Southern Historical Association annual meeting in atlanta. This is just under two hours. We are fortunate indeed he does miss abernathy returned yesterday from an extended stay in germany with the familys eldest daughter. Some of you know that she, as abe a, along with her mother, mrs. Abernathy then pregnant with their second daughter who miraculously survived the dynamite bombing of their home in montgomery in 1957. Along with tuskegee attorney fred gray, she is the last remaining leader from the montgomery bus boycott. On several occasions, i have been privileged to listen to mrs. Abernathy recall her experiences in the civil rights struggle and we are in for a treat. Our program is simple first we will hear some introductory comments or may scholar who will provide a biographical sketch of our subject and place her in historical context. Then mrs. Abernathy will offer her remembrances about the movement. Finally, we will open the floor to questions so we can have an engaging conversation with ms. Abernathy. Let me now identify ms. Brenda kindle from the university of North Carolina charlotte. She is a native of charlotte burning her bachelor degree there at unc charlotte and working on her doctorate at Emory University on a dissertation that explores the lives of civil rights widows. Please join me in welcoming ms. Kendall. [applause] greetings. It is indeed a privilege to provide opening remarks for this special session entitled remembering a career in civil rights. Before i begin my formal remarks, i would like to thank gregory nixon, glenn sq, and Carmen Harris for inviting me to take part in this program. Finally, i would like to thank mrs. Abernathy for sharing her time wisdom, and unique perspective on the Civil Rights Movement. As you can see, hers is a life well lived and preserved. Even as she has witnessed some of our nations darkest hours. Needless to say, we are excited for her to be your today. The Civil Rights Movement has dynamic borders and is an endlessly prismatic struggle at the core of our national identity. It is a movement that has been written from multiple perspectives, documented and countless venue scripts biographies, autobiographies documentaries, films, immortalized in public history and abbreviated and elongated in our relentless scholarly quest to define its historical borders. It is, like all things, subject to the history of atrophy and memory and revived in moments of natural commemoration and historical anniversary. This year alone, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1954 and we remember the lights the lives of james cheney, Michael Goodman and Michael Schwerner who lost their lives fighting in the trenches for freedom. However, if we wish to continue deepening our understanding of this prismatic struggle, it will not solely be found by studying the iconic men or blockbuster events that have come to dominate the movements master narratives. Rest assured that story is important and it has found a permanent home in the annals of American Social and political reform. For me, the story of the Civil Rights Movement became more intimate and tangible when i watched the eyes on the prize documentary as a High School Student and heard mrs. Abernathy utter these words we were the movement. She was, in part, referring to the significant role everyday black women play in the struggle for freedom and was alluding to the unique contributions she made with Ralph David Abernathy and as an activist in her own right. Theres a naive tendency to build the civil rights leaders as satellites of the struggle who were politicized by marrying their husbands, as women standing behind their men rather than beside them. To the contrary, women like mrs. Abernathy, critics could credit scott king and sony otherwise were partners in the movement for civil rights and their political aptitude transcends the lives they shared with their husbands will stop in the case of mrs. Abernathy, the germ of her aberrant of her activism is from germantown, alabama. In his biography, dr. Abernathy shares a story shared with him by mrs. Abernathys parents. He writes since talking to her parents, i learned she had always been strongwilled and independent. Even as a young girl, she and not submitted to many of the indignities other blacks were willing to bear. As a teenager, she had come to town one day to buy the weeks groceries at a white owned supermarket will stop while her purchases were being rung up, she watched as a young white girl followed behind as a young boy carry the groceries to the car. When the cashier handed one need at the ticket, she refused to pay it. She stood there while the people behind her weighted. Cashier looked at her for a second and should his head. What are you waiting for, she asked . Im waiting for the boy to carry out my groceries, she replied. The cashier looked puzzled and then his mouth fell open. But we only do that for white customers, he said. You charge me the same amount for my groceries, dont you . She said. Sure, he said. Then i should get the same service, she said. The line was getting longer, but still the cashier would not instruct the boy to carry her groceries stop well, she said if the boy cant take my groceries to the car, i guess he will have to put them back on the shelves will stop then she walked out of the store. These discoveries reveal the nascent stays is of mrs. Abernathys political stance, marking a watershed in history of like peoples experimentation with americas brand of our disciplinary democracy. She stood on the front lines of the movements iconic stances like the bus we cant, selma chicago, the Poor Peoples Campaign and the charleston strike of 1968. She, like dr. Abernathy marched in their sundays best and as a penalty for peaceful protest, she too was jailed. Still, there were times she lettered the storm without her husband. In this regard, no one knew