Moses Moon Civil Rights Recordings 1963-1964: Greenwood, MS: circa November 3, 1963: Side 2

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John Lewis: Will let him come into her house. 'Cause it's a two way street!

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Seems to me any woman that'll let him know that these cops arrestin' us around here then invite them in through the back door at night.

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John Lewis: It's a sin and a shame! And if you know em tell em I said they ought to be run out of town! [[applause]]

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And here we are.

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Here we are.

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Well we uh pay 'em they can work for us, they don't have to be gettin' no dollar quarter we pay 'em two dollars a day! Work for freedom, they don't have to do that.
John Lewis:

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So we come on down.

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We come on down to the second World War, skip over the first World War.

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Well we gotta under understand this, that after the first World War primarily a lotta people began leavin' the south land, goin' up north!

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John Lewis: 'Cause the war had produced certain changes, and that's where my mama and papa went, away from the delta!

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Left my grandmama and all the rest of the relatives down here, and they would write letters occasionally, and you know what I'm talking about 'cause you got brothers and sisters and sons and daughters and everybody else up there in Chicago too. And I know you know what I'm talking about!

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And sometimes you wonder well don't they ever think about us down here. Don't they ever realize that we sweatin' and toil all these years to try to give em an education, we did our best! We know we's failed sometimes!

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Now they sittin up there in the cities look like they would come on down and help us, a little bit. I know how it is!
John Lewis:

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'Cause after all I'm from the soil too. And I know what you're going through, and I know what I'm going through.

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But in the meantime we start flooding into the cities.

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And we start getting a little political power.

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And we start electing some Uncle Tom politicians, that's right! Up there in the north they got some Uncle Tom politicians!

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And brother Jordan is absolutely right there's no point in everybody here coming out to these meetings being shot at, going through all this trouble to elect some Negro who's gon be an Uncle Tom to get all the money for himself! You see? [[NO!]]

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John Lewis: So we got to watch him! That's right.

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We got to watch our black brothers.

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Watch who leadin you!

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You see when all the fire's over I know I got a cousin used to live up there I went up to him I said why don't you register to vote? Well I'm waitin' 'til the fire goes out the thing is too hot now. And I said well man we don't need you when it cools down!

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John Lewis: We need ya now!

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So I would say to him and he's my cousin don't come runnin' with ya bucket after the fire's out, and you watch him!

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They gon all come all these uneducated teachers, and all these [[??]] preachers gon be runnin' when you win this battle! They gon be tryin' to get in the front!

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I'm tellin you you gotta watch em!

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John Lewis: They gon be the ones that wanna go down and sit in the city council.

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They gon be the ones that are gonna wanna run for the city legislature, they gon say you uneducated, I got a degree from MVC!

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You see? And I ought to represent you. But don't you let em fool you, if you can come out here night after night in these meetings, you've got enough sense to do anything that an 8th grader got like Bull O'Connor in Birmingham, Alabama, he ain't got no education.

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[[No!]] See? It don't take a whole lotta stuff to run that city -

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John Lewis: ...Anybody in here can almost run it.

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Don't let em tell you they all them secrets there and how they stole the land.

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Thats why they don't want you down there.

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How they stole all this land from you!
[SILENCE]

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See cause the Negroes use to own a whole lot of land around here.

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Don't let anybody fool you.

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They ex my grandfather out of his land up there in Marshall County.

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That's right, due some document in court said he made an ex for gambling debt

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so he lost five hundred acres of land. The man never gambled in his life.

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But it was choice land, and he didn't have any recourse

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All those things go on, then along came World War Two

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and the African nations began to rise up.

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See, history is catching up with the white man.

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From the very shores that he reaped, and raped us,

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and take, and captured us.

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The West Africans of Ivoire, they have their freedom now.

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Rising up in 47' up in Ghana and Guinea,

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and we have to understand this.

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White man doesn't want us to think about Africa.

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He wants to think that we are just pure blooded Americans

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when he knows that's a living lie.

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It's true we are Americans, but he talks about America

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for white America. Otherwise why can't we vote

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come Tuesday.

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See, the bible says you shall know them by their deeds

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and not by their words.

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But the devils got a slippery tongue.

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That's right.

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So the African nations began to get their freedom

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and that had an effect on all of us.

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Sometimes we don't know it,

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but sitting in the United Nations they had black men and black women

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with all sorts of robes as heads of state.

