Transcripts For CSPAN3 Reel America The American Revolution

Disobedience. Now were about to explore the means by the negro to civilly disobey. Every revolution has its marching music. The American Revolution of 63, forged it into a powerful weapon for unity and inspiration. This gentleman here first. O freedom and home to my lor free what are we marching for . Freedom how long are we going to march . Freedom, Freedom Freedom, freedom come and i want to go home freedom come and i wan to go home freedom come and i want to go home freedom, Freedom Freedom come and i want to go home freedom, Freedom Freedom come and i want to go home freedom come and i want to go home freedom come and i want to go home freedom, Freedom Freedom come and i want to go home freedom, Freedom Freedom come and i want to go home Freedom Freedom Freedom Freedom Freedom Freedom Freedom Freedom we shall overcome some day we shall overcome some day those young people singing the anthem of the American Revolution of 63 were freedom riders. They were a part of the pattern developed in this revolution, a pattern fashioned by events, more than events, fashioned to a pattern. Along the way the negro not only evolved the freedom ride but the sitin, the direct Action Campaign, borrowed the economic boycott, involved the use of federal troops, killed and has been killed. Were about to see them all. And as we see them we will also see the growing participation of young whites in the battle. That participation enlarged the dimensions of the revolution physically and morally. And they have taken part in increasing numbers particularly in sitin demonstrations. It was a tactic employed by Negro College students in greensboro, north carolina. On february 1, 1960, a group of freshmen from greensboros agricultural and Technical College wrote a new page of sitin history. Ignoring the ancient barriers they seated themselves at a segregated lunch counter. They were refused service and asked to leave. They sat on studying their textbooks. Police came and took them off to jail. The lunch counter was closed, the seats roped off. A few days later the sitin movement it taken firm root in nation nationalville, tennessee, more than a hopeful stirring in the collective negro breast. The fisk students gave it impetus and organization. The signs of segregation hung all over the city, a constant provocation to the students of fisk. The attitude of the segregation minded whites could not have been stated more bluntly. Im sorry. We are not allowed to serve niggers in here. Tess something ive never heard and i like to explore what it is. I went to this workshop and on this particular night they were having to role play and in some of the scenes you almost cried because they were playing the part. Lets play eenie, meanie, minie moe. With such training as this to bolster their dedication, the sitin movement became one of the negroes most effective weapons. The pattern left its imprint across the entire south. Everywhere the negroes were on the march. In jackson, mississippi, this year a sitin group including whites as well as negroes stoically faced violence and told its own story. Needed no comment. One negro student, memphis morm morman, was dragged from his stool and brutally beaten. Norman, who had offered no resistance, was arrested. The sitters spattered with ketchup, mustard, salt and sugar were carted off unprotested to jail. Every society based on slavery from greece to the American South lived in fear of slave insurrections, and they occurred. Spa spartikus led oneandone in southampton, virginia. Both died for their efforts. The american slave has long since been freed, and in his quest for the fruits of that freedom there has been rarely been violence. But the potential is there and it hangs as ominously over the nation today as ever it hung above the plantations yesterday. Take harlem, a major stronghold of the black muslims. For more on that story here is nbc reporter bob teague. Reporter according to the muslims, the white man is the devil, the source of all evil. He hates black men, and black men should hate him in return. Those are the basic teaches of the muslim prophet. He also teaches his followers about 75,000 that christianity has failed black men. The American Government has failed black men. The muslim solution a separate black state. Right after world war i a negro leader organized an illfated Campaign Based on the same principle, one of many men who opposed the movement, conditions that led hundreds of thousands of negroes to join the garvey parade. They had come out of the war where they had fought and died and come into the southern communities where they met a violent racial discrimination. Many soldiers were the victims of police brutality, some were lynched and, therefore, there was widespread frustration and discord and discontent among negroes. Garvey came along with his doctrine and painted glowing pictures of what negroes could do were they to migrate to africa, how they could build Great Enterprises and things of that sort. And this caught the interest and imagination of the negro, and many of them flocked into their movement. The black muslims say theres been little change in the racial picture since garveys days. Malcolm x said the only important changes have been brought about not by whites and not by integration groups but by elijah mohammed. How does mohammed go about helping negroes . Negroes dont nope the truth. You find the negro getting drunk, he doesnt know the truth. You find a negro lying and cheating, hes usually imitating the white man. Negroes get drunk because they see white men get drunk. They commit adultery because all they see is the white man