the casual violence and hate like the wives of the struggle. They courted widowhood as the specter of death as the specter of martyrdom defined their daily lives. When their husbands were away doing work, the phones rang relentlessly and they were often on the receiving end of antiand real threats of violence and harm. In 1957, while mrs. Abernathy was pregnant with her daughter, and home alone with her eldest daughter, a baby, their house in the church were fire borrow were fire borrow higher bond. Such an act was a reminder of the dangers endemic to Civil Rights Activism. The on the ways in which she interface with the protracted struggle for civil and human rights, she surged as the first lady in the churches dr. Abernathy passes pastored and a confidant to her husband as he assumed the helm of the southern christian Leadership Conference following dr. Martin luther kings untimely death in 1968. Moreover she bore witness to trials entry galatians that came with public life and the hard decisions that followed as she and dr. Abernathy renegotiated their social identities and adjusted their positions in the postcivil rights years. In truth, no one can tell this story with the label of integrity and intimacy better than mrs. Abernathy herself. That said, i will hand the podium over to the lady of the hour mrs. Juanita jones abernathy. [applause] thank you. What a beautiful introduction. Thank you for envisioning this opportunity for me and seeing it through to its fruition. Last night, i arrived from a 10 hour flight from student guard germany. I got into bed about 11 00 and rose this morning. I could not miss this opportunity. It is so important to speak with you historians for you write the words many of our young people and teach the words many of our young people will only learn from you. I pray that you will be unrelenting in your teaching the truth. Regardless of how you feel about it. My husband used to say, as i would say to him ralph, the media said this in the media said that. And thats not true. And i said you did this and you did that and they dont even call your name. His reply would always be, juanita, dont worry about my legacy. Real historians will big up the truth. My response always would be to him dig it up from who . We will all be gone by then. So who will tell the truth . And im asking you to be that vehicle, to write our history and to tell it like it was an like it is. Because i truly feel you have a moral obligation to tell the truth. If you dont, who . And if not now when will it be told . It has been wonderful having the privilege of meeting you and i guess on an annual basis for several years now. You dont know about the women of the movement. I am truly amazed at how people have rewritten our history and put people in place in key roles who are not even involved. I have begun to say, my god the longer some people live, the bigger the stories become. Therefore, i admonish you to do research and find the facts because today, they are written by the news media and articles and magazines by people, who during the Civil Rights Movement, many of whom were not even privileged to write for the new york times, Time Magazine and u. S. News world report. They were not even privileged at that time to write. They are now writing our history. It is very, very, very, very unfortunate. I started off as she said. Im an old schoolteacher so you get accustomed to learning names, that she did some research, but people dont. They dont look for anything. Im not criticizing you, teachers. And tell these stories as if they are fact. I have heard over and over and over again that malcolm x. And Martin Luther king were friends. Not so. They only met once. That was in washington dc. Only met once. It is expedient now to put some people with some people, so they do that. Because it is good publicity. They only met once. You will see the picture of malcolm and martin shaking hands. Right tweet them, you see right between them, you see the path of them they reached over my husband who was present at that initial and only meeting. They reached across him and shook can. The wives were not friends. In fact, to tell the truth malcolm x. Was not even a supporter of what we were doing. We were nonviolent. We were moving too slow. Many of us were called uncle toms and being conservative because of the positions we took. So now, everybody was with us who was black, that is not true. Every leader of an organization who was lack. Was not with us. It is time for us to get it right. Im not as young as i used to be. Thank god i have good health. He has been good to me. I have no Health Problems except when ive had since i was 17 and in college. I dont have high blood pressure. I dont have Heart Disease that im aware of. I dont have any diabetes. I dont take one medication. My god has been good to me. My mother had 93 past that had no high blood pressure. Her body just shut down one day and she went on in. I attribute that it must have been my indian genes. My grandmother grandfather was fullblooded cherokee and my grandmother on my mothers side was half jerky. Maybe, i dont know, maybe that is what is keeping me. I am thankful to god i have my mental faculties, i can remember and my children dont like for me to remember as much as i do. [laughter] because it is convenient sometimes when they can run things past you because you do not remember. I want to Say Something to you about the women of the civil rights. You hear about men did this and mended asked they did, but let me tell you something. Women have always been the backbone of men. Whether you give us credit for it or not, real men know that without their wives god only knows what happened to them sometime. Women take care of the children, they do they teaching and the training, and they give examples of fine womanhood to our girls. We look to the fathers to give their sons examples of finer