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negro who was gunned down on the highways of mississippi. - [mukasa] james meredith was a young student that integrated to university of mississippi. - [bystander] go home nigger! - [mukasa] riots broke out, people got killed. james meredith felt that even though you passed the voter's right's bill, people still have fear. and he decided to walk from memphis, tennessee to jackson, mississippi 250 miles with a sign saying, "register to vote, have no fear." and when he stepped out in mississippi, a white man stepped out the bush and shot him in the back. - [hasan] even though sncc activists and sncc organizers were opposed to these large scale demonstrations and marches, they say "we have to get involved." because they were guided early on. this is freedom rise, diane nash. you never let violence stop a protest. you never let violence stop a local movement.
have awakened the conscience of this nation, we shall overcome. - [hasan] this is when we often look away from, sort this moment of civil rights. we say the voting rights act has passed, right? the white folk around the country, you know, in the north are like, "well, what else you negroes need?" right? "you got the voter rights. you know we're done, right?" - [courtland] we weren't just interested in the vote. we were interested in changing who ran the county. if we're 80% of the county, why don't we think about power? because our view was, if you wanted to end the brutality of the sheriff, you needed to become the sheriff. if you wanted better education, you needed to control the mechanisms of education. if you wanted to do the various kinds of tax assessors, tax collector, you needed to assume all those positions. - you weren't talking about overthrowing anything, you were talking about being becoming a part of it.
from community to community, from city to city, from state to state, across this racist nation. so we can have the power in our hand. - [hasan] the lowndes county freedom organization serves as the inspiration for the black panther party for self-defense organized in oakland, california in 1966, but there are some real differences. while self defense was central to the movement experience in lowndes county, they did not organize around the gun, but in oakland, california, it was different. - [singers] ♪ revolution has come. ♪ - [crowd] out the pig! - [singers] ♪ revolution has come. ♪ - [crowd] out the pig! - [singers] ♪ time to pick up the guns. ♪ - [crowd] out the pig! - [hasan] they're actually using displays of guns to back down the police, but then also to organize, to inspire, to rally african americans. the impetus was more about community programs and community
there were no black people registered to vote in lowndes county, alabama out of some 5,122 who were actually eligible to vote. - [william] people were followed. they would write down people's license plates. people could lose their jobs. your car loan might come due in its entirety, for example, if you were found to be trying to register african americans to vote. (indistinct chatter) - [hasan] john hulett is native of lowndes county, alabama. after high school, graduates from lowndes county training school, leaves lowndes county, alabama, and heads to birmingham. there's a very active naacp chapter in birmingham, alabama and john hulett joins, becomes a part of it. and then in the 1950s, he returns to lowndes county. not because he was driven by a desire to transform lowndes county, but because he had some family issues to take care of, but he also comes back as a registered voter.
- [wendell] we hadn't heard anybody that would talk to white people, the way that sncc talked to white people, straight to their face in a language that they understood. - [hasan] so they fall back and they huddle up. it's like, "okay, well we're gonna tell them to figure out what we gotta do." and carmichael is like, "hey, y'all need to hurry up. you either gonna arrest me or you need to let me do what i gotta do." - [john] and he wasn't afraid. and all those sncc people knew how to work together and help each other and taught us that. - [carolyn] i heard about black people coming from outside the area to organize. just a lot of anxiety about what that was gonna mean. - [margaret] the implications of voting meant that there would be different people in control and very, very much worried about outside agitators. nicorette knows quitting smoking is freaking hard.
and know how to sort of navigate this treacherous terrain to help them do the things that they need to do to get to freedom on their own terms. but dr. king, with the southern christian leadership conference, wouldn't establish a presence. you know, king was like, "yeah, y'all need to, don't mess with lowndes county." you can't do anything down there. it's too dangerous, right? it's too crazy. bloody lowndes you don't fool with that. we don't even know where to begin. - [lillian] we'd been out here a hundred years, nobody had come, and we were able to put enough together to a massive meeting. and the church would be flowing over till we had to get a second crowd. without their help, so - [hasan] while participating in the selma to montgomery march, sncc, which stands for the student nonviolent coordinating committee, they're talking to local people
- [ruby] we were in a war. america declared war on southern freedom fighters. (drums beating throughout) - [lillian] people were evicted from their shacks that they were living in because they were attempting to get registered to vote. and the white people put 'em off of there. so they didn't have anywhere to go. and we were able to acquire tents and set up tent city. - [john] there were some people in detroit started a lowndes county christian movement for human rights, in michigan. so what they did was raise money and funds to keep us going and to also provide the tents. - [hasan] tent city becomes a shooting gallery for white folk. black folk had to respond to that, posting armed sentries, and guarding tent city just like they did the homes of movement leaders.
(funky music) - [hasan] three candidates for school board, a candidate for coroner, tax assessor, tax collector, and sheriff. - [stokely] we gotta vote for people who've been in the cotton fields like ourselves, and they're the ones who are gonna bring us out of the cotton field. now the law says that you can't vote in ours and also vote in the democratic primary, which has to be held on the same day, according to the law. and if we get one of those candidates picked, then on november 8th, their names will go on the ballot box and we'll vote on this for black panther. so where you gonna be on may 3rd? - right there. (laughs) i'll be there. - okay, we'll see you later. - okay. (funky music) (crowd noise)
easily distorted that i justtheh don't i don't think it's really worth the worth the bother of even making the argument. ust gi >> i mean, that's my point.hit o you just giving them a batd to hit you over the head with .m >> so i think margarito makin children is making an invigorated argument for federalism, which i think a lotr of voters would ascribe to .s hu i don't think that it's helpfula when we havets t democrats tryis to divide us , even divide parents from their own children by pushing woke ideology in the classroom. so>> laura: obviously. the way e constructive is for the house of representativeshous under republican control to use the power of the purse purs, to defund the woke. weaponized federal governmenweat from the department of education to the department of labor to even elementslement depa of that' the department of justice and the fbi.ere ha and that's where there hasan to be republican stridency, not just in press releases, in floor speeches and flo, but whe actually get to the debt limit and the appropriations bills. d