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 arrested on may 2nd. The demonstrations attracted huge crowds, negros who were not trained in the principles of nonviolence. The supercharged atmosphere sparked the antagonism into violence. Police dogs were brought in. They had been used before to disburse shouting negros. They had also been used on the freedom rides two years ago. Negros threw rocks and bottles at the police. Riots swept through the park. The leaders of the Birmingham Movement joined the police in efforts to calm the mobs to no avail. But the leaders insisted there would be no letup in the demonstrations. The demonstrations had aroused the long suppressed feelings of bitterness and frustration among the negro community. The police represented to them, that the authority had held them down. Now it came to the surface in a violent outburst. About 2500 negros were arrested. They filled the jails and other quarters in what dr. King called fulfillment of a dream. The head of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department was sent to birmingham to try to regenerate stalled negotiations going on behind the scenes. Governor George Wallace and state troopers helped to subdue the racial turbulence. The demonstrations and the negro boycott of downtown birmingham which had cost businessmen severe losses were called off. It sparked a wave of demonstrations elsewhere. But the trouble here was not over. The atmosphere was thick with hatred. The negotiators refused to make it. The bombings provoked an enragement. They bombarded police and firemen with anything they could throw. The rioting ranged unchecked into the Early Morning of mothers day. President kennedy ordered federal troops to bases near birmingham. Police forces sealed off a 28 block area. The next day, dr. King carried his message of nonviolence into the hall. The violence has nod endt ended birmingham. The new mayor was also threatened with a tear gas bombing. The home of a negro attorney was dynamited. Police were bombarded with rocks. The committee is still in the process of getting organized. Meanwhile another crisis loomed on september 4th, the first desegregation in the Public School system. Theyre calling for physical resistance. You je. He comments on the American Revolution, especially for this program. The Negro Movement is not a revolution. It is one phase of an agelong contest. In every civilization, they are joined by some who are unfortunate and the people of limited capacity have aligned themselves against the industrialists, able and debtpaying people. Sometimes this contest is quickly executed. Witness the french revolution of 1790. The coup of 1918 and the chinese takeover of 1946. In the United States, this contest is being waged gradually and at the ballot box. Then the contest began and freeholder qualifications disappeared. Educational qualifications were overlooked. Poll taxes were eliminated. Now the Negro Population is being poured into the ballot box so our country will not be run by its brains, but by its numbers. By those concerned with being fed, clothed and nursed by the government. The socalled Negro Movement is a part of the attempted takeover of our country by the lazy, the some misguided religious. Remember not to reason, but to the most votes. May 1969. The federal government, the Kennedy Administration was working largely behind the scenes to arrange or nurture the first hesitant and suspicious contacts between negros and white leaders. Hoping to achieve solutions. In birmingham, a truce was achieved with white business leaders. During that same troubled spring, another truce was achieved with white political leaders. That was in cambridge, maryland. Even the name of a street in maryland symbolizes the gulf of 12,000 people. It divides the city. Its driven them further apart racially. The demonstrations and the violence thought the Maryland National guard here in force to maintain order. The guardsmen still watching in cambridge. But desegregation campaign was organized by the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee with total integration of its goal. It was headed by gloria richardson. Along the way, nonviolent action too often became violent. The first explosion came in june, after a long series of demonstrations, arrests, more demonstrations, more arrests, truces, stalled negotiations, broken promises and charges of bad faith from both sides. Rioting rocked the city on june 11th, following a march to protest against the sentencing of two juvenile demonstrators to correction homes. Two days later, a huge throng of counter demonstrating whites were blocked from surging into the negro district. With the city on the verge of war, the National Guard was ordered into cambridge to maintain a civil government. Martial law and curfew smothered the outbreaks. On july 8th, the guard was pulled out. Demonstrations resumed immediately. A corner restaurant known as disneyland because one of the most impossible focal points when a demonstrator was smeared with raw egg. Afterward, nbc reporter jack perkins talked with the repentant business owner. You saw yourself on television, saw a very hateful man, are you that kind of man . Well, i would say im just an ordina ordinary american who feels that he has a right to defend his livelihood. I hope it never happens again either. Violence flared again after a prayer meeting at the courthouse. Shots were fired by snipers. The mood in the city was one of bitter anger on both sides. They keep thinking were begging them for something. We aint begging for nothing. Were telling them what is ours, right now. [ cheers and applause ] and were letting them know that we aint turning around. Like that song jim sang, we mean that. Well never turn back. They can come in town, but nobody can go out there . Thats one thing right now. Its all i got to say. Its all one sided. And newspaper and camera are one sided too. They print what they want to