Page 20 - Hasan News Today

- [hasan] there are no major demonstrations or marches. this is a play for power. most sncc activists at the time believe that the problem of racism, the problem that black folk were facing, was political. and if it was political, you needed political solution. and john lewis, who was the chairman of sncc at the time, one of the last people within sncc, you know, who was still viewing this as fundamentally a moral issue. so john lewis is a little bit out of step with sncc as a whole. and so in m...

- [hasan] and this becomes their freedom house. this becomes the base of operations for sncc activists for the next year and a half. - [mukasa] they protected us and kept us alive. and all the neighbors, people around had guns and they would protect us. and they gave us guns to protect ourselves. - since the federal government is not going to protect us, since the state government is not going to protect us, and since the local government is not going to protect us, then we have the right and a ...

And this laid the groundwork for what eventually became the lowndes county freedom organization. at this point, alabama was horrible in terms of its literacy rates. and so political symbols were very important because instead of being able to read your candidates names, youd look for the symbol. the symbol for the white democratic party in lowndes county was a white rooster, -with the motto -(rooster crows) "white supremacy for the right", emblazoned around it. - [wendell] so then if you are vot...

- [john] dead folks start voting. couldnt check them. you couldnt see what was going on or nothing. - [hasan] people are beat up. large white landowners begin trucking, black plantation workers into the polling places and saying, "look, youre gonna vote for who we tell you to vote for, and its not gonna be for these black candidates." - [arthur] i think they found some of the ballots was thrown in big swamp creek. - [wendell] the federal government wasnt any help at all. they didnt put in place ...

I knew my illustrations were going to be really crude and courtland said, "yeah, yeah, you know, i think that could work." - [hasan] and you know, you look at it. and you say like, "i get the sheriff thing. you want to end police violence, but a coroner, a tax assessor, like how is that gonna lead the revolution? but it was critical to the lives of black folk. the tax assessor historically had always overtaxed black landowners and under taxed white landowners and white landowners were the ones w...

And if theyre the majority, this county has been run by 20% of the people who are white, who have seized power illegally and who have maintained power through all sorts of terroristic manners. the rest of the country ask now that these black people get with these white people and reform these white people. and i say to the black people that we dont have to bear the cross for them, let us form our own party and let them take care of their own business. so we form our own party and we seek power. ...

That our desire to have black people, not only vote, but being in control, was something they saw as a fundamental threat. we saw it as a fundamental necessity. - [hasan] they had to meet the same day as the democratic primary, and the may 3rd, 1966, democratic primary was the first primary in the south since the voting rights act. you have african americans who are running against segregationists. well, as it turns out, those black democrats essentially all lose, that white, moderate, alabama v...

- [john] those people knew what happened. they was ready to go again. was waiting on 68. that was 66. - [lillian] and every aspect of the political arena, you wanted some black person in there to plead our cause. see whats going on. - [courtland] there was no turning back. the concept that people who lived in that county who were black should not only vote, but they should be in power. - [ruby] lowndes county was moving on with its own rhythm. and it was time for us to begin to think about where...

That is an attempt on the part of the white power structure to keep any kind of organization from taking place there and to keep our workers out, but i want you to know that this isnt going to stop us. we are going to lowndes county in a few minutes. (applause) - [mlk] so theyre not gonna let em have the money if theyre registered. - [hasan] black folk in lowndes county are not waiting for somebody to descend into the county and lead them to freedom. they are looking for help. they are looking f...

- [stokely] my emphasis is in this march, the momentum from this march is what sncc is gonna deal with. were gonna use that momentum in the counties, which we go through to organize black people, to take over the political structures in those counties. theyre gonna seize the power in those counties. - [hasan] as that march begins to take place. sncc organizers are fanning out into the cotton fields saying, "yes, we need to register the vote, but we also need to have a program around which we can...