Funneled into prison as a way to try to hush them up. To hush them up quietly without the cameras rolling because, remember, that visual image was absolutely essential for movement. To be able to see the violence of jim crow. But that didnt mean that this moment was over. And Bobby Kennedy knew it and jack kennedy knew it. So jack kennedy is giving his state of the Union Address and president kennedy is all we are fighting for democracy and freedom and there is an opportunity for what is happening here on the globe because we have all of these people. It was the middle of decollinization. Those nations are getting free. Imperil bonds are loosening and he sees this as an incredible moment for freedom in the global south. But he didnt mention the american south. Kind of a silence there. But he needed that silence. Because what he was dealing with, he had just come back from that vienna summit. Remember that one that his brother was really trying to get the freedom riders to quiet out on and well, that vienna summit didnt go so well. He met with somebody who took him to school. This wasnt pretty. It really wasnt pretty. And it was kennedys fault. He acknowledged that later on. He thought that what he could do because hes gotten by on charm. He could just walk in there and charm, you know, one of those charm fellows, charm them. He had survived joseph stalin. I love your face right there. Shes like, yeah, survive that. So he thinks he can charm him so he wasnt prepared. Imagine going into a summit meeting with the head of the soviet union and you havent done your homework. Have you ever walked into okay. I already see the hands. And he just wasnt ready. And afterwards he told a New York Times reporter, he beat the hell out of me. Because there was the bay of pigs, that debacle where the u. S. Had tried to invade cuba after fidel castro had taken over the island and the bay of pigs went about as well as the vienna summit. Hes got stuff on him. Hes trying to figure out, how do i begin to rethink, retalk about, reestablish authority, reestablish democracy, reestablish strength as emanating out of the u. S. After ive had the bay of pigs and vienna. Well, there was a problem with that wanting to reestablish was because you also had the south blowing up. Black folks struggling to be free and refusing to be quiet about jim crow and the brutality of jim crow. So bobby has got to figure out something. What bobby figures out is i got to find a way to find the sweet spot. That thing that allows my brother to be president ial, for america to be calm, to resonate that aura of strength, democracy and freedom while also providing something to the civil rights folks so that they feel that they are being heard and their needs are being met. What on earth could there be . What could i do offer them that is so vital and essential but boring, really boring, so that no cameras will want to be there. That nothing is going to jump off. And you know what he came up with . Registering black folks to vote in mississippi. Okay. So lets talk about that. So this is where you know youve got this kind of disjuncture because policymakers and what they think is happening and what is really going on on the ground. Because if you had really spent a minute thinking through it, youre saying, wait a minute, if im seeing folks getting burned up because theyre trying to ride a bus, just ride a bus, then what am i going to see happening when theyre trying to vote or even register to vote . And, remember, so much of the power of the south was predicated on disfranchisement. This is why you have the power of the southern democrats in congress because theyre getting elected over and over and over and moving up the ranks in terms of seniority because they only have to be responsive to a small band of the electorate in the south. Youre pretty much almost assured of getting reelected, reelected and reelected and reelected and reelected and reelected and reelected. And so that kind of power, youre not going to give it up easily. Hes thinking, okay, weve got this. And so he sets up an arrangement where the irs is going to fund a new organization, provide tax exempt status to a new organization dealing with Voting Rights and hes going to funnel four of the big civil rights advocates under the organization. This would be the Voter Education project. And it sounds brilliant on paper. Because, again, what its designed to do is to provide something that the civil rights workers want while apparently being boring enough because youre just registering folks to vote. And you have this image, think about registering folks to vote. Theres a table. Theres some registration cards, right . If you think about it the way we think about it now, not quite right now, but you just do it. But remember this is mississippi. Remember we have the poll tax, we have the literacy text, we have election day terrorism. We have the power sitting there to reinforce massive disfranchisement. And so just registering folks to vote is not going to be that easy. But