print. Three days after the guardsmen left, they were back. Again, the curfew, stricter this time. Demonstrations of all types are prohibited. All stores will be closed at 7 00 p. M. Curfew at 9 00 p. M. Please obey the curfew. We will not have demonstrations tonight. Meeting with the attorney general of the United States. Hes working on a solution. Obey the curfew. Please obey the curfew. Guardsmen used tear gas to break up another negro protest. The shockwaves of the violence reached to the white house. President kennedy rebuked the demonstrators for having lost sight of their objectives. The governor appealed for a solution to satisfy what he called the legitimate pleas of negros. Finally on july 23rd, a solution was announced in washington after long hours of hard bargaining directed by the attorney general. It called for completion of desegregation in Public Schools, construction of a federally sponsored housing project. A negro interviewer at the state office. The story is not yet over in cambridge. The amendment must go to a public referendum next month. Whites outnumber negros by two to one. If the city offers no alternative, the negros may take their protests to the street. Cambridge has not been a model of how to settle a racial problem. The solution to a local problem was engineered in washington. If there had been a Positive Side to the story, it may be that other communities have been influenced to find a more peaceful solution. Some southern cities had found a solution even earlier. Charlotte, north carolina, had integrated hotels and motels, libraries, parks, swimming pools, hospitals and churches. But cambridge in birmingham, were more turbulant transcriibu. In the south, an immediate goal is service by places doing business with the public. What might be called Consumer Rights as easily as civil rights. The more basic goals of the southern negro are the vote and education. In the north, the negro has his Consumer Rights and the vote. But he joins in the demand for an education. Then his goals reach beyond Public Benefits to private advancement, jobs, and housing. The north is often guilty of assuming moral superiority over the south. But when the negro attempts private advancement, the selfrighteousness of the north is exposed. Its evident every year. Three times it has led to violence in chicago. The englewood district is on chicagos south side, it has seen an enlargement in the Negro Population over the past 20 years. The line of demarcation between black and whites, sometimes called the wall, runs along the Railroad Tracks which bound the community on the south and west. Inside this barrier resides a predominantly lower middle class population, fiercely determined to maintain the present characteristic of their neighborhood. It was in englewood that the riot took place. The apartment building, 14 of which were vacant, and the landlord at least rented the apartments to this negro family, and attention of this has grown in the area. Groups have been going every night. There have been disturbances, disorderly conduct, policemen have been assaulted, a few citizens. It was chicagos worst racial disturbance in more than a decade. Why did it happen . Strangely enough, the reasons are always the same, distrust, unfamiliarity, fear, bigotry often encouraged by propry tiers. Goes through your mind as it is what happens to your feelings. Its a kind of disillusionment that takes you and you wonder how other people can be this way to other people. Its a neighborhood and we dont stand for colored in this neighborhood. My husband has to work with them. My children have to go to school with them. But i dont say that i have to live with them. Thats it. Because they dont know me. Theres no desire to know me. They saw that i came up or my family came in, they looked at my skin and that was it. They dont know anything about me and dont care to know. My wife is a graduate from the university of minnesota. I graduated from Lincoln University in pennsylvania. I did my theological work in washington, d. C. , and graduate work at a Quaker School in pennsylvania. It doesnt make any difference to me. I dont like it that they moved in here. I moved away from new york to come down here, just to keep away from them. We made our commitment and were going to stand by it. Thats all. My daughter is 11 months old. Im 40. Im 40. Commitments had been made when i was 11 months old, you see, we have a lot more freedom today than we do have. So weve made our commitment to stay and were going to stay. The colored have been north of 99th and i know for a fact the value of our home depreciated then. And this has been several years ago. The fact that they are now right in the neighborhood, i feel that it has depreciated the value of our homes now. Well, ive lived here 14 years. And when i came over here, it was a real nice neighborhood, everything was clean. All of the property was kept up. Everybody owned their own home. And everybody got along until about one year ago when they broke the block and the real estate man came in. Immediate upon nonwhite Family Moving in, all of the people are pestered. Every sunday morning, sunday night, every day by real estate men. You want to sell . You want to sell . All you have to do, stay where you are. Its a known fact that you stay where you are, you cannot be inundated and run over. We didnt come here to chase someone out or to make someone feel uncomfortable. I believe that we will bes a fine of neighborhoods as anybody else. In the summertime, theyll be using their pools, and well have colored people using the same pools we are. This isnt a matter of being educated, evidently. This is what i believe for so long, what i was taught. Be educated and work and be clean and so on. It isnt until the socalled least of us is free that im free, or for that matter, any of us. Because if as human beings we cannot live in our country and be accepted as human beings and free citizens, then something