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See, the white man couldn't say anymore

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that the Negro was dirty, was uneducated,

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cause they had Negroes running governments,

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we can run these governments.

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Along came the nineteen fifty four supreme court decision

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and the tremendous effect that that had all across this land.

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Then, lo and behold, came February the first, nineteen sixty.

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And that was the day when four students, up in Greensboro, North Carolina, decided to sit down at a lunch counter.

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And they sat down at that lunch counter, and they stayed there. Because they were tired of going into Greensboro, spending their money at a lunch counter, or rather spending their money in a five and ten cents store and unable to buy a cup of coffee.

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It was an afront to their dignity. They became free the minute that they sat down at the lunch counter.

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And all of those who have gone down and faced that white man at the courthouse have become free, the minute that you made that step,'cuz I know what it was like a year ago in Greenwood and you do too.

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You said child, I ain't gonna fool with that mess. No, I ain't goin' to them meetin's. And when you came on out somethin' started movin' in you, you got religion!

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But you got a different kind of religion. You got a touch of the freedom religion when you start doing these things.

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Lo and behold the students began to organize, and somewhere down the line, the mantle of freedom touched upon Samuel Block and laid its hands upon Willie Peacock [[background talking, affirmative]]. and they came into Greenwood, Mississippi, in August of 1962.

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And just think about that less than 14 months ago. It's important for us to remind ourselves of these historical facts.

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'Cause some of us who are here may not have known that it was Samuel Block and Peacock comin' in here in 1962, August, sitting in the back of a... sleeping in the back of cars because they couldn't find any homes in which to sleep.

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That's right. We were in Atlanta. We had to send them mail in a plain envelope addressed it to somebody else, because if the mail came through marked Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, they feared for their lives.

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Some of you may have forgotten the fact that 8 white men came up the stairs over Burns Funeral Home, a rather photographic shot, with iron pipes in their hands and chains. And that the only way these guys got out was to jump down...

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John Lewis: That's right, this happened in Greenwood!

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Some of you may have forgotten about Block being beaten up there.

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It was a rough time, but all of you remember though the shooting of Jimmy Travis here in Greenwood.

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All of you remember the time that Peacock and Block got shot at, the burning of the SNCC office, the shooting in Dewey Greene's home, George Greene's home.

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All of us remember those things, am I right?!

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[[crowd murmuring agreement]]

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These things happened right here in Greenwood less than 6 months ago.

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That's right. And a new time came to Greenwood. We were in a moment of crises then.

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That's right. The town was crippled with fear. The white folks didn't know what to do!

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Because instead of us running and leaving Greenwood, more workers came into Greenwood. Am I right?

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[[applause]] People came in.

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And you see that's what the white man wanted you to do.. wanted us to do.

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Shoot a nigger and watch him run, that's what he was saying.

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But this is a new nigger and you tell black that old man Hammond down there, we ain't running no more.

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And the next people that's goin' to run is goin' to be that political, corrupt crowd out of that courthouse.

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We're going to run 'em outta there.

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[[applause]]

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And they know that the handwriting is on the wall. They know it. It's on the wall. They can't stop it.

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They cannot stop it for whatever they do.

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Because as the Lord said if they slayed everybody in this house, you got some little kids 5 and 6 years old singing them freedom songs and they ain't gonna stand for it.

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They ain't gonna stand for it. You hear what I'm saying?

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It's impossible to be learning freedom songs and grow up to be a slave.

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'Cause there's something about them songs that make you want to be free. Is that right? Something about them.

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They get inside you and they make you think about all of things that you've been doing.

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You see all of the things that you've been doing wrong.

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And this is the same way all across the South.

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John Lewis: goes up in Chicago, they singing we shall overcome.

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And two hundred and fifty thousand of your relatives stayed out of school in Chicago because of the segregated schools up there.

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And it's a glorious sight indeed.

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And now where are we? We've come a long way from the shores of Africa three hundred and fifty years ago.

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Down through Virginia, through the slavery boats, the cotton fields, the building of the delta.

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All for the slave blocks. Down through all of the wars. And we wind up in Greenwood, Mississippi tonight talking about a freedom ballad.

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And it's ironical people. Can you understand how sad it is that we have been struggling all of these years?

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Your parents before us. Our parents before them. And our grandparents and our great grandparents all have been suffering.

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You see?

