Live Breaking News & Updates on Courtland Lions Club|Page 6
Stay updated with breaking news from Courtland lions club. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
And if they re the majority, this county has been run by 20% of the people who are white, who have seized power illegally and who have maintained power through all sorts of terroristic manners. the rest of the country ask now that these black people get with these white people and reform these white people. and i say to the black people that we don t have to bear the cross for them, let us form our own party and let them take care of their own business. so we form our own party and we seek power. we don t seek integration. that s irrelevant to what we want. we want power. and this is the way we get it. - [hasan] and they get a lot of criticism from liberals, white liberals, but then also from black moderates who are like, no, no, no, you re supposed to be supporting the democrats, you can t go your own way. - [courtland] all of the establishment, the white establishment, newspapers, the washington post, new york times, were saying that what we were doing in lowndes county was reverse ....
- [john] those people knew what happened. they was ready to go again. was waiting on 68. that was 66. - [lillian] and every aspect of the political arena, you wanted some black person in there to plead our cause. see what s going on. - [courtland] there was no turning back. the concept that people who lived in that county who were black should not only vote, but they should be in power. - [ruby] lowndes county was moving on with its own rhythm. and it was time for us to begin to think about where we would go. - [hasan] sncc organizers were guided by this belief that our job is to work ourselves out of a job. if we do our job right then we won t be needed here. it s also one of snccs last major local organizing projects. (funky music) ....
Would represent a real and present danger to the very fabric of society in the united states. - [courtland] wherever black people are talking about their being in power or their being able to define reality. there is always a counter attack. - [andrew] when white americans heard blacks say black power and clench their fist, in their mind, blacks were now going to do them, all the evil things that whites had done to blacks during the last 200 years. now, i don t think that was in the thinking of even the most militant black men. i think black power for them meant the right to determine their own destiny. - [stokely] the projection of the term black power came from the white press, never from black people in this country. the debate about that was ranged among white people and the ....
Such a dangerous place. - [courtland] freedom summer was about bringing the country to mississippi and creating the mississippi freedom democratic party that eventually made the challenge in atlantic city. (ominous piano music) - [ella] the message that the freedom democratic party believes, that a political party should be open to all of the people who wish to suscribe to its principle. - [hasan] the democratic national convention, which occurs in atlantic city in august of 1964 is really a pivotal moment in the evolution of sncc organizing in particular. sncc activists, just like local people are hopeful if they make the case, that the reason why african americans are not participating en masse in the electoral politics in mississippi is because ....
- [hasan] when sncc first comes into the county, they re not staying in lowndes county, alabama. they re going back to selma where sncc s regional headquarters was and they re spending the night there. and then they re getting up early and coming back into the county and that s dangerous. it s dangerous to be on the highway. - [john] i said, my daddy got a empty house. y all come down there and take a look at it. they came down and my father and stoke and them hit right off. first thing he said to him, there s no restroom in that house, that s the condition, but y all welcome to stay here, and you don t have to run back to selma, they re not gonna come here and mess with you. - his land was clear. he didn t owe any money in financing his crops. - [courtland] there was no indoor plumbing, there was no water, there was a pump in the back. they had a roof that leaked, and they had one butane gas heater in the house. so when it got cold, you had to go into one room, but it was very, very ....