is a matter with something. And it isnt me. It is permitted even required of historians that they find order in the most disordered human affairs. Thats one reason why the history of a revolution shows that to march from the clearest of causes to the most inevitable conclusions. But the time is distance yet for this revolution and that the goals attainment were certain. If it was education, we could point to South Carolina where this year a young negro caused hardly a ripple when he entered a white school. And seven years ago, a fanatic young white prompted riots and destruction before negro students entered those schools. But education is not necessarily the primary goal. For some, its a house in a white neighborhood. For others, a hamburger at a white lunch counter. But there is remarkable unanimity on the methods. It did not originate with gandhi in india, but an american recluse in the new england town of concord. And here in this old house, fashioned to ward off the cold winters was born henry david thoro. The years would treat this house kindly. Almost as if grateful for giving us this man and it still survives. Walden pond was a short walk away and oddly enough in this old place, haunted by winds and things that secury about at night, there was born the idea of passive resistant. He built a cabin here. It was 1845, but already concord was too crowded and he needed a place to think. He came here. And the thoughts he thought and the words he wrote would sound one day in india, in birmingham, richmond, virginia, the campus of the university of mississippi. His study was stark, so too his words. Unjust laws exist, shall we be content to obey them or shall we endeavor to amend them and obey them until we have succeeded or shall we trance gres them at once. Men think they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. If they think they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil, but its the fault of the government itself. It makes it worse, or this. I have paid no poll tax for six years. I was put into a jail once on this account for one night. And as i stood considering the door of wood and iron a foot thick, i could not help being struck with the foolishness of that institution which treated me as if i were mere flesh and blood and bones to be locked up. I did not for a moment feel confined. I felt as if i alone of all of my townspeople had paid my tax. It was all a long time ago. His voice long since stilled. A house survives, some furniture, a simple headstone, as modest and unpretentious. Henry, late citizen of concord. Even walden pond has changed. Theres a public beach there now. And of all the things that were there then, only this survives, a dead tree. He might have brushed it in passing or rested for a moment in its shade. But ideas dont die. Not strong ones. Unjust laws exist. Shall we be content to obey them or shall we transgress them . We will defy the injunction. Ive been arrested five times. Ive been to jail before. Im willing to go to jail again. We will do Everything Possible to defy the injunction in the city of danville. I say to you, we will defy, we will defy this injunction. In 1864, the military government occupying parts of louisiana was about to draw up new election laws and to its governor, Abraham Lincoln wrote, i barely suggest for your private consideration whether some of the colored people may not be let in the franchise. Within six years of this start, lincoln was dead, negros had been given the vote, whites who had fought for the confederacy were denied the vote. Negros dominated the state legislatures. The nights of the white flowered, the ku klux klan was born. They drove the negros from the legislatures and from the voting booths. The whites had regained the voting majority. Thereafter, the negros constitutional constitutionally guaranteed right to vote was whittled away. In Sunflower County, only 2 are registered. The seat of Sunflower County is dodgeville. His name, george green. Hi his battleground, mississippi. His role, 19yearold warrior in the Voter Registration campaign. We feel that all negros have been illegally denied registration. The only way to better your life and better the lives of your children is to go down and register to vote. If youre not registered to vote, youre not a citizen. No. The gains have been small. And frustrations large. Courage is not as contagious as fear. Dodgeville, Sunflower County. 65 negro, yet less than 2 are registered. Home to mississippi senator james eastland. Young volunteers from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee have moved through city streets. This red section is a negro section in green wood. Weve got to divide it up into six aways. Weve been concentrating in area a and b. Area b, winsince we have been working there from the beginning, george, willy and fred can go over to baptist town and we can divide ourselves up into the other areas. These plantations are important because people there are so isolated. We have to make sure that they have reached and get into the city to do the voting. We could be arrested for trespassing. But i think they would rather shoot us than have us arrested. Last spring after three shootings, negros organized protest marches. Police and police dogs barred the way. A minister was bitten. 11 marchers were arrested. They cant stop us with a few dogs or bullets. When the dogs sank his fangs into the reverend, he sank his fangs into my ankle too. [ cheers and applause ] the comedian joined the lines of march, was pushed around, told to leave town, but was never arrested. The jail sentences were later stayed. The mayor declared they had no grounds for protest. Theres no discrimination on them voting. Theyve been registered here for years. Weve made no attempt to keep any of them from registering. I demonstrated before we had the troubles on the 27th of march from the 15th of from the 1st of march through the 24th of march, 280 made application to register. On the 27th of march is when they had the demonstration claiming they were being deprived of the privilege of registering to vote. I think that clearly demonstrates that we were not trying to prevent them from registering because 280 registered in less than a month, made application to register. Yet, negro leaders have succeeded in getting few names in the books. But they expect to make substantial gains, eventually, with government support. The Justice Department has brought 42 voting discrimination suits in the south since 1961. 