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And you wonder to what avail is it? What does it all mean?

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Well it means the more that we struggle, the less our children will have to struggle.

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You see? And even as a certain amount of joy and a certain amount of goodness in what we're doing

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because I'd rather be out here in the freedom fight than sitting up in some five and ten cents movie watching some White folks on the screen so called making love.

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You see what I mean? Or at home with my television set watching some gangsters shooting them up. Boom boom boom. That's all.

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It's a corrupt society and it's gonna be the Black man that's gonna help you liberate this country.

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Let me tell you what I'm talking about. You got all these Yale students. Well where were they five years ago?

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They weren't dying here in the South.

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But they came down because the Black students, the Negro students, of the South and here in Mississippi were doing something.

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And they themselves are getting a new concept of living.

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All across this country, people are beginning to learn that there's something else in life besides

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John Lewis: A lamp in the window or somethin' like that, you know, or a barbecue stand in the back yard, or 5 and 10 cents movie.

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There's somethin' else. We got to go on from this point and get our freedom and help free the white man. [Oh, yeah!]

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He's not free. [you're right, you're right]

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And we goin' do all of this and that's why your freedom ballot is important.

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And everybody in this room should go home and get an the telephone and say,

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"Child, it ain't but one more day to cast your ballot. And if you don't cast your ballot tomorrow, then I don't wanna talk to you." ["You're right!"]

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See, you can't have it both ways!

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You can't be my friend and Uncle Tom behind my back. See, and we ought to call a spade a spade.

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And we're gonna hafta start gettin' hard.

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Just like we talk about these [[?]] preachers and these uneducated teachers,

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we're gonna have to start gettin' hard on our friends, or who callin' themselves our friends.

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'Cause you don't need no Tom for a friend.

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You got somethin' within you now that's gonna last you to your grave. The spirit of freedom.

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Once we done all this, then what have we done? We have helped our brothers in Alabama. They're sufferin' too.

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Like Ms. Hall said, the people in Selma said, if they in Greenwood Mississippi can do it, we can do it.

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And let me tell you somthin', Birmingham, Alabama was no accident.

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Remember Birmingham followed two weeks after Greenwood.

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And I know, 'cause I was over in Birmingham when there was only ten people in the line.

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And I'm not sayin' if what I said had any effect,

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but we told 'em about Greenwood and how the people were willing to go down to register and face the dogs.

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And some people said, well if they can do that then we can do this.

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And that's the way it goes, you see, all over the south.

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People in Georgia sayin' well if the people in Mississippi can begin the struggle, then I can struggle too.

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So that's why your ballot is-

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Your ballot is important also because we must show the white citizens' council with its headquarters in Greenwood, Mississippi that it makes no difference how many times you shoot at a Jimmy Travis, it makes no difference how many Beckwiths you produce, or kill Medgar Evers, that the masses of the people want to be free. And your freedom vote shows that.

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And then we got to talk about Eastland. See how many of you know that Senator Eastland is? Whoever heard of Senator Eastland?

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That's right he's got a plantation up there, but that's the man that sits up in Congress. In the Senate. He's a Senator making laws for you with a plantation in Ruleville, Mississippi or Dodds whatever it is... Doddsville that's right. With a plantation up there.

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Here's a man that gets up on the Senate floor and talks about the Negros ain't ready. And he's supposed to represent you. That's right. He's supposed to represent the people of Mississippi.

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Not just the white people but the people of Mississippi. And I say he's got to go. Got to go. [[Oh yeah!]] He's got to go. [[Oh yeah!]] Stennis got to go. All of 'em got to go. [[applause]]

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And he's no fool. They know what we saying. You know. But we got to stand up fr'em. We can't be afraid of 'em. We got to look 'em in the eye. Dead in the eye. Say, "Yeah you wrong!"

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You know when you're wrong get back. It's like that old sayin' we gotta change but you know they said when you white you can get around.

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Now when you white you right. When you brown you can get around. But if you black, get back get back.

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See we gotta start tellin' him you black in your heart so get back. [[ Oh yeah!]] That's right and let somebody else who's right in their heart take over. And you're freedom

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John Lewis: and his days are numbered cause we organizing all over the state

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down in uhh rollin, what's the name of that place? Rolling Fork.

