Evers and other key events in the movement. In an unprecedented threehour report, nbc news presents the American Revolution of 63. A study of the american negroes struggle for equality. Here is nbc news correspondent, frank mcghee. There comes a time, there even comes a moment in the affairs of men when they sense that their lives are being altered forever. That an old order is dying and a new one is being born. That moment comes sooner for some and for others, it comes later. For some, the moment arrives when a deed of new dimension sets the hour apart. For others, when familiar words are spoken. Later, but still suddenly it seems, men are saying things and doing things theyve never said or done before. Then we know we are experiencing a revolution, but we cannot say, though historians will try, when it began. We know that autumn does not begin with the turning of the leaves, but earlier, on some forgotten afternoon when a shadow passed over the fields and it was in longer summer. So did this American Revolution of 63 begin this year in birmingham or in 1955 in mon montgomery or in 1954 or in 163 with a president ial p proclamation. Some reached back to 1776, even back to the year 52 when the apostle paul preach ng aens sai god hath made of one blood. The truth is that the American Revolution in 63 began in all of those years, that those generations passed along to this one, a restless vision that sometimes ebbs and flows, but moves forever towards freedom for all men. Our purpose now is to e define this revolution. We propose to show it began. It began in many ways. The course it is following, there are many tributaries. To do this, we are shall take the next three hours. We have established no rigid form for doing this. Revolutions do not fit easily into standard sized con containers. We shall begin by beginning. Confident that any strand in a fabric still being woven will ultimately cross all the strands. As in albany, georgia. There and in hundreds of other southern communities, the church is the negros privileged sanctuary. The story was covered by herbert kaplin. Music long has been used as an expression of protests and it bursts forth in albany. Why in the summer of 61, albany became a prime target, no one is quite sure. Most communities were recognized as tougher on the negroes than this city, but the resentment showed itself in albany in song and in other forms and arenas of demonstration. A ban on demonstrations has brought more than 1500 arrests of desegregationists so far. Most last summer when the forces of Martin Luther king were prominent in the drive. Also, from outside al bany came ministers and ra buys to demonstrate in street prayer. All right. Here we offer our prayers to god. Whats your purpose . Our purpose is to offer our prayers to god. Im asking you to disperse, your normal way. Go back to your normal places of livelihood. Preach to your own congregation and play your own city of sin and of lawlessness before you come here to try to convert us. Anyone else here to be heard from . Praise the name of the lord, blessed be the name of the lord from this time forth and forever more. The clergymen like other demonstrators were arrested and as albany became a bigger national story, city officials continued an area of refusal to negotiate with the negroes, a condition which brought comment from president kennedy. I find it wholly inexplicable why the city council of albany will not just sit down with the citizens offalny, maybe negroes in an attempt to secure them in a peaceful way in their rights. The United States government is involved in sitting down with geneva in the soviet union. I cant imagine why they cant do the same for american citizens. The otherwise quiet georgia city remains stalemated in the fight. At one point, desegregation leader king, who himself has been jailed, saw success ahead. Were all dispoint wd the recalcitrance of the City Commission and their refusal to talk with leaders of the albany movement, but in spite of this, we see something developing in this community, which is one of the most Significant Developments in the civil rights struggle. And im convinced that within the next few months, we will be able to see changes in this community that will make change in materials of desegregation and terms of new levels of communication. Were result iing in hard anything, not that the leaders can see. My negroes have been indicted in a suit pushed by the federal government in connection with alleged retaliation against a white juror in another civil rights matter. As for the immediate situation, the White Community of albany has yielded nothing of significance. Theres been no Biracial Committee formed. No desegregation of stores despite a boycott. There are no dem stronstrations in albany. There are mass meetings monday night, but little else. The police chief says albany is just about the way it was before. Intang blthere is one thing tha did come out for the negroes. Martin luther king learned the lessons of failure here and did not repeat them in his next foray, birmingham. There are now and there have been there have always been, those who wish at least to stand aloof of messy struggle and at most, to remain emotionally uninvolved. Theyre always an uncomfort bable and unhappy lot. More than 100 years ago, an old woman sat rocking on her front porch in missouri and spat out these word. Of all the things in this world, i hate slavery the most, except abolitionis abolitionists. These abolitionists careless of the lying between righteousness and selfrighteousness, spread what many staunch union men consider their pernicious views until they lodged the war into a war the abolish slavery. Their seed bed was amherst, massachusetts. Trees, ancient, stand guard over 100 memories. There is a doorway now for a century and a half. Here as a student came henry ward beech. Pastor of the church in brooklyn. Published by William Lloyd garrisen. He would shock after half the country by auctioning a slave girl. A stirring protest, and there was Horace Greeley of the powerful new york tribune. He hated slavery and the tyranny of delay. Duty and today are ours, he said, results of security belong to god. Writing the words that would be sung along 1,000 roads when terrible swift lightning came. An editor, an angry minister, a gracious lady, each protesting this. Slavery. And heres how it started. Africa, a tribes man subdued and branded bought a better price. The first slaves were landed in the colonies in 1690. Others followed. Brought across in boats. Packed like cargo, disease and death their constant companions. They said those who knew that you can smell us later before you could see. And this. The children. Their children. Name and age unknown. And the price, oh, that was a thing of supply and demand. It was a tuesday at bankers arcade in new orleans. 