committing fornication and adultery. And they want to be like the white man, so they copy his immoral behavior. The prophet comes along and teaches black people the glory of black so the black men tries to imitate god, he tries to be himself and he tries to display a high moral quality rather than the low moral quality. Reporter steered by some whites that the muslims advocate violence. But thats not exactly the case. They say they dont believe in starting a fight. But they wont turn the other cheek. That brand of militancy has forced other leaders to become more aggressive. Its the implied threat of increasing muslim power that makes some whites more willing to negotiate with the socalled moderate groups. To that extent the black muslims are making a major contribution to the drive for equal rights. There are several organizations emphasizing several methods of attack and at times competing for leadership of the revolution. The National Association for the advancement of colored people born when this century was ten years old took a renewed struggle for political and civil liberty into the courts. The southern christian Leadership Conference born of a bus boycott in montgomery, alabama, half a century later, took its call for all here and now in the streets. The congress of racial equality and the student nonviolent coordinating committee, the freedom rides and setins. Methods have merged and led to largescale demonstration that is include children against a spectrum of targets. The tactic is called a Massive Campaign of direct action, sometimes the campaign strains its limiting policy of nonviolence and sometimes it exacts of its leader the highest price, death. It happened in jackson, mississippi. Shortly after midnight on june 12, medgar evers stepped from his car. He was silhouetted against the carport light behind me. A shot from a highpowered rifle shattered the nighttime. He was fatally wounded. He was 37. He had been field secretary of the naacp in mississippi for nine difficult years. Dont shop for anything on capitol street. Let the merchants feel the economic pinch. Let me say this to you. I had one merchant call me and he said i want you to know that ive talked to my National Office today and they want me to tell you that we dont need nigger business. These are stories that help to support the white Citizens Council, the council dedicated to keeping you and i second class citizens. So let us not trade these stories. Lets urge our friends, our relatives, our neighbors not to trade these stores. Finally, ladies and gentlemen, and this is final, well be demonstrating here until freedom comes to negroes here in jackson, mississippi. [ applause ] in late may evers opened a full scale Action Campaign against the total segregation of the city. This was a switch from the previous emphasis on court action. The movement lacked mass support from the citys 50,000 negroes. Sitin demonstrators at a lunch counter were doused with ketchup and mustard the first day. A white demonstrator and two negroes were beaten. Jackson used it for instant arrest during later demonstrations. Policemen occasionally clubbed demonstrators and used other tactics designed to break their spirits. Negro prison trustees were used to carry demonstrators into paddy wagons. The white chaplain from predominantly Negro College was arrested. Teenagers arrested during one protest march were loaded into new garbage trucks and taken to a makeshift compound set up at the state fair grounds. The city had converted fair buildings into temporary prisons before during the freedom rides. As a measure of confidence and its ability to contain demonstrations. The executive secretary of the naacp, roy wilkins, came to jackson and joined evers on the picket line one saturday afternoon. They were promptly arrested. A state Court Injunction against demonstrations stalled but did not stop the desegregation campaign. Then evers was murdered. The fatal bullet was fired from a vacant lot across the street from evers home, crashing through his body. He considered himself a cause in the fight and said he was ready to die for that cause. He died a soldiers death, as a veteran of world war ii he was buried in Arlington National cemetery. The killing forged a new unity and set off a new wave of mass demonstrations bringing mass arrests. The following saturday thousands of mourners, including civil rights leaders from all over the country, marched in the funeral procession. Tension reached the point of explosion. A group charged wildly yelling and strouting. Shouting. They were cut off and moved in on the crowd. The negroes threw rocks and bottles. More Serious Violence was averted when civil rights attorney walked dramatically into the bombardment and calmed the crowd. Three days later mayor thompson ended the demonstration. We want this to be understood this is not a matter of the white people in the city of jackson winning. Or the negroes in the city of jackson winning. It is a matter of two races living sidebyside working out a peaceful solution to every problem that is presented. Young militants were not at all pleased. The city agreed to hire negro policemen and crossing guards for negro districts. It was, in effect, the jim grow s crow settlement. Byron delay beckwith, a 42yearold fertilizer salesman. Beckwith was charged with evers murder. The Jackson Movement is now concentration on a Voter Registration drive and the boycott of white businessmen. Standing against them are the segregationists who have the best organized force in the city and the state. They are dedicated to maintaining mississippis social and political structure. Their influence spreads to all levels of governance, strongest