12 of them in mississippi. But the most ingenious lawsuit was filed last spring by the naacp to enforce a long provision of the United States constitution. Secti section 2 of the 14th amendment which would take a proportion of congressional seats away from any seat which denies voting rights. This section has never been applied. The answer is still in the courts. Last month, mississippi negros tried a new move. They marched to the polls in the primaries carrying ballots declared they had been denied registration. I didnt work. The state ruled the attempt illegal. But negro leaders say the challenges will continue. If it were left to me, i would lean toward having federal troops enforce the right to vote. The stubbornness of the registrars is such that i believe federal troops ought to be called out to stand at every ballot box and see that a negro citizen 21 years of age and over is not denied his right. But negro leaders do not want to depend on force or violence for results at the polls. Rather, by peaceful persuasion coming through legal action and the drive to educate the negro for a registration. County by county, rally by rally. I say in greenwood, mississippi, i say the spirit of the lord has moved across mississippi. Its gotten into the houses of the people who live here. Its gotten into the hargearts the children and i see a Great Movement under way. Frederick douglass tried to tell us a long time ago that this struggle is an attempt to save black mens bodies and white mens souls. Senator james o. Eastland filmed the statements specifically for this report. Well, of course the whole thing is stirred up by a group of agitators. The negro in the south has economic equality and is well treated. Now, i cannot speak of conditions in chicago or new york city. The push is for social equality, its not for economic rights. As far as the south goes, theres full economic equality. Now, we sit in the deepest part of the deep south. The negro property owners, there are negro businessmen, theyre wealthy men, theres no discrimination at all. Now, the demonstrations are to promote social equality. And thats something that you cant legislate and you cant force. Various advisers, negro and white, are offering varied advice on what should be the negros primary objective. If the barrier is broken at the point he selects, the remainder of the barrier will collapse. The barrier is not uniform. What he has gained determines what he wants next. While the southern negro demonstrates for the vote, the northern negro is twice that as whites. The negro who has a job, averages the half the income as whites. Theyve demonstrated in pittsburgh, philadelphia and new jersey. This is the union county course in elizabeth, new jersey. The demonstrators are protesting the fact that few negros have been admitted to the unions. Negros have a right to more jobs on public projects such as this one because the money comes from tax dollars. Out of their pockets as well as the pockets of whites. This demonstration began before sunrise. At 6 00 a. M. , only one picket was present, having been there all night long. He described his makeshift bed as uncomfortable. But Police Called it unlawful. What made you decide to sleep here tonight. I feel like im a negro and we strive for equal rights, opportunity for jobs and security for our young people. Coming up in life and better schooling, i feel like that were entitled to it. We have one foot in the door now and thats no time to stop. Eventually other demonstrators began arriving in small groups. They gathered at a nearby Negro Baptist church across the street from the project. Inside, clergymen performed a pep rally. They told the demonstrators how to go about avoiding trouble and maintaining order at all costs. But once outside the church, i didnt take long for things to get out of hand. All right, everybody. Everybody when you watch the demonstrations like this one, a number of questions come to mind about the ideas and emotions of the people involved. One way to look for the answer is to put yourself on the picket line. I guess the first thing that strikes you is an awareness of pride. Tremendous pride. You sense it in all of the people around you. Encourage too. It may not be much, but it is a personal effort. The strangest part about it is, everybody here keeps going. Every one of them must know deep down theres very little chance that what they want will be given anytime soon. Its Something Like swimming out to sea. No end in sight. No signs that tell you how many farther you have to go. So you just keep going. One stroke or one step at a time hoping. Maybe somewhere, sometime, a wiseman will figure out a better way, an easier way of fighting back. I bet a lot of people here would like that. After a while, your feet start hurting, you get tired, you get bored. You start thinking about all the other places, all the other things you would rather be doing right now. But they stay because theyre part of something. Maybe the most important something of their whole lives. That doesnt mean theyre friends or that they know each other. It goes much deeper than that. I would say its a kind of kinship, the kind that comes from sharing the same foxhole. Come to think of it, this thing could be just about as darnngers as a foxhole. Another one of those free for alls might break out at any moment. I bet that thought is crossing a lot of minds. Suppose the guy next