41 slaves sold to the highest bidder. There was louis, a black man. He was 32. A good field hand and laborer. Shelley, 26. Wesley. That meant anderson, a 24yearold bricklayer and mason brought the days top price. 2,700. It was the same in new amsterdam. 2,700 for a good bricklayer. The women made good service but the babies could do nothing useful. Not for a long time. Sometimes, they were not made part of the body. It was simply a matter of business. Or so they said. And tried to. The institution was attacked and defe defended, but it was there. Some streets were different. Events might have happened differently and those against slavery almost won in the beginning. By the end of the revolutionary war, it was acknowledged that slavery was not only immoral, it was economic hi unwisyou couldn fire a slave. You had to be fed and clothed. The system was dying out. It might have died out completely. But for this man. He was not an evil man. His name was eli whitney. In 1793, he invented a device to separate cotton seeds from the fiber. It was brilliantly simple. Now, a girl could do the work of men. Ten men could replace 100. And suddenly, cotton became the main crop of the south. Cotton everything. Rei guess rice and tobacco. It quickly bailed for the endless boats that waited at scores of river towns. Cotton for the mills of new england. Hungry mills, whose hunger seem ed to dwroe by what it fed. Spindles the formed the stark, manmade landscape that seemed to stretch to the horizon. And those who apologized for slavery were called back. Called back to draw pictures of how the word of god was given to a happy and well loved people. Just picture an evening seen on the river. Theres music and dancing, singing voices. That was the idea. But this is closer to the reality than this. If any tried to escape, this. In 1854, a new book appeared. Uncle toms cabin. It seems hopelessly old fashioned. Uncle tom with little eva. But to which generation it came like an avenging bolt of lightning. He would meet the author. Sister of henrybeacher. He would call her the little lady that started the war. We cannot know what it was to sit in in a darkened theater an watch the play unfold. But we almost can. Thomas edison made a film of the play and it looks like this. Now the beating of uncle tom, the villain is a harsh overseer of the slaves. Uncle tom, and here came the classic line that brought tears to a generation, you may own my body, but my soul belongs to god. And the change was coming. New york city. Here at cooper union, a lovely reddish brown Stone Building that still exists came a hint that the issue was moving towards its somber resolution here. Here came Abraham Lincoln, a politician from illinois. Maybe this lanky westerner had something to say. He did. Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet afford to let it alone where it is. But can we . While our votes will prevent it, allow it to spread into the National Territory and overrun us here in the free states. If our sense of duty forbids this, then let us stand by our duty and fearlessly and effectively. Neither let us be slanted from our duty by false accusations against us nor frightened from it nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might. And in that faith, let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it. It doesnt seem like a very powerful statement, not now. Not here. And not to us. But it was daring and dramatic in 1860 and suddenly everyone was talking about the lean man with the sad eyes who came to new york and spoke his peace. 100yearold words that echo still in an empty room. There were hints of the conflict to come. This is harpers ferry. The presence of a government armory. And here game john brown. The plan was to capture the arms and start a negro revolt, but it failed and brown was executed. I, john brown, am certain that the crimes of this guilty land will not be purged away but with blood. It came first at a place called bull run. There would be more. A september night, 101 years ago, cool in maryland, in september, and pleasant. But not that night. Lee was somewhere up ahead and many would die. 26,000 americans died, losses for each army about equal. Still the confederates had retreated and lincoln would call it a victory. He talked strategy with general mcclelen, but his thoughts were long and deep. Now was the time. He spoke with his cabinet, stanton was against it, no, no. Secretary sewer all of them doubtful. In single resolution and loneliness, lincoln made the decision that on the first day of january, 1863, all persons held as slaves within any state, the people shall then be in rebellion of the United States, shall be then forever free. And i further declare and make known that such persons of suitable condition will be received into the Armed Services of the United States. And if we must have a beginning, perhaps it is here. Hes not fore sal sale this man. Hes proud of his status and job. Perhaps it began here. For men who dared to fight and dared to dream. And now for the first time we really saw their faces. The proclamation emancipated no slaves. Lincoln had known it would not. Such a decree he once said