Frank mcgee. There comes a time, there even comes a moment in the affairs of men when they sense their lives are being altered forever. But an old order is dying in a new is being bored and a new is being born. Some. Oment comes soon for for others the moment arrives , when a deed of new dimension sets the hour apart, for others, when words are spoken more sharply. Later, but still suddenly, it seems men are saying and doing things they have never said or done before. Then we know we are experiencing a revolution. But we cannot say, though hell 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 is no longer in summer. So did the American Revolution of 63, begin in birmingham in begin this year in birmingham or in 1955 in montgomery or in 1954 with the Supreme Court decision, or in 1863 with the proclamation . Some of its roots reach back to 1776 to the independence declaration. Even back to the year 52, when the apostle paul said god has made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth. The truth is, the American Revolution of began in all of 63 those years, that those generations past along to this passede generations along to this one a restless sometimes ebbs and sometimes flows, but moves toward freedom for all men. Our purpose now is to define this revolution. We propose to show how it began. It began in many ways, the course it is following, there are many tributaries, and its effects. To do this, we shall take the next three hours. We have step list no rigid form for doing this. Revolutions do not visit you do not fit easily into standard sized containers. We are confident that any strand in a fabric being woven will ultimately cross all the other strands. As in albany, georgia. There, as in hundreds of other communities the church is the , negros privileged sanctuary. The story was covered by herbert caplow. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine i am going to let it shine, let shinene, let it i am going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine i am going to let it shine herbert music has long used as an expression of protest, and why in september 1961 albany became a target, no one is sure. Most other communities in this area were recognized as tougher in thisegroes then city, but the resentment showed itself in albany in song and in other forms and arenas of demonstration. Oh, freedom, my lord i will space freedom, freedom a ban on demonstrations has brought more than 1500 arrests far,a segregationists so most last summer forces of , Martin Luther king were prominent in the drive. From outside albany came ministers and rabbis to demonstrate in street prayer. We are here to offer up our prayers to god. What is your purpose . Our purpose is to offer our prayers to god. I am asking you to disperse and go your normal way, go back to your normal places of livelihood, preach to your own congregation, and clear your own community of sin and of lawlessness before you come here to try to convert us. Anybody else want to be heard from . 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 in their refusal to negotiate with the negroes, a negotiation which brought comment from president kennedy. I find it inexplicable why the city council of albany will not sit down with the citizens of albany, who may be negroes, attempt to secure them in a peaceful way their rights. The United States government is in geneva with the soviet union. I cant understand why the city council of albany cant do the same for american citizens. Herbert the otherwise quiet georgia city, 37,000 whites, 23,000 negroes remained stalemated in the fight. At one point, desegregation leader king, who himself had been jailed, saw success ahead. We are all disappointed with the recalcitrance of the city commission, and their refusal to talk with the 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 i am convinced that within the next few months, we will be able to see changes in this community that will completely change, in terms of desegregation and in terms of new levels of communication. Herbert but what has resulted from the arrests . 1500 tangibly, little, negro leaders concede. Assume was filed against of the federal government and alleged retaliation against a white juror who voted against their voted to their displeasure in another civil rights matter. White community of albany has yielded nothing of significance. There are no demonstrations now in albany. There are mass meetings every monday night, but little else. The police chief says albany is just about the way it was before all this. Intangibly there is one thing that did come out of albany 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 have always been those who wish to stand aloof of messy struggle and, at most to remain unemotionally , involved. They are always an uncomfortable and usually an unhappy lot. More than 100 years ago, an old woman, the mother of a member of lincolns cabinet, sat rocking on her porch and sped out these words. Of all these things in the world i hate slavery the most, except evolutionists. These abolitionists, scourge of the south and bane of the north, careless of the line between righteousness and selfrighteousness sent spread what many union men considered pernicious views until they enlarge toward to save the union into a war to abolish slavery. In amherst, massachusetts, buildings and trees stand guard over 100 memories. There is a doorway now known to students dead now for over a century and a half. Here is a student name henry ward beecher, who established a church