to you slugs a policeman . What would you do . One thing is for sure, theres no comfort in thinking about it. But as you walk along, you pick up a sense of determination, even stubbornness all around you. And you can tell, if trouble does come again, not one person will run away. The fight for more jobs is still going on in many cities, including brooklyn. They march, sit or lie down to dramaize their demands and some get carried away. Those demonstrations and others just like them have sparked action on a number of fronts. In addition, some employment gains are being made through boycotts or selective buying campaigns. Its expected, in fact, that the economic boycott will soon replace demonstrations as the primary weapon in the fight. This threat already has led some firms to go out of their way to put more negros on the payroll. But despite charges of discrimination in reverse, some leaders say not nearly enough companies have adopted that policy. In their eyes, job discrimination is a paramount issue in the negro revolt. It takes money to obtain advantages such as Higher Education and better housing which means for millions of negros, denied an equal chance in the job market, the American Dream is beyond reach. Obviously all of this is a matter of political concern, a different kind of concern in the south than in the north. But concern, nevertheless. The governor is one of those who expresses that concern. As far as legislation is concerned, new york state has been a leader among the states in barring discrimination. Everybody has a right to vote. Discrimination is barred in education, housing, public and private, in employment, apprenticeship and access to public places. Our problem in new york now, we have the legislation barring discrimination and the powers to enforce that, our problem now is primarily in the field of employment. The negro having and the puerto rican and other groups having the necessary education and training and apprenticeship opportunities which permit them to get into the skilled positions where they have had trouble both due to lack of training and due to discrimination in the past. I think Real Progress is being made. I think both the unions, the employers, as well as government at all levels are uniting to achieve equality for all. Demonstrations in the north have made it clear that the revolution is national in scope. Although it has different objectives in different areas, a common goal is the elimination of discrimination. While a few northern cities have been found guilty of segregating schools by twisting boundaries of school districts, a far more common condition is the school that is predominantly negro because the district is predominantly negro and this because housing in that district is all the negro families can afford as in englewood, new jersey. As the schools opened for 1962 1963, talk and legal maneuver turned into action. Lincoln elementary school, 95 negro was picketed. A boycott left it almost empty. Englewood itself could not be more surprised, the city seemed an ideal hometown, even to its 7,000 negros. Englewood has no visible barriers. There are negro homes in the most exclusive section. Negros work for the city and private enterprise. But there is a blot, the fourth ward. Its a slum, almost entirely negro. Some negros decided to act. We couldnt work within the structures of any of the organizations that are set up because of the various constitutions of these organizations. So consequently, a group of us got together, we decided on the englewood movement and after we got just about ready, we said, we needed someone to coordinate this movement. As we called him mr. Hoover. Well, i think what we are trying to do with the englewood movement is to crystallize the complete contempt and lack of respect which is more or less shown towards negros in suburban areas such as englewood. I think one thing also that should be perfectly clear, the white liberal in the north is very upset about the englewood movement because this is the first time there will be an outcry against Racial Discrimination in a suburban area where the Negro Population is not the majority. The same liberals didnt complain about mass rallies in harlem, but they will complain when its coming too close to their background. The same liberals will send 25 to desegregate in georgia, but they will turn their back and call names if theyre trying to bring equality next door to them. The rally drew 4,000 cheering negros into the park. It gave way to new determination. And the time when the white power structure could get one or two negros and a lawyer and two and bring them in the back door and deal for you and me is over. [ cheers and applause ] people day that i wheel and deal and move in highhanded fashions. Were in the big leagues now. Anybody who wants to play sandlot baseball, you take the token integration that goes with it. I want it all. I want it now. Not tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. And if it comes the day after tomorrow, im going to fight for it. [ cheers and applause ] de facto segregation at Lincoln School was ended. 70 other cities in 18 northern and western states still must solve the problem. So far we have seen the revolution is nationwide and a long time in the making. We have seen that it has five major objectives, equality for negros in education, employment, housing, the vote, and the same treatment as others in places doing business with the public. We have seen the fight is more for equal treatment and the vote in the south. More for employment and housing in the north. And for education in all areas. Overall, weve seen the negro is challenging discrimination, whether sanctioned by law or practiced in fact. Weve seen the changing south and the adamant south that brings much of its trouble on northern agitators. And weve seen the north is often quite reluctant to accept change of its own. Weve established the origins of the revolutions technique,