this the the name of the organization. The council of fed rated organizations, and what hes going to do its going to be tricky. Hes going to try to bring the southern christian Leadership Conference and the naacp together. Theres already a bit of, um the naacp, big dog. Weve been here since 1909. And, you know, roy willkins had been with the naacp since the early 1930s and he waited his time, did his work, moved his way up the organizational ladder and finally in 1955 became the head of the naacp. What else happened in 1955 . Emma till. Rosa parks. The montgomery bus boycott. Who was heading up the Montgomery Improvement Association . Martin luther king. Youve waited to be head of the civil rights movement, leadership, and within the moment, the year that you become the head, there comes this guy out of montgomery, alabama, that all of a sudden the media is flocking all around, talking about, the leader, the leader. So there was this kind of rivalry there. Wilkins would help king out of numerous jams, dont get me wrong. But we have to take into account, when were talking about alliances, were talking about the real deal stuff about people and organizations working together. And the frictions that happen with people who believe they should be here and Something Else is getting something that they should have. So kennedy was also going to have to try to work through this relationship between sclc and the naacp. But what he really wanted was to defuse the power of the student shock troops. Students are fearless. You think about that moment after that beating at the bus station and it looked like the freedom rides were over, and core is just like, and diane gnash nash is like, we got this. You dont stop us because youre going to beat somebody. Were stronger than that. Democracy is stronger than that. And the students kept coming. Kennedy is looking up going, okay, we have them in prison right now, but thats only a stopgap measure. There are more students and we have got to figure out how to diffuse the power and energy of these students. Something happened that was going to help with that conversation. And that something was members of sclc and snic met with Bobby Kennedy at the department of justice. Hes the attorney general. And they are demanding protection from the federal government for freedom riders. And protection does not mean shepherding them into prison. This means real protection. And they are, you know theyre on it. And hes coming back. And theyre and theyre and what theyre dealing with here, finally hes like, look, you know when you get look, hes like, look, freedom rides arent working. Not working. Am i clear . Theres something that will work. You want real civil rights, real freedom, real protection, that comes from the vote. Let me see you fight for the vote. Were going to help you fight for the vote. We have this wonderful organization that weve just created, the council of fed rated organizations. And we have going to help you in terms of providing protection and resources for you to go into mississippi and register black folks to vote. What do you think . Hes like, well, you didnt answer that quite the way i was hoping you would answer. Let me help you with that. You know weve got this war going on. Right now you have deferments. Ill see to it that you keep your deferments. You go to mississippi. You dont go to mississippi, youre going to vietnam. Now i want you to think about that as 18, 19yearolds right now. Im assuming all of you are about 18, 19. Youre like, the 29yearold is going, ill take that. Vietnam . Mississippi . Which one are you choosing . Vietnam . Mississippi . To be honest, though, it aint good in mississippi either. Right. Vietnam . Did you hear her say, to be honest, though, it aint really good in mississippi either. So this is what youre choosing between, vietnam and mississippi. So then youre having to make another choice. Where do i think i can do the most good . When thats the parameter where do i think i can be the change agent . They chose mississippi. Did anyone choose vietnam . Not that i know of. Not that i know of. Thats not to say i didnt happen. But while this debate is going on, theres an snic member up in massachusetts, bob moses. And moses had an aura status in snic because he had what i call quiet power. You know that thing where you know its not the one who is blustering the most, theres just something. Quiet power. Moses had that. Moses had been asked by the head of the naacp down in mississippi to come down to mississippi and help register folks to vote. Separate from the Bobby Kennedy association, moses is on his way down. And he gets to mississippi with about 12,000 residents and only 250 africanamericans registered to vote. Is he volunteering . Hes volunteering. Thats moses. And this is a man who will be appropriately named. He went down to mississippi and began setting up Civic Education classes because because one of the things remember, when were talking about, like, the schools, when were talking about the