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Rolling Fork down there I think the man is right here. We'll let him tell ya 'bout it 'cause you all are here

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I didn't know they were comin'. Two young people got chased outta town at shotgun point, and you all gonna hear what they got to say when I'm finished.

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Down in Natchez, Mississippi George Green, poor George, he gets it all the time, got shot at. Your boy, from Greenwood, Mississippi, fightin' for your freedom, got shot at.

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Down in Picayune, Mississippi walkin the road to Poplarville this mornin'. Was one little voter registration worth it?

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What had happened was the sheriff had come up and had arrested the driver and had taken the driver off somewhere off in the woods.

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And the people had to get out of their car. And you know what happened in Poplarville six years ago? [oh yeah]

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Charles Mack Parker got lynched!

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And you had a voter registration worker walkin in the rode to Poplarville this morning

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Walking for freedom! Now if these people can do all of this, don't tell me we can't go down and cast our ballet.

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Don't tell me we can't go home tonight and get on the phone for two hours and call up everybody we know.

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We can make on little step for freedom.

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We can't turn back.

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Think about the song "We'll never turn back." Gone too far now. We got to move on up from Greenwood and go up to Belzoni. [yeah]

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That's right. We have to go into Belzoni. [yeah]. Cause the sheriff up their has to know his days are numbered too.

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We gotta go down to Yazoo city where we weren't able to get... [the dead place]. That's right. We gotta go down and wake them up.

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Sixteen months ago, they were saying Greenwood was a dead place too. But we gotta go in the bell[ugh] Yahzoo city and we gotta get into Winona.

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Where they beat Misses Hema, where they beat Giat. Did you know that! Did you know that up in the Winona jail they had a old woman Misses Hema...

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They'll say yes sir. They whooped her everytime. [yeah]

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They brought the guards in there and made the guards whip her.

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That's right! All this was going on. And what is the difference between nigh on three hundred fifty years ago. Ain't much difference. We still slaves!

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And that's why we got to ball. Bend our knees and straighten our heads in a sense and dig in!

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They say we were gon be free. And we're gon do all these little things that's possible in order for us to be free.

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We're going to have to start thinking. And all you maids in here and all of those that you know maids. Find out what the white folks are thinking.

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You don't have to tell them you're spying on them. Look around, that's right! If I look on them, start reading some of that mail sometime.

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See what's on the desk.

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They gone half the day they don't know what you doin.

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See? That's right! [[Amen!]]

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We gotta get smart they smart on us they buggin our telephones!

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We gotta get us an underground.

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And tell get that word back to [[sand block]] what the white folks thinkin.

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That's right.

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Way we broke the thing up there in Fayette county when they had all them people in tents.

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A maid sneaked in and got the combination to the safe, and took out the black list.

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See they all them Negros on a black list.

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And got the black list, copied the black list and put it back.

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They never knew where the Negros got the information from.

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And the maid is the most powerful person in a community like this.

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'Cause while you servin them food they talkin bout them niggas doin this and the niggas doin that!

00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:41.000
And don't keep it to yourself I know what it is!

00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:44.000
I know what they sayin!

00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:46.000
See?

00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:53.000
And they oughta be thankful that we are proud and honest people 'cause we could slip some cyanide into the food and they'd never know what would happened, see?

00:20:53.000 --> 00:20:56.000
But we ain't gon do that!

00:20:56.000 --> 00:21:02.000
We love em! We love em! We gon I ain't tryna give you no ideas, we love em!

00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:05.910
See we gon treat em nonviolently. We gon win em!

00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:13.000
John Lewis: [oh yeah!] We gon' win 'em! But we got to have information, see?

00:21:13.000 --> 00:21:16.000
That's right! See?

00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:23.000
All these little things we got to do, you know, they don't understand us when we say, "Yes'm" and shake our heads and smile.

00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:29.000
They don't know what's inside us. They don't know, no, they don't know!

00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:31.000
So we gotta get together.

00:21:31.000 --> 00:21:46.000
And ultimately all the maids in Greenwood have got to get together, and have some sort of a maid's union where we can get four dollars a day instead of two and a half to three, or even five dollars a day, you see?

00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:49.000
All these things have to be done.

00:21:49.000 --> 00:22:00.000
I'm not gonna hold you up too much longer, but I'd like to end this thing with what we say all the time.

