get some gusto we trying out what we call fun but after I change I said this is the best life I got I'm peaceful this is looking for over here so I got this and I got happiness so I changed and I had no I haven't had no regrets and this is my 50-year change and a half still have no regrets it was a hard sell to the youngster hard sell it was ten years while I'm working so ten years so some 16 I was about 26 when I went back and then I was conscientious where I went and where I stopped I planted uncle's I offered the one they took me to his house just that about two years ago he's 105 his wife girlfriend was 69 he got divorced at the 5th being married 50 years never been on any medicine walked two miles every day try having a car I mean I'd love to go sit and his daddy was a slave so I heard those stories he didn't see his his granddaddy his granddad was slave so stranded he's born in 1903 saying your mother for motocross style and his and he lived to eight in 1824 so he had a lot of history so we make sure that we go right and get ahead enough uncle's just added 100 ago I see him a lot of relatives I just came last week it still had a lot of roads just love to go south oh yeah we live in the same house yeah you know that extended family hmm yeah my grandfather my grandmother thee they were characters a lot of fun grandma pop after they came here it to me it seemed they went on with their life and seemed like the my grandfather had never planned lead us off he playing that Diana saw and I think he probably had to make an adjustment he's six or seven years old but he even here he started farming the farming right over here with it teal Center is and uh he saw the farming and gallows job and he traveled so I think he made the adjustment okay the kids Maurice and Simeon Robert ticket was glad to be and grandmas here with us with a family so she's okay so they had a good life Donnie had a nice house and they were not sharecroppers I think they rented their land so they have been making them jealous my grandfather just had had no plans of leaving to move here I think grandma was a little called all of us sisters and brothers 1985 rich Samuels from NBC came out and they did a documentary as he met miss teal as a young basketball player had been killed being Wilson it was his name in Chicago and she was there for support and he talked with her and as a result he came into the story on a meteo up until that time to me it was like there was no interest in that kind of story it's like he got what he deserved like I was at school speaking once the guy say why are we talking about him attea so he was no hero he was a managed boy they did something that he shouldn't I said well he didn't desert he Akhil and we're here to show you what it was history was like back then so that's pretty much the first time rich Samuels and they did that you know then it's like an idea whose time has come you know it just started happening you know others like I mean even now sometimes people don't want to talk about it you know we like to embellish our history and I tell people it's not a nice history is not all good in your family everything like all good but you got to tell it like it is you know that's all we can free ourselves wrong we can deliver yourself is exhale let it go get it out didn't tell it like it is so I try to make people comfortable when I tell them about the story I'm not here to step in a year we'll animosity but I'm here to just a state to facts and don't hate don't don't I tell them don't he'd appreciate I'll hate destroys a hater and I'm not here to bring it up with some of the teachers they they are they don't yeah I can tell they whether or not they wrote afford to go away you know but it happened you got to tell it did you have any special feelings and perspectives on what 66 right I just I just started a business something when a lot of the race was going out I went into the army like 62 gala I'm 65 so I just come back to my business and I could remember the heat I could remember the animosity and they were saying you need to go back south and I could remember those times you know the way things were then and you wonder if things would ever change you know the law make you behave with the law can legislate the heart and that's what I will always conscientious of you know law can make you cheat people a certain way within a certain realm but what's in your heart is deep in there well I've often thought what you're talking about is the all the sudden there's interest also there's momentum trying to do some things yeah and then players are coming on board you know it's just like everything is falling away another one person does a whole lot of conglomeration of things coming together you got players you got which is not mentioned much Alvin sites you don't get much about album album played a pivotal role and sometimes what I saw I didn't like because some people act like they own the story I said it's too solidity I mean it's a story that's out there you know and our websites was a one that really he came here specific one reason to get it open because he had done a case out there in Kansas and so he pursued and I went with a album who we met with Eric Holder and Eric Holder self and referred to him as a legend in his own time he pursued here's a kid that did not have I don't think have a high school education but he's well trenched in the language and I guess he studied it over and over and he pursued these senators and about the teo bill and then the governor Bush signed the teal bill that allowed what eleven million dollars a year for ten years to be put toward pursuing cases dating back from 1970 then he pursued to appropriate the preparations I thought wants the bills passed