textbooks in the schools, and in these jim crow schools, the textbooks for black children did not mention that there was a 13th amendment, a 14th amendment or a 15th amendment. And so if what youre reading is what you know, then you dont have a full sense that slavery has been abolished, that you have equal protection under the law with due process and birthright citizenship and the right to vote. So when you begin to set up these classes, it begins to help the folks understand theyre not just mississippi citizens. Theyre citizens of the United States of america. With a whole range of rights that the state of mississippi has not yet fully acknowledged for africanamericans. Once you begin to see, its like your vistas just widen up and youre thinking, oh, whoa, wow. Then he sets up registration classes. What is it going to take to get through a literacy test . Because, again, remember about half of black adults in mississippi have five or fewer years of formal education, of formal jim crow education. Being able to read a constitution and then interpret it like you have a harvard jd and there was moses sitting down with the folk, working them through how do you get through the literacy exams. Youre beginning to see the power of this thing, yaeah . Organizations like church. In mississippi, a lot of these a lot of these people were working class. Were these night courses . He was going wherever and whenever. Thats one of the things about Movement Building is that you go where the people are. You go when they are, where they are. And so with all of these courses and literacy tests and helping folks with these Civic Education classes and Voter Registration classes, he begins to try to register black folk to vote. There was a young man down in mississippi named hollis watkins. Hes noticing the work that moses is doing. Hes impressed. Hes like, look at this guy coming down here from harvard doing this work. And then he says to moses, but you know, if you really want to be about it, macomb is easy. Where you really need to go is to other counties. Theres about one black person registered to vote between the two counties. And what moses knew was that if he took the easy route. When i say easy, ive got that in big quotes. He knew that in order to fully gain the trust, because Movement Building is also about trust. In order to gain the trust of black mississippians, he was going to have to go where they live. So he went into amady county. It got quiet in here. He started doing the Civic Education classes, the Voter Education classes and then he went to go register some folks to vote. He got arrested. Think about that. You just got arrested for registering american citizens to vote. But he knows that he has the protection now of the federal government. So he calls john door. Hes an assistant in Bobby Kennedys office. He calls him with that one phone call that he gets. Hes like, i need you to know i have just been arrested for registering black people to vote. I believe thats what that federal protection is all about. And john doar is like thank you so much for conveying that information. Two days later, the naacp bails bob moses out of jail. Moses goes back. He continues to work with the people. Then he finds another group and they go to register to vote. Part of the problem is that where moses had been staying was right across the street from state representative e. H. Hurst. He was a segregationist, white supremacist of the first magnitude. And moses was staying right across the street from him. But even worse than e. H. Hurst, and thats bad, was his soninlaw, billy jack casten. He had terrorized black people as long as billy jack could terrorize people. And he saw was moses was doing. You begin to think how this threatens the power structure. You have counties that are 50 black but youve only got one registered voter there. If you can get all of them registered and voting, all of a sudden you have different officials which means youre getting different policies, which means, oh, i dont know, maybe e. H. Hurst isnt going to be a state representative for too long. This is really going after a segregationist, white supremacist power structure. Moses goes down to the courthouse, theyre going up the steps to go register black folk to vote and billy jack casten shows up, pulls out a knife, turns the handle around and, bam, hits moses. Moses staggers. Billy jack is not done. He starts wailing on him. And remember nonviolence is that you learn how to take the blows. What you know remember, we talked about these ethnic notions. The moment you swing back, becomes justifiable homicide when they kill you. Multiple reasons for nonviolence. Thats a strategy. And so wailing on him and moses just goes into his zone, that kind of zen zone. The two black guys who were with him, he was going to help register to vote, they saw billy jack and they took off running. So it is just yeah. You know when your boys just up and leave you . Its like, whoa. And so when billy jack is done, moses is a bloody, pulpy mess. Billy