00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.000
Having looked at what we been doing three hundred and fifty years,

00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:09.000
how we've suffered on the slave block, in the cotton fields,

00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:13.000
how we been hung up by the head or by the feet and whipped,

00:22:13.000 --> 00:22:21.000
we been dyin' every day and the way things are a Negro comes into life not to live,

00:22:21.000 --> 00:22:24.000
but he comes in here to die.

00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:29.000
And every day he's dyin' bit by bit. 'Cause it's a sad thing to be segregated.

00:22:29.000 --> 00:22:30.000
We can't even be human.

00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.000
Ya got to go around with a lot of burdens on ya.

00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:37.000
And ya got to wonder, "Can I go here?" and "Can I go there?"

00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:41.000
In Chicago they not free. I used to live up there.

00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:47.000
I went downtown and every time I go downtown I wonder, "Can I go in this restaurant?" or "Can I go in that restaurant?"

00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:55.000
And that's not freedom! [No, no!] Freedom is when you know within your soul that you are a man.

00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.000
There are times when people have experienced that, but not in America.

00:22:59.000 --> 00:23:04.000
I was over in the Philippines and it was like a whole weight lifted up off of me.

00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:09.000
You know, I felt somethin' like I was floatin' in the air almost, 'cause I knew there wasn't any segregation.

00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:14.000
And that's the way these soldiers comin' back from France and Germany have felt.

00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:17.000
They'll tell you about it, am I right, you who've been in the army?

00:23:17.000 --> 00:23:20.450
They know what I'm talkin' about, it's like a whole weight bein' taken off of you.

00:23:23.000 --> 00:23:32.000
John Lewis: dyin' every day. And if it takes death because we make a freedom ballot, then let us die.

00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:37.000
Because if we don't make some supreme sacrifice now, our children are gon hafta suffer.

00:23:37.000 --> 00:23:45.000
And its not right to bring a black child into this world for him to be segregated when you know you haven't done anything.

00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:54.000
And remember, I'm not talkin about the roll up in heaven. We got children askin' their parents now, "Mama, what have you done for freedom?"

00:23:54.000 --> 00:24:05.000
And if all these kids can get out here and work seventeen hours a day, then we can make some effort. We owe it to 'em! They didn't ask to be brough in this world [No, no!]

00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:10.000
They didn't be brought in here, it was our pleasure that brough em' in this world.

00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:18.000
And we oughta do somethin to get it, to make 'em better. Don't let us fool ourselves. We got an obligation to our grandchildren.

00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:21.000
We gotta pay off our debt.

00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:46.000
And as we pay off the debt we can go forward singing we shall overcome. Thank you [clapping] [Go ye, go ye, go ye]
[SILENCE]

00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:54.000
Sing one song then we gonna hear from people been working in Washington County. [Back you up and??]

00:24:54.000 --> 00:25:13.000
[[group singing]] I'm gonna sit at the welcome table, Oh Lordy I'm gonna sit at the welcome table one of these days. Hallelujah! I'm gonna sit at the welcome table, I'm gonna sit at the welcome table one of these days, one of these days.

00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:35.000
Well, I'm gonna get my equal rights, oh Lordy, I'm gonna get my equal rights Lord one of these days. Hallelujah! I'm gonna get my equal rights, I'm gonna get my equal rights one of these days, one of these days.

00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:57.000
Well, I'm gonna tell God on this city, oh Lordy I'm gonna tell God on this city one of these days. Hallelujah! I'm gonna tell God on this city. I'm gonna tell God on this city one of these days, one of these days.

00:25:57.000 --> 00:26:19.000
Well, I'm gonna be [[out at the water?]], oh Lordy I'm gonna [[be out ? myself ?]] one of these days. Hallelujah! I'm gonna be [[out at the water?]]. I'm gonna be [[out at the ?]] one of these days, one of these days.

00:26:19.000 --> 00:26:41.000
Well, I'm gonna sing and never get tired, oh Lordy I'm gonna sing and never get tired one of these days. Hallelujah! I'm gonna gonna sing and never get tired. I'm gonna sing and never get tired one of these days, one of these days.

00:26:41.000 --> 00:27:03.000
Well, I'm gonna walk the streets of [[?]] , oh Lordy I'm gonna walk the streets of [[?]] one of these days. Hallelujah! I'm gonna walk the streets of [[?]]. I'm gonna walk the streets of [[?]] one of these days, one of these days.