surely could not be more binding than the constitution and that cannot be enforced in that part of the country now. The proclamation would free the slaves only after union and victory and peace. And peace must come through the powerful negotiations of generals grant and sherman. Sherman, red bearded and perhaps halfmad. Sherman realized that hatred had become the driving force of the war. He accepted this. His aim, he said, was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their in ward most recesses and make them fear. He did in atlanta, georgia. Sherman, the first to realize that technology had changed the classics of warfare. Precisely 99 years ago today he battered his way into atlanta and began the ruthless destruction of the city. All rail lines were ripped up, bonfires were built, and the railed were twisted around trees to make sherman. F furnaces recked, buildings were felled. Night explosions thundered against red skies. When the city appealed to him, sherman replied, war is cruel and you cannot refine it. When he road out of the city, a third of atlanta lay in ashes. Although atlanta has not forgotten, it has changed. And we survey the current city. Atlanta began as early as 1919 with a grown up of negro and white people who established a commission dealing with interracial problems. This continued and in 1938 was expanded into the Southern Regional council with offices in all of the Southern States but headquartered here. This was a research organization. This sort of background made it possible for interested persons to take a look at the city. We like to think we played a part here on this newspaper, the atlanta constitution. We had a great deal of help, especially from mayor william b. Heartsfield who was mayor for 23 years. I remember bill coming to see us and about 16 or 17 years ago we began a campaign on the paper to help them put in negro police, the old story opposition came up, there will be blood in the streets. Nothing happened. The police had been enormously successful. We now have some have been promoted to officer status. We have had a great deal to do with making this a better city. The police. Now, we had a fine police chief and still have him, and Herbert Jenkins who trained his police early, well before the Eisenhower Administration or the Kennedy Administration began to bring civil rights to the floor, this police chief was training his officers and patrolmen in the rights of citizens. I guess weve been a lucky city, but we have worked at it and we have worked together at this. And we have not been unaware of the problem. Youve lived with this problem for a long time. Is atlanta and the negro aspirations here a reflection of something very profound going on in American Society or is it peculiar just to this city . No, i think its something thats going on in American Society. It seemed to me looking at it across a span of about 35 years here in this city, that we were going along and making progress. Indeed we had done most of the things in atlanta before the great outburst of sitins and demonstrations. But tit seemed to me that what happened in birmingham, alabama, the police dogs and several days of brutality there, and television enabling people all over the country to see what is going on, newspapers writing about it, this really seemed to me to change the pattern almost overnight. I think it was said at lincolns proclamation ending slavey that the sparks from it fell on every state in the union and it seemed to me that the outrage in birmingham, the sparks of this fell on every state in the union. This is what opened up demands for civil rights in the north, east and west so that now i think this is a national thing. Were a part of it. Were lucky to have gotten so well on the way. Were a part of what now without question is a national involvement. Were nearly a decade after the Supreme Court ordered School Segregation ended with speed, the United States witnessed and even became accustomed to an annual autumnal right, the enrollment of a few negro students in allwhite schools. Sometimes it occurred peacefully. But either way, most white americans felt the negro was making progress. It was not until the spring of this year, 1963, that this illusion was shattered. Most of us were baffled by the new character of the struggle. Schools were no longer the prime target. In baltimore, it was an Amusement Park and ministers, not negro alone now, but whites were arrested for joining negros at trespassing on segregated ground. Negros were invoking the constitution itself. Negotiations no longer prevented demonstrations. Noticed but fitfully by the country as a whole, the negro had spilled his cause into the streets and the movement burst at seems and became a revolution. It happened in birmingham, alabama, and is reported by richard. Jets of water sent hundreds of negros reeling among the trees here in kelly ingram park. Police also used dogs, motorcycles, even an armored car to break up negro mobs. The violent outbursts came during the final days of a demonstration against Racial Discrimination in birmingham. The campaign was directed as in albany by the reverend Martin Luther king. Behind me is the 16th street baptist church, the main staging area for the demonstrations. On good friday, i watched dr. King lead a march through this park. Police commissioner Eugene Conner ordered his arrest. These two men played principle roles in the drama of birmingham. He preached and practiced the use of nonviolent direct action to achieve progress along the middle road between extremism and complacency. It symbolized to the negros the forces of white supremacy. The campaign had begun on april 3rd with smallscale marches which police handled with restraint. Then in may, a new dimension was added, the use of school children. The children took to the streets by the hundreds, following dr. Kings tactic of going to jail deliberately. Unlike albany, the nonviolent army was unlimited. 350,000 people, about 40 , are negros. Almost 700 were ar