the monies automatic I didn't know you got to change man so he pursued that I haven't I have a lot of respect for alpha a lot of respect for him and they're working and he's he's so unpretentious that's why I like rah you're not Eagle just and you know he's not who ever get the credit you know he doesn't worry about that song I've been over many times to support him so that's the sort of thing emotions and feelings when they first told me there was going to be open I had a pessimistic view or a negative view I say no anyway all the white man in Mississippi open his cases no way man that's my first thought then if the well it's a woman I said maybe you a woman then he said some black woman named Eva Stiles I said well maybe it'll be open and I was concerned about her and knowing Mississippi knowing people that you can't legislate out I was concerned about that before my concerns and how else did I feel so they gave her the FBI did something that they wouldn't do about 50 years ago they did the investigation I never expected a whole lot because I know they had to edit to the atmosphere of the country I know I know where I'm at I'm a realist never expected a whole awful lot happening quick but you know I know that animosity is gonna be still here you know I don't expect no jumping in bed type of thing happen okay so they gave her information I made with the FBI we did all this stuff and you know this is more progress than we ever made so you appreciate that really respect that now we've got the FBI who literally and they asked me of course it seemed like they maybe maybe kind of serious about getting to the bottom of us so she gave it to the grand jewelry grand jury came back say FBI thought they had enough information to indict someone I am NOT interested in anyone getting indicted I'm not interested in anyone going to jail I'm interested in knowing the facts what happened I still want to know what happened I want to bring some closure to this year mr. Bryant I understand she wanted some wanted them to give her immunity FBI said we can't give you we're not prosecuting we just investigate mister the young demand that was on the truck with him I don't hire trying to think of his name his son out emile Glendora he understand that he wanted immunity he'd say he didn't know anything about it and he wasn't there and I can't think of his name but anyway so all of these things are happening and I'm just kind of going with the flow and she said that they could not find enough information to indict mrs. Meyer so then Alvin comes with the tio bill that helps you know you pursue all the cases that has its place you know you know still not bringing a closure that I want I want to know what happened it's Brian those would happen that's what I would love that that would do me a whole lot of good not gonna bring image back but I don't know if you understand I'm saying it bring closure to give you to know is to have closure and you can appreciate that I don't know anything happened to her leave the woman alone just and I've dabbled even if they gave me immunity which you tell a truth like it really happened it is very difficult I rolled by our house with the Mississippi University of Mississippi literary tour we visit what Harlan Carter's as a he's from there we thought man we we did the whole I was little I was with a group of people I had no business with but I was at I was there because of Emmett Till I'm not a little literary person and don't claim to be don't try I tried I am Who I am you know but anyway it was a very interesting informant and lightning thing to me to me so those are some of the feelings that I had to meet with Eric hold and go on to the Justice Department those were great experiences target of great minds but you're dealing with human beings and I know I'm dealing with human beings I know they can only go so far and only do so much no I don't think so I don't think I met Jose no I'll take her mother did she maybe she did comes tag with the FBI I can't I can't remember I wouldn't say for sure I never went out I never met her down now but she was courageous to do what she did you know to Herman's by living in the same town so that was quite uh you know I hate some questions about that you know because the human you did it with human beings you know you're doing this in you know what's gonna happen people are crazy some people man is not wrapped tight so I had some concerns about her but anyway she did a great job I think she did I probably find more meaning in terms of history telling history and I was always like a little history buff and this it means more to me to see the children benefit from the history part of it then for me personally you know I do it because I went they let me know they didn't have no money and that's how I could pay my own way you know because I want the history to get out there so I'm doing it from their perspective I've met down there with some kids from Dominican in high school good friend of mine my small early he's a pallbearer at miss steeles film who's on the white hall vo there was there so I feel good that I'm able to contribute I don't let nobody try to make me a hero or something great because all idea was survived scared as I could be no hero I'm just survived to tell the story you know so that's my take on it I don't I don't take I don't try to get any miles on it for myself well do nothing if I could have disappeared out of disappeared I wouldn't have been there period you know so and it means a lot people are very appreciative when I'm when I come and talk being eyewitness I guess some just learned how much it means to them you know because you tell it over and over and you survived it in it's it's something that happened that you