00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:26.000
Well, I'm gonna tell God how you treat me, oh Lordy I'm gonna tell God how you treat me one of these days. Hallelujah! I'm gonna tell God how you treat me. I'm gonna tell God how you treat me one of these days, one of these days.

00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:49.300
Well, I'm gonna sit at the welcome table, Oh Lordy I'm gonna sit at the welcome table one of these days. Hallelujah! I'm gonna sit at the welcome table, I'm gonna sit at the welcome table one of these days, one of these days.

00:28:01.000 --> 00:28:35.000
James Baldwin: Umm, John Lewis [applause] Umm, we have the other workers who have been working in the Washington county roller farm, I don't know who's gonna who's gonna speak forward but it'd be nice to know theres two of em, two of em that know them I think I don't know but anyway we have Charles [[?]] and Tiko and other people, another thing we had a young man get kicked out of home and bails on him Mississippi tonight see (other man speaks) That done what?
James Baldwin: & other man kicked outta home (other man speaks) man packed his bags and took him away
James Baldwin: brought him up here to us

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:38.000
(other man speaks) man had his parents?
James Baldwin: He was as good as we

00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:40.000
(other man speaks) Who did?

00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:48.000
James Baldwin: {Unknown Speakers} [[inaudible]] (other man speaks) Say what? {Unknown Speakers} [[inaudible]] [[background noise]]

00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:59.000
{Unknown Speaker} Come out and tell us about it son. Come on out and tell them [[??]] today. [[clapping]]

00:28:59.000 --> 00:29:01.000
{Unknown Speaker} Let him tell on his own [[inaudible]]

00:29:01.000 --> 00:29:25.000
{SPEAKER name = Lewis James Williams} Uh, I live in Belzoni Mississippi. My name is Lewis James [[??]] Williams [[??]]. My mother's name is Mary Lee James, my father's name is Willie James. (Unknown Speaker) talk louder {SPEAKER name = Lewis James Williams} And. Talk loud? (Unknown Speaker) You got a soft voice. (Unknown Speaker) [[inaudible]] (Unknown Speaker) The mics don't work (Unknown Speaker) elevate your voice (Unknown Speaker) just talk louder

00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:57.030
{SPEAKER name = Lewis James Williams} Anyway [[??]], in Belzoni Mississippi, that's where I live at. And right now its kinda rough in there. And uh, things are going rough. And uh we tried to uh tried to get the people to come out and vote on Saturday evening, but the police will not I mean in Belzoni will not let us do it right now. Uh they stopped us twice. They took away James [[??]] Shaw [[??]] to jail at first, and then he got out some kind of way.

00:30:04.000 --> 00:30:10.000
Lewis James Williams: Anyway,ah Belzoni is kinda rough.

00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:12.000
John Lewis: and you mother, put you out, put you out,

00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:13.000
Lewis James Williams: I'll tell them about that

00:30:13.000 --> 00:30:15.000
John Lewis: Fighting for the freedom

00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:40.000
Lewis James Williams: Well not exactly she put me out, she, I have got a lot of ones at Belzoni that uh. I got a lot of telephone calls, saying that uh that they uh threating my life,something like that. And uh, my Mother and Fathers told me I'ma have to leave Belzoni because of what's going on with the people that's saying to her about me. And so I told her I will leave, I came here.

00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:49.000
[SILENCE] [[clapping]]

00:30:49.000 --> 00:30:52.000
{Unknown Speaker} They got scared.

00:30:52.000 --> 00:31:01.000
[[Background voices]]

00:31:01.000 --> 00:31:14.000
James Baldwin: Well. Everybody in here know why he's out know. [[inaudible]] Belzoni, and they don't want us doing what he was doing in Belzoni. {Unknown Speaker} That's right.

00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:52.000
James Baldwin: You know about Reverend Lee [[??]] and Mr. Colt [[??]]. This is why this young man is up here. Now we have the people that's been working on [[??]]'s farm. Whom I assume is gonna speak to you briefly about what has happened to violators [[??]]. Right now [[inaudible]] fired a shot gun [[inaudible]]. Uh I guess [[inaudible]] [[clapping]]

00:31:52.000 --> 00:32:03.030
{Unknown Speaker} Wow, I think its great you know. We been working highway 61 and highway 1. Today we are providing the rolling force, we've prepared ourselves for this.