jack is really proud of what hes done. He and his boys walk away like, yeah. When theyre gone, moses stands up bleeding, just bleeding. The two guys who had run away, theyre looking and moses is like, are you ready to go register to vote . Yeah. You see that kind of strength. Thats that quiet power leading. He calls john doar, they couldnt register, as i recall. He calls john doar when he gets back going i want to report to you a beating. I was beaten. And doar says, yes, i know. Hes like, you know . Hes like, yes, i know. Ive already got the fbi report here, but ill come down and see what i can do, see whats going on. Well, Jay Edgar Hoover was the head of the fbi. He was not how does one say . He was so not feeling the civil rights movement, civil rights leaders, civil rights goals, civil rights civils, civil, no. Thats j. Edgar. As far as he was concerned, they were communists, just communists. And so when doar has this fbi report that says he then gets down to mississippi and he sees moses bruised. Thats not what the fbi report said. What doar was expecting, it was maybe a bruise here. He wasnt expecting what he saw. And he stepped back and he thought this has got to i got to begin to kind of rethink the fbis commitment to civil rights protection here because what this report is saying is not what the evidence is. And so what moses tells him, yeah, ill be all right. I just wanted you to know the depth of the violence. And the depth of the violence is going to get worse because there is a man who has been helping me named herbert lee. And herbert has been driving around, driving me from place to place, from house to house. Anybody live out in the country . Own it. You know houses arent like they are in the city, where they right up against each other, you can see what your neighbor is fixing for dinner. Its not like that. You have acres between these homes and so walking them is not always the most efficient way if youre trying to get something done. Herbert lee was driving moses to these homes helping folk with Civic Education classes. Remember, moses is living right across the street from e. H. Hurst. E. H. Hurst sees whats happening. E. H. Hurst sees herbert facilitating Voter Registration in mississippi. Moses tells doar, protect herbert lee. I fear for his life. Protect him. Protect him. Protect him. Doar says, okay. Well do. Gets on a plane, flies back to d. C. To protect him, you know, work on some stuff. The moment he gets there, he sees the notice. Herbert lee has been found shot to death. E. H. Hurst shot him. State representative e. H. Hurst shot him. Hurst claimed that how do you say this . It was selfdefense. Im going to walk you through this like we walked through skots borrow. Herbert leave drove up with his truck, got out of his truck with a tire iron swinging it at Mississippi State representative e. H. Hurst. Now, all who believe that story, please raise your hand. Are you saying it lacks credibility . It does. But he had witnesses. Of course. The soninlaw . Youre like, yeah, the soninlaw . And a black man. Timothy, that looked like what . He was named louis allen who said, yeah, it happened just the way representative hurst said it happened. He got out of the truck, swinging a tire iron at him and so representative hurst had to protect himself and so he shot him. Bob moses is listening to this and is going, you know what, thats not adding up. Thats really not adding up. Lets see what we can do here. And so he begins to talk to louis allen. Hes going, is that how it really happened . Yes. No, really. Is that how it really happened . Yes. Is that how it really happened . No and louis allen was afraid for his life. So he would leave mississippi. But before he left, he promised bob moses he would come back and tell the truth. And the truth was that herbert lee drove up. The moment he got out of his truck, e. H. Hurst shot him, then took a tire iron and planted it under his body. Louis allen would come back to mississippi because he missed mississippi. His business was in mississippi. He was in lumber and he would come back and then louis allen suffered three shotgun blasts to his face on his last trip back to mississippi. Bob moses took that death on his shoulders and in his heart and in his soul. Because hes like, louis allen, if i hadnt talked to him, if i hadnt convinced him to tell the truth, that man would still be alive. One of the things that became really clear to him, what became really clear to him was that it was going to take more than what sncc had been able to do to bring Voting Rights to mississippi. It was going to take more than this structure of the council of fed rated organizations because there are bodies piling up and nothing is moving. Nothing is changing. How do you create change . But moses comes up with freedom summer. And freedom summer will be that moment where hes saying we have to bring in students, because you know you all are fearless. Students from around the nation to come to mississippi, set up freedom schools and