in brooklyn. Here he could read the antislaverythe newspaper published by the stern, uncompromising William Lloyd garrison. Beecher would remember, and in the years ahead, he would shock half the country by auctioning a slave girl from the pulpit of his church, stirring protest. There was Horace Greeley of the powerful new york tribune. He hated slavery and the tyranny of delay. Is ours, he said. And Julia Ward Howe writing the , words that would be spoken at thousand times when the angry storm came. In coeditor, an angry minister, and a lady, each protesting this slavery. And here is how it started. Africa, the coast of guinea, a tribesman properly subdued and , brought a better price. Africa, the coast of guinea, a tribesman properly set nude and brought a better price than rice. They were packed into ships. These are their children, names and age unknown. And the price. That was a thing of supply and demand. Tuesday, newy 5, orleans. 41 slaves sold to the highest bidder. There was lewis, a black man, 32, a good field hand and laborer. Shelley, 26. Wesley. Anderson, 24yearold bricklayer and mason, who brought the days price,ce, 2700 top 2700. It was the same in New Amsterdam and a score of ports and inland cities. 2700 for a bricklayer. The women made good servants, but the babies could do nothing useful, not for a long time. Sometimes they were not made part of the bargain. It was simply a matter of business or so they said. The peculiar institution was argued and debated, attacked and defended, but it was there. Some streets were different. Events might have happened differently. As those against slavery almost one in the beginning. By the end of the revolutionary war, it was acknowledged that slavery was not only immoral, it was economically unwise. You could not fire a slave. He 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. 10 men could replace 100. And suddenly, almost cotton , became the main crop of the south. Everywhere, cotton replacing rice and tobacco in sorghum. Cotton, quickly baled for the endless boats that waited at towns. Of river cotton at the mills of new whosed, hungry mills, hunger seemed to grow by what it fed on. Windows on a 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. There is music and dancing, singing voices. That was the idea. But this is closer to the reality. And this. And, if any tried to escape this. , in 1854, a new book appeared, cabin. Oms it seems hopelessly Old Fashioned it now, uncle tom and eva in some forest but to its , generation, it came like an avenging bolt of lightning. President lincoln would meet the author, harriet beechers toe, sister of henry ward beecher, who he called the little lady who started the war. We cannot summon back the sentiments it aroused. We cant know what it was like in a darkened theater to sit and watch a play unfold. But we almost can. In 1903, Thomas Edison made a film of the play and it looked , like this. Liza crosses the ice to freedom. Now, the beating of uncle tom. The villain is simon lou correa, 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. belongs to god. And a change was coming. New york city. Here, ed kuiper at cooper union a lovely brownstone , building that still exists, came a hint that the issue was moving toward a summer toward its somber resolution. In the winter of 1860 came abraham lincoln, a politician from illinois, relatively unknown, and he wouldnt have been invited at all if Horace Greeley at the tribute hadnt at the tribune hadnt been dissatisfied with all the other republican leaders. Mr. Lincoln might have had something to say. He did. Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet afford let it stay where it is. But will we allow it to spread in the National Territory and overrun us here in the free states . If our sense of duty for bids this, then let us stand by our duty, and fearlessly and effectively. Neither let us be slanted by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of disruption to the government. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us to the end they are 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 piece. 100yearold words that are still in an empty room. That echoes still in an empty room. There were hints of the conflict to come. This is Harpers Ferry in a place 1859, of no importance at all except for the presence of a government armory. And here came john brown. Deep bearded. The plan was to capture arms and start a negro revolt, but it failed and brown was executed. I, john brown, and certain the m certain that the crimes of this guilty land will not be purged away but with lot. That with blood but with blood. It came first at a place called bull run. There would be more. A september night, 100 years ago, maryland, pleasant but not that night. Somewhere up ahead, many would die. 26,000 americans died, for each army about equal. Still, the confederates had retreated and lincoln would call it a victory. He came to antietam to talk strategy with general mcclellan, but his thoughts were long and deep. Now is the time. He spoke with his cabinet. Stanton was against it. No, no. Secretary seward, all of them doubted. All of them doubtful. And in single resolution and in loneliness, lincoln made the decision. But on the first day of january, 1863, all persons held as slaves within any state or designated a part of the state, the people thereof shall then be in rebellion against the united then, shall be thenceforth and forever free. ,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. Sale, this man. He