00:32:08.000 --> 00:33:57.000
We tried to get polling Places but you know the people there are worried about the police soforth and so on. Slavery we couldn't get any polling places at all, could get any conducts they wouldn't even talk to us.so we cam in there today and were canvasing up and down and Charlie cobb is on one side of the street and I was on the other and were alternating, and I would go into one house and knock on the door and we explain about the mock election and hand out leaflets and so forth and try to get the vote. Well I had to get a pencil and I went down one of the blocks to the stores and aborrowed a pencil from the men there and tried to get his vote but he didn't want to give me his vote and wanted back his pencil back, so I convinced him to let me keep the pencil so I went back up the block to convance, not about 20 minutes out of it police car pass by one was in uniform and one was not and they just drifted down the block and looked over the situation and about 10 minutes later this truck pulls up on the back of our car and jots down the license plate and im up on the step talking to this elderly man about getting his vote, now my back is to the to the street and the next thing I know he's telling me to look out this truck pulls right onto the lawn about an inch from my leg I look around this cap opens the door and has a shotgun in his hand and says nigga you gotta stop this nonsense we given you, you know he cusses a couple few seconds few damn minutes to get out of town. And so I kinda stood back and the fella I was talking to went into the house and locked the door. [00.33.53] [[Laughter]]

00:33:57.000 --> 00:34:13.000
So so I stayed there on the porch. So I start to turn around to tell him to take it easy and he said damn it nigga get out of town you have exactly 1 minute he slammed the door and back the truck up down the road. So I went back to the car put my ballot box in there the crowd had gathered

00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:35.000
and they saw this [[burst]] as I start to walk towards the next house people closed their doors and everything so I went across the street to the house that Charlie was in and told him that maybe it'd be best for the time being we left town so we went down to [[Myersville]] about 10 miles away and as soon as we got to [[Myersville]] we found another team Matthew Huges and

00:34:35.000 --> 00:35:10.000
[[?]] [[it's the queen of county had gone up the wrong for]] so we doubled back and went back into town you know to see if we can find him and make sure nothing happened. Well as it turned out they [[weren't even ? for us]] they continued onto Greenwood I mean onto Greenville so we didn't stay in town more than an hour during this period of time and as we left town same captain was in the truck, this man was in a ford and he saw this [[?]] out of town he followed right behind our car, we lost him on the highway we didn't waste any time on the gas pedal [00:35:08} [Laughter]

00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:42.000
But he saw the thing is this is about the second day that we've had problems with guns in Jackson, it's two nights the night before that out on the road going to the airport we got run off the highway by 4 cops and I got pistil whipped on my hand by 1 police man and a fella from New Orleans got shoved by a car door by another cop and [[?]] and Jessie Harris is standing out in the cold with their hands up and almost froze to death out there. So these votes are important we gotta stop things like this from happening

00:35:42.000 --> 00:35:49.000
as we've been telling people up and down the road, they don't get out and vote these things gonna keep happening for the next 2000 years [[crowd makes noise]] [[distant]] you right you right

00:35:49.000 --> 00:36:28.000
you know so I'm hoping I'm really hoping that everybody here I know must have cast a ballot and they're gonna get everybody else to cast these ballots so we can knock on some doors and some woman says gee I wanna see Aaron [[?]] as governor but I can't vote for him. I said well how is he gonna be come governor if you don't vote for him. You know this is after we explained the protest election the idea of it. She says well it's a good idea but I just can't vote that's white peoples business. I said you know that's right this stuff's got to stop so I'm trusting that you know these harassments which are happening to us all of us you know are gonna end it's gonna end because we're gonna get out there and make some changes.

00:36:28.000 --> 00:36:38.000
We're in [[?]] county where there's never been a negro registered in the last hundred years and some people down there told us

00:36:38.000 --> 00:36:50.000
you know as soon as this is over with they goin down to the court house and they gonna register you know because this election what this meant to them so I'm hoping people on the [[floor county]] and all across the state will be casting those ballots tonight and tomorrow. Thank you.

00:36:50.000 --> 00:37:00.000
[[Clapping]]

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:13.000
After all of this, after all of the harassment, everyone is receiving in the state of Mississippi [[we've made open our minds the state]] of never turning back.

00:37:13.000 --> 00:37:19.000
I think now would be the proper time to sing that song We are never turning back

00:37:19.000 --> 00:37:20.280
[[indistinct background noises]]

00:37:22.000 --> 00:37:38.000
[[indistinct background noises]]

00:37:38.000 --> 00:37:44.000
{unknown voice, speaker 1} Make sure if you're gonna leave cast your ballot. Your freedom vote.