in the ural arural areas. They are stifled and even afraid. Between the new negro determination and the old white resistance lies enormous potential for violent conflict. Jackson, seat of the opposition to negro demands, the seat of the Citizens Council forum, perhaps better known as the white Citizens Council. President of the forum evaluated the revolution for this report. I think progress on the revolution has increased at a geometric rate in the last few months. Particularly since the negro leaders themselves have displaced white liberals in charge of the entire movement. This grew out of a policy that was adopted by the negro leaders at a socalled summit conference at Columbia University last thanksgiving where the entire Negro Movement and the United States was identified with the movement for african nationalism in africa. Now this is a development of extreme significance, i think, because it opens up the possibility for nonwhite domination of the United States through three means. One, through the mechanism of the united nations, two, through the Kennedy Administrations increasing tendency to surrender our National Sovereignty and, three, through massive colored immigration which is favored by liberal elements in this country. It seems to me this heightened pace of the revolution results from integration south. Under segregation there was no such disturbance as this, and this is not entirely unreasonable because these people have found through encouragement of the president and the attorney general that it pays to get out in the streets and demonstrate and carry on. And i would predict that if the civil rights bill is passed that will mean further, more violent demonstrations. The strange thing is, and this is great pity this entire Immigration Movement is based on false legal grounds. The grounds being the socalled Supreme Court integration decision of may 17, 1954. And the case in savannah, georgia, decided recently, uncontradicted unrefuted testimony showed the factual basis of the Supreme Court decision was entirely wrong. The outcome of all of this, i think, is to hasten a showdown as to whether the United States will remain a predominantly white nation with western Cultural Values or whether it will become increasingly africanized. Murder, the willful destruction of human life, has been rare in this revolution. But threats against life have been numberless and the negro who knows the history of his people in this country cannot dismiss such threats lightly. Between 1889 and 1959, 3,819 negroes were lynched in america. During this Time Congress steadfastly refused to pass a federal antilynching law. We have none now. In april of this year william e. Moore, a white man who freely acknowledged a history of mental illness, set out to walk from chattanooga, tennessee, to jackson, mississippi, where he hoped to persuade the governor. A white man shot him dead. Floyd simpson, a father of six, charged with unlawfully and with malice aforethought of killing moore. Simpson is free on bond. No date set for his trial. In june gunfire from the negro side of a riot killed a white man. That happened in lexington, north carolina. The victim was fred who died on the way to the hospital, a 24yearold auto mechanic, who, like hundreds of others, had been caught up in an emotional storm. Rioting had broken out at the edge of the white and negro sections of the city. Apparently stemming from attempts of a small negro group to integrate several restaurants and a theater. 500 whites faced 100 negroes with Lexington Police between. The line surged, rocks were thrown and shots fired from the negro side. Fred link fell to the street. Another man wounded but not seriously. Police dispersed the crowd with fire hoses, arrested seven negroes and 12 whites. Three of the negroes, 18 to 21 years of age, were charged with the killing. Theyll stand trial in october. The most tragic fact link apparently was only an innocent bystander, a man who found his destiny suddenly tied to the fury of a mob. It was the violence of a mob in yet another American City some six years earlier developed an additional weapon in the negro battle, federal intervention. And it was that mob and that federal intervention that placed americas racial problems on the front pages of newspapers in every foreign capital. The damage to the United States around the World May Never be fully assessed. The city, of course, was little rock. The reporter was and is herbert. Reporter little rock was an unlikely place for a federal state showdown tied to segregation. The governor was not considered a man devoted to segregation. But circumstances got out of control and Central High School became the pivot in this federal state struggle. I remember the night of september 24th, 1957, when the first battle dressed army troops arrived on this street. It was a scene incomprehensible to the fifth year people looking on. One man turned to a companion and said you wont get many people to fool around with those guys. Which prompted the response, yeah, but its a hell of a way to run a school. It was the disorder of the day before that led president eisenhower to send in the troops of 101st airborne. State and local police were unable that day before to control the mob which reacted in bitter violence on learning that nine negroes had entered the school as students. A couple weeks earlier state militia barred the negroes from the school. The nine negroes went in but were asked to leave. School time troops of the 101st airborne, a perimeter was established around the school beyond which we could not go. It was, i remember, quiet. Im not sure most of us had yet absorbed the historic scope of this mom