is a soldier, bound to his status and his job. Here. S it began for men who dared to fight and thered dream and it dared to dream, and now, for the first time, we really saw their faces. The proclamation of emancipated no slaves. Lincoln had known it would not. Such a decree, he once said it, 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 victory and peace. Of august 6, 1864, must come to the powerful negotiations of generals grant and sherman. Sherman, william tecumseh, red bearded and hot eyed and perhaps half mad, but seeing in a way that only perhaps half mad ducey. Sherman realized hatred had become the driving force of the work. He accepted this. His name, he said was to rip the with the rebels, humble their pride, follow them to their inmost recesses and make them fear and dread us. He did. Atlanta, georgia. Sherman, first to realize technology had changed the classics of warfare, was the first to strike at the source of armed power instead of the armed power itself. 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 bent at the ties and the rails were heated redhot and twisted around trees to make hairpins. Foundries were wrecked, smokestacks wrecked. The flames spread to an arsenal and night explosions thundered against flame reddened skies. When appealed to sherman , replied, war is cruel and you cannot refine it. When he rode out of the city, a of atlanta lay in ashes. Third today, although atlanta has not really forgotten, it has changed. And with nbcs sandra van and atlanta constitution editor ralph mcgill, surveys the current city. Atlanta began as early as 1819 with a group of negro and white people who established a commission dealing with interracial problems. In 1938, ited and, was expanded in the Southern Regional council, with offices in all the Southern States, but with headquarters here. This was a research organization. This sort of background made it persons for interested to take a look at the city. We like to think we played a part here in this newspaper, the atlanta constitution. We had a great deal of help, especially from mayor hartsfield, who was mayor for about 23 years. I remember bill coming to see us about 16 or 17 years ago. We began a campaign on the paper to help him put in negro police. Up,old opposition came there will be blood in the streets. Well, nothing happened. It has been extraordinarily successful. We now have been promoted to officer status. Three of them had a great deal to do with making this a better city, the police. Now, we had a fine police and andl have him, Herbert Jenkins in herbert police, who trained his before the truman administration, to bring civil rights to the four. Was traininghief his officers and patrolman in the rights of citizens. So i guess we have 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. You have lived with this problem for a long time. Atlanta, are the negro aspirations here a reflection of something going on in american society, or just the city . I think it is something in american society. Looking at it across the span of about 35 years in the city, we were going along, making progress. Indeed, we have done most of the things in atlanta before the great outbursts of sit ins and demonstrations, but it seemed to me that what happened in birmingham, alabama, the police dogs and several days of brutality there, and television enabling people all over this country to see what was going on, newspapers writing about it, this really seemed to me to change the pattern almost overnight. Lincolns was in proclamation ending slavery that in every state in the union. It seemed the sparks fell on avery state in the union. This changed and what is opened up demands for civil rights in the north, east, and west. I think this is now a national, and we are part of it. We are lucky to get so well on the way, but now there is no question of the national involvement. After therly a decade Supreme Court ordered School Segregation ended with all deliberate speed, the midstate witnessed and became accustomed to an annual autumnal rite, the enrollment of a few negro students in previously allwhite schools, sometimes against the background of howling mobs, sometimes peacefully, but americans felt the negro was making progress. It was not until this year that the illusion was shattered. Most of us were battered by the new character of the struggle. Schools were no longer the target. In baltimore, it was an amusement park. Of all faiths were arrested joining negroes on segregated grounds. They were invoking the constitution itself. It negotiations no longer halted demonstrations. Negro hadoticed, the spilled his cause into the streets, and the movement burst its sea and became a revolutionms. It happened in alabama and was recorded by richard. Yesterday, water from highpressure fire hoses sent inroes reeling and sprawling this park a few miles from downtown birmingham. Police used cars to break up negro mobs. Of outburst came after days demonstration against Racial Discrimination in birmingham, the most segregated bigcity in the south. The campaign was erected by the reverend Martin Luther king jr. He made his headquarters at a neegro hotel. Behind me, the baptist church. On good friday, i watched dr. King lead a long and segregation marked through this park. The Police Commissioner ordered his arrest. These men played at principal roles in the drama of birmingham in theed principal roles drama of birmingham. We preach and practice the use of nonviolent direct action to achieve Immediate Progress on the middle road b