Transcripts For MSNBC Lowndes County and the Road to Black P

Power starts right now. Enjoy that. static Static Continues Car Engine Humming intense wind its such a such a sort of, satisfying thing, i guess, to be in power. And they usually, the great persons usually told you to do. If you looked around, they werent there when the showdown came. Whistle Blowing [officer] go home or go to your church, this march will not continue. [ella] what i do, [officer] see that they disperse. [ella] is supposed to speak louder than what i say. Marching Footfalls siren sound screaming Whistle Blowing screaming Horns Honking Hooves Beating On Pavement drum sounds siren drum sounds screaming Overlapping Shouting shouting continues [speaker] last sunday, a group of Negro Americans in selma, alabama attempted peacefully to protest the denial of the most basic political right of all. The right to vote. People have to have faith in themselves and they can only gain that faith by being given the opportunity to grow. And when people value what they can do, they dont have to look around, find a great leader to do it for them. Helicopter Blades Whirring intense music [reporter] carrying nap sacks, bed rolls, and air mattresses, they stream onto highway 80, walking briskly. Their days journey, 17 and a half miles. Putting them halfway from selma to montgomery. The marchers then passed from Dallas County into Lowndes County, where until this month not a single negro was registered to vote. [arthur] you always hear selma to montgomery. The most mileage of the march from selma to montgomery, took place in Lowndes County. That dash in your life is, when you were born and when you die, but the dash will make the difference. somber music Lowndes County, was one of the poorest counties in the country, and we was right next door to montgomery where the capital city sits. So it was kind of rough growing up and we didnt have Running Water in our homes. First shower that i took was in, at Havre High School in the gym. This was in the early sixties. [john] during that time we were looking for better education. We didnt even have library, didnt have a lunch room, didnt go to school half the year. Cause we had to work at the age 3, 4, and 5. It was Cotton Fields. [arthur] my parents were sharecroppers. We had five acres of cotton that we had to pick. And once we finished ours, then we had to help the land owners get their cotton out of the field. [catherine] sharecropping replaced slavery. It was another type of caste system where in order to live on the property, one had to work the land. And there was usually a store that was owned by the Plantation Owner and whatever goods that they might need were on credit. [arthur] and some years, you would have a bumper crop. A bumper crop is when you have extra, you know just grow, grow, grow, and you do real good, but you never had enough to get yourself so you could be free of debt. [john] this county was around 80 black, but there was no black police officers, no nothing. The reason were not doing anything cause we dont have any power. People are scared, people lost their jobs. People lost their family hood, because they wanted to go and register to vote. Hammers Hitting Metal Indistinct Chatter [carolyn] i dont remember ever talking about race growing up. It felt like sort of the safest possible world a young child could grow up in. somber music Gate Clacking Cash Register rings [margaret] it was a very peaceful, almost idyllic place. The only black people that i knew were the ones who worked for us in our family. And we loved them. [carolyn] when i was 17, i had an experience that kind of pulled the curtain back for me. A girlfriend and i were riding around on country roads. Like, thats what we did for entertainment. I mean, there wasnt any entertainment. There was a young black man who tried to, did like that, tried to wave us down. I didnt think anything about it, but my friend got really upset, thinking he was trying to stop us. She wanted to go tell somebody about it and he was killed that night. Id heard that he lived on the land that some white people owned and that often they would give him a ride if he waved them down, and that we had a car that looked like theirs. [catherine] you know, i was a kid, but i knew that there was a reputation of violence. In my home, we had guns in every corner. My father taught all of my brothers how to shoot. And that was common in every home in Lowndes County. [john] a lot of black people came up missing. Thats why it was called bloody lowndes. [hasan] Lowndes County was 80 african american. Then at the start of 1965, had zero registered black voters. And thats not hyperbole, right . Im not saying that there were a couple and were just saying zero. 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 peoples 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. Theres 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. And when he comes back and hes sort of surveying the land and taking a sense of the pulse of the community, hes like, you know what . We need to be doing some stuff down here too. March 1, 1965, john hulett, his wife, a group of 39 others that he had been talking to decide that, were gonna go down to the County Courthouse and see if we cant get registered to vote. He goes right into the registrars office, carl golson, Big Old Former football player, car dealer. You know, hes one of the county registrars. And he sees hulett and these three other black man barge in, dont you know how to knock . And huletts like, i didnt come here to knock, i came here to register to vote. I mean, thats throwing down the gauntlet. You know, golson cant do anything, but throw him out. And he also says, if yall are serious, yall wanna register, yall wanna do this . Then leave all your names. We wanna know whos showing up, which of yall have the gall to challenge white power. They were literally putting their lives on the line. Every single one of those folk who showed up, they put their names on a sheet of paper and they brought it back and they gave it to golson and said, this is who we are. And then two weeks later, a slightly larger group show up again, saying, look, were back, right . You have our names. You sent people to visit us. We lost some loans. We lost some business, but were back. And then after that second meeting, they realize, if were gonna do this, then we need to be organized. somber organ music and so in late march they formed the Lowndes County Christian Movement for human rights. [lillian] we were Lowndes County christians, and we wanted human rights. Thats all we wanted. 