register folks to vote. Now, the people that hes bringing in, black students and white students. And not just white students. White students from the ivies whose fathers and mothers are judges and senators. You begin to think through strategy. He thought even mississippi is not crazy enough. We can get some work done here in changing the power structure. Any questions . Okay. Wow. Really . Emery . How are the finances looking, how are they going to sustain all of these volunteers and all im confused. Hes asking about finances. And so fundraising for the movement is always precarious. And so this is where you have one you have celebrities fully engaged in fundraising. You have a man named stanley levson that j. Edgar hoover was convinced was a communist. And levson worked hand in hand with Martin Luther king particularly up north. Theres a wonderful article who funded king . And it talks about that fundraising effort because money is always tight. Yeah. Mark . You said that the sentiment was that even mississippi wasnt crazy enough to damage the students that they were bringing them, but every time we seem to say this in this course, it seems like mississippi is crazy enough. Are you wanting a spoiler alert . Is this what im hearing here . Im skeptical, is all. Youre skeptical. Thats going to be next weeks lecture. Yes, emily . Did he face repercussions or walk away scotfree . He walked. Yeah. Remember remember this is what weve been dealing with is the lack of value on black life. The black life has no value. And so gunning down a black man who is trying to help register people to vote has no value. Josh . I was wondering how he attracted white students from the north and other places with substantial background . Hes out of harvard. Hes brilliant. Hes got that quiet power charisma and this is a moment in the 60s where students believe that they can make a real difference. Where they can change the course of this nations history. And theyre ready to do that work. You know, you take that sense of fearlessness and you mix it with that kind of visionary zeal and a cause, yeah. They flocked down to mississippi. Freedom summer is going to be something. Nate . Going back a little bit, did was j. Edgar hoover ever confronted with the false report . In this specific case, did anything happen . J. Edgar hoover was interesting. With j. Edgar hoover, kennedy did not like hoover. Period. Period. Wanted him gone. There was a meeting that hoover had with kennedy, jack kennedy, one on one, just those two. After that meeting the you are hereby fired notice was rescinded. In power. It would be during freedom summer. Yes. So when we get to freedom summer, the press is going to really come in because the killings are going to be horrific. Yeah. Joshua . I was wondering, during the freedom summer, how did local mississippians respond and overcome terrorism and their fears of this to work with folks like them . So you had when you say you mean how did africanamericans in mississippi especially when you see herbert lee. A man out of mississippi, okay, good. He says when you get sick and tired of being sick and tired, there comes that moment where youre just not going to take it. Not everybody stood up. But you had enough folks in mississippi, you had someone down in clarksville, mississippi, using her independent business, she was using that as the spot where people were organizing. And because she did black womens hair and she owned her shop, she wasnt dependent upon anyone else for her financial wellbeing. That economic independence allowed her it wasnt like she didnt get harassed and her daughter didnt get harassed. But she was just yeah, so you had folks who just were sick and tired of being sick and tired. And they were ready to put it on the line for a better future. And when you think about it, thats what we keep talking about in the movement. We dont have everybody standing up. But we have enough people standing up. Okay. Thank you. Yes . What was Bobby Kennedy up to while the board of education wasnt happening in mississippi . Thats a great question. Im not quite sure. I know they werent getting the protection that bobby had promised and that lack of protection that he had promised was then sending moses into a direction that bobby really didnt think they were going to go. Backfire. Okay. Thank you. [ applause ] lets go another hour. A look at the American History tv weekly feature, lectures in history, continues in a moment with a class on abolition in the early 1800s and proslavery movements. And the life and work of playwright august wilson. Thats followed by a class on the economic policies of the confederacy and how effective they were. And later a look at the start of radio and how it impacted Public Opinion before the u. S. Entered world war ii. It led to a pandemic that killed more than 1 Million Worldwide and more than 16,000 in the United States. American history tv tonight at 8 p. M. Eastern on c span3. Now on American History tv, a class on abolition and proslavery improvementsn