wish had happen and it was a tragic event but people want to hit a story anyone hear the truth switch the children most other than adults adults they they got a they set in their ways and they have their own ideas about things so that means a lot to me yeah I think I think Senator Jordan has something to do with presenting that to the body and I was there at this ceremony just passed it few days ago I said that sign used to be thought the sign was tolerance has been torn down a lot of times not surprised like I say can't legislate the heart since some people are diehard did hire their diehard there's a stretch of highway and it's good for history and not only there they have a marker and it's going away from the highway the Tallahatchie County I don't know you know about them they they are very much interested in the image Hill story a lot of things happen there and they have a marker at Sparta to Riverways bothers people out they have a marker by the funeral home that had its body they have a marker at the courthouse and somewhere and they trying to restore that to its original order and they were marker by the barn place where they actually tormented in it these are things that are you know good for history and be able to go by and identify with it it means a lot to especially history concern people so the highway and all of those things has this place and in some way some people use it and take advantage of some really don't like I think the the people who live there have a lot of a lot of I think fire trying to write in Rome's but you can only go so far you know and and I appreciate what they're doing and I think sometimes they become frustrated because again they want to change people's heart those kind of things don't change hearts believe me they do not and they never will but it's good for history let it do what it's supposed to do you know and I hope they don't get just as scary because you do all of this and this is a 2011 so this day and time yelled this day and time and the Bible said evil men and seducers were wax worse and worse there's a revival in this country on racism I mean we regress it fast you know but it was there all the time as their all time so I just hope they don't get to become too wrapped up in it in the sense that they expect more than what they're gonna get no way no way you haven't know what you're doing keep doing if you go changes every made and change is gonna be made it's gonna go slow and just hope to god he touch people's heart and time to speak to children's school to another younger people about all of this history do you find them that you can communicate successfully to them the true nature of all of what that history was back then nature of the society able to they're much more receptive to it than the older the older you get the less receptive you are to it from my experience of talking to people I was just at the University of Missouri in Columbia Missouri but three weeks ago and in the college level you found less receptiveness then you would have eighth grade and you know that eighth grade level and one thing I point out to both of them and blacks I say the progress and a successor black people made there was always somebody white there to fight started cause otherwise we would not be him I say Abraham Lincoln got a lot of criticism the way he tried to have a race situation once he sent 500 african-americans to Haiti need to go get him brother was starving so what he did for the time was very noble and courageous President Kennedy President Johnson signed the civil rights bill then I saw them to thinking the progress that we meet in all areas the fire was in some white person's belly to stand up civil rights the Freedom Riders were made it really successful is when the whites came down and joined in any way guy said I knew how gonna be more targeted than the blacks color you don't hate me for come and get with them so I'll tell them I said look you guys gonna be sentences or whatever you are I said you can make the difference do what's right when white kids took me once I said well he said I'm gonna do what's right I'm gonna stand up I said you're not gonna be liked just staying too strong again I'm not gonna be like and yet I want the black to appreciate how God touched hearts and how a lot of this came about you didn't fight your way to this number gun that's why King was so bitter against violence God you're gonna be you're gonna be slaughtered you know so you have to realize that you got to work together together we stand and divided we fall because there's so much revival if so much just being done he got a kill 57 years ago but all these changes are just coming around and he's still in the making you know you still hear him in speaking for so many years of late he just laid dormant there was nothing you know you hear about here and there and typically to me it was like the society got what he deserves you know and all of a sudden all these changes come about I mean people were interesting people it's so much being done you know and especially young people and young people don't have to make the changes all the old people ain't trying to change ya ain't trying to change for them for the most part this has been a presentation of the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American history and culture

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Views: 20,823

Rating: 4.8081179 out of 5

Keywords: Library of Congress, Civil And Political Rights (Literature Subject), Documentary, African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955--1968) (Event), Smithsonian Institution (Publisher), Folklife

Id: sghzzQk01VY

Length: 67min 30sec (4050 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 23 2014