27 local people came. We met there every sunday night and every wednesday night. And i became the secretary, and as fast as they could say it, i could put it down, and they could call it back, say, aint never seen, nobody could do that like you. [ed] john hulett was the president. The first meeting was held at the Mount Gillard baptist church, which i was a deacon at. [john hulett] they control the equipments that goes into these schools. In fact, they control the entire counter. They controls everything. [ed] we started by, i believe around 1960 i believe it was. Id served in the army for a couple of years and still didnt have the right to vote. And i wanted that right. [lillian] we were in charge of our own movement, and that people trying to vote either was run out, frightened out or terminated out. Step up. Prep up. To help keep you free from the risk of hiv. Descovy for prep, the smallest prep pill available, is a oncedaily Prescription Medicine that helps lower the chances of getting hiv through sex. Its not for everyone. Descovy for prep has not been studied in people assigned female at birth. Talk to your doctor to find out if its right for you. Descovy is another way to prep. 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That and the paycheck. footsteps falling [Martin Luther king, jr. ] i believe youve heard of Lowndes County. D the paycheck. That is an attempt on the part of the white Power Structure to keep any kind of organization from taking place there and to keep our workers out, but i want you to know that this isnt going to stop us. We are going to Lowndes County in a few minutes. applause [mlk] so theyre not gonna let em have the money if theyre registered. [hasan] black folk in Lowndes County are not waiting for somebody to descend into the county and lead them to freedom. They are looking for help. They are looking for those who have some experience 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, wouldnt establish a presence. You know, king was like, yeah, yall need to, dont mess with Lowndes County. You cant do anything down there. Its too dangerous, right . Its too crazy. Bloody lowndes you dont fool with that. We dont even know where to begin. [lillian] wed 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, theyre talking to local people and local folk in lowndecounty, they said, you know what . You need to talk to some of these other folk who just formed this movement organization. Theyre doing something. Sncc activists reach out to john hulett and some of the others, and they say hey, were here to help. What can we do . Funk Style Music [reporter] during the early weeks of february, 1960 the demonstrations that came to be called the sitin movement exploded across the south. Im sorry, our management does not allow us to serve niggers in here. [reporter] for the first time the community was confronted with negros in places where they had never been. [william] sncc comes out of the sitin movement that began in the spring of 1960. Ella baker, a veteran organizer sees this and she calls together a conference of some of the Student Leaders from the sitin movement, and they create this organization, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Young people working with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee or sncc, as we call it are characterized by restless energy, Radical Change in Race Relations in the united states, their world is upset and they feel that if they are ever going to get it straight, they must upset it more. [ella] and this was sncc. Now how they got that way, it didnt happen overnight, but there was a need. [courtland] i would say the two dominant groups in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee are the people who came out of the nashville student movement. Thats john lewis, diane nash, bernard lafayette, and the Howard University people, stokely, cleve sellers, myself. And the one thing ms. Baker said to us do not become a Youth Division of the southern christian leadership conference. [ella] what was needed was not what we had been working with before. I knew enough about the egos that were involved. I better stop me from talking. I might Tell The Truth. [stokely] the method of sclc, was to come through to a town that was suffering under oppression. Rabble rouse the town, agitate the town, bring out the town, and mobilize activity to hit against levels of injustice. Here, of course, dr. Martin luther king, being one of the greatest mobilizers played a crucial role. And so once you knew that dr. King was coming to a town, that was it. That town was going to turn out. There was no question here. You would come mobilize the people, kick up a lot of dust, and then leave. Maybe a legislation would be passed, but where there would be no organized force here, even to take proper advantage of that legislation, which was passed. [james] you know, we wanted, you know, a movement that would survive the loss of our lives. And then therefore then the necessity to build a broad based movement and not just a charismatic leader. [hasan] atlanta would house the headquarters of sncc with Ruby Doris Robinson and judy richardson, making sure the organization as a whole ran efficiently. [judy] when i first come in the organization, i dont