manhood. Women have always been brave, we have always an intuitive we are kind of halfway psychic. Sometimes you tell your husband, i would not do so and so if i were you because it may not happen the way you think it will. I think you need to think about that a little more. Mrs. Soandso that went into that does this is not as loyal as you think. We are kind of intuitive. Men always like to hear that but the more they get, they can give us credit if they can avoid it. Im not doubting men, im just telling you like it is. Men are courageous, but there is an old, old saying that behind every great man, theres a woman, and i like to say beside because we dont walk behind. We walk beside. As pastor of the church, when i leave, im going to because the backbone of the church, and you know it is the truth, are the women. If you want a job done in job done well, give it to the women. They will see it through. The men in the movement ran the movement but they there were two women you hear very little about them. But those two women were working with the montgomery bus boycott the bus system, to get them to give an assigned seating arrangement to the blacks. Joann robinson and mary burke worked with the womens political counsel long before we had a Martin Luther king. You read now that Martin Luther king started, but that is not true. Ed nixon was president of the naacp and rosa parks was the secretary. By mother was president of the membership drive. When we married, he was teaching at Alabama State. With joann robinson. And had to quit to give his full time to the church the First Baptist church, where he was when i married him. The church he was pastoring when martin came to the baptist church. You dont hear much about vernon johns. You need to look them up. The genius of a man. A very courageous man. Well educated and was not afraid of anybody or anything. He was martins predecessor at dexter Avenue Baptist Church. You dont read much about him because he wasnt concerned about whether he had a checkered mark suit or even if the suit was really that claim. His shirt collar could have been broken down. Didnt really matter. But an intellectual of the first magnitude. He and his wife raised three Phi Beta Kappa children. We dont give him credit. But had there not been a vernon johns in montgomery, who laid the foundation and did his oneman protest constantly, and montgomery, there never would have been a rosa parks. Before rosa, there was Claudette Coleman who had been arrested. And Mary Louise Smith but they were teenagers. They could not jail the community. But rosa, being the secretary of the naacp, when she sat down, ed nixon said now its time for us to do something. You read in some of these books somebody even said rosa was chosen and had been counseled what to do. That is why she sat down. Biggest lie that could be told. Joann robinson had gotten from the best from the bus company a seating arrangement. The first to see, the long seat across the back, and the first two rows from the back forward rosa was seated in one of those seats. When the bus driver asked her to get up and give her seat to a white man. She refused because she was seated where the bus company had said blacks were legally supposed sit. So, when you read rosa was chosen to sit there to get a case, that is not true. I was in montgomery. I answered the phone when ed nixon called and said weve got to do something. Rosa had been arrested. My husband was a leader in montgomery as a student head of the student body at Alabama State and an activist in the community as a pastor. Pastoring the oldest black baptist church, dexter Avenue Baptist Church grew out of First Baptist. Im saying this so that you can tell it like it should be. I have a history teacher to ask me once, missed ms. Abernathy, how did it feel for your church will First Baptist to be invited to dexter . I said excuse me . How did it feel for your church i read your church was invited to dexter. I said yes. How did that make you feel . I said i dont understand. First baptist is the oldest church. National Baptist Convention usa incorporated was organized, what do you mean . She said the church was invited to dexter. We are not a less than church. She said oh i didnt understand that. So that is what happens when people write stories rather than facts. My position ever since has been to tell the truth, to give credit where credit is due. Claudette set down and was arrested and Mary Louise Smith to. Rosa parks was number three. But because she was secretary for the naacp, mr. Nixon, as president decided we were going to work and he said ok we were going to stay off the buses one day and that was monday. To demonstrate we did not like what had happened. That rosa was arrested. After the buses ran empty, they decided to do it on tuesday and on thursday, they organized. They decided to get a president and Martin Luther king was chosen as president. The boycott was a 100 success it was the fact that the community was completely irritated by the abuse of the main bus drivers in montgomery. That sparked what i call automatic combustion. The people were tired. I am so thankful that i am still here and can say some things and i hope you understand i dont need anything from it. I just know that the truth has to be told for all coming generations because if you dont tell it, who will . I look at reporters today, nobody does research. They just write a story. If people take the stories they pick up from the media as being fact and write the books, then the truth will never get out. Because nobody does research and the reporters are supposed to. That is the part about moral obligation as reporters. They are supposed to do the research before they put it in print. But everybody is lazy or uncaring, i should say, but how the future looks. Educators are going to have to make that difference. The women were the backbone of the <