00:37:44.000 --> 00:37:50.000
{unknown voice, speaker 2} Everybody now cast your ballots please, please.

00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:52.000
{unknown voice, speaker 3} We'll all be gone in a minute sister.

00:37:52.000 --> 00:38:03.000
[[indistinct background noises]]

00:38:03.000 --> 00:38:26.000
{unknown voice, singing} Even you can leave that scar. Leave and talk about who you want

00:38:26.000 --> 00:38:33.000
{unknown voice, singing} But we'll mail her.

00:38:33.000 --> 00:38:37.000
{unknown voice, singing} Turn black

00:38:37.000 --> 00:38:49.000
{unknown voice, singing} No we'll mail her. Turn black

00:38:49.000 --> 00:38:59.000
{unknown voice, singing} Until we all [[?]] freed

00:38:59.000 --> 00:39:02.000
{unknown voice, singing}

00:39:02.000 --> 00:39:05.000
{unknown voice, singing]

00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:10.000
[unknown voice, singing}

00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:18.000
{unknown voice, singing}

00:39:18.000 --> 00:39:25.000
{unknown voice, singing}

00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:33.000
{unknown voice, singing}

00:39:33.000 --> 00:39:41.000
{unknown voice, singing}

00:39:41.000 --> 00:39:46.000
{unknown voice, singing}

00:39:46.000 --> 00:39:50.000
{unknown voice, singing}

00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:56.000
{unknown voice, singing}

00:39:56.000 --> 00:40:03.000
{unknown voice, singing}

00:40:03.000 --> 00:40:08.000
{unknown voice, singing}

00:40:08.000 --> 00:40:15.000
{unknown voice, singing}

00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:15.960
{unknown voice, singing}

00:40:18.000 --> 00:42:22.410
He hath walked through the shadows of death. We learn to walk around sale but we'll never turn back no we'll never turn back until we walk every heavy heavy walla tea we have ungod death and pride but goes like thee who die die for you and me die for me die for the cause of the walla tee but we'll never turn back no we'll never turn back unsafely.

00:42:26.000 --> 00:43:09.000
[[all humming]]

00:43:09.000 --> 00:43:40.000
[[singing]] "Until we all live free and we're have equality, and we'll have equality"

00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:49.000
Everybody stand up.

00:43:49.000 --> 00:44:45.000
[[singing]] "we shall overcome. We shall overcome. We shall overcome someday. Oh-Oh-Oh deep in my heart I know that I do believe Oh we shall overcome someday."

00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:44.080
God is on our side.

00:44:46.000 --> 00:44:52.000
God is on our side!

00:44:52.000 --> 00:44:54.000
My lord!

00:44:54.000 --> 00:45:00.000
God is on our side!

00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:01.000
My Lord!

00:45:01.000 --> 00:45:07.000
God is on our side!

00:45:07.000 --> 00:45:13.000
Today!

00:45:13.000 --> 00:45:21.000
Oh, deep in my heart!

00:45:21.000 --> 00:45:29.000
I know that I do believe!

00:45:29.000 --> 00:45:39.000
Oh, we shall overcome, someday!

00:45:39.000 --> 00:45:41.000
John Lewis: Hum something.

00:45:41.000 --> 00:45:46.000
Hm!

00:45:46.000 --> 00:45:48.000
My lord!

00:45:48.000 --> 00:45:50.000
Hm!

00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:54.000
James Baldwin: Pray before God our father.

00:45:54.000 --> 00:45:56.000
James Baldwin: We thank thy for life.

00:45:56.000 --> 00:45:59.000
James Baldwin: We thank thy for health.

00:45:59.000 --> 00:46:03.000
James Baldwin: We thank thy for injure diversion.

00:46:03.000 --> 00:46:06.000
James Baldwin: We thank thy for though spirit.

00:46:06.000 --> 00:46:10.000
James Baldwin: We thank thy for what I am at birth.

00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:15.000
James Baldwin: Now we tell God that we pray that thou would give up the strength,

00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:25.000
James Baldwin: and the courage, and the vigor, and the vitality.

00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:30.000
James Baldwin: To put it into good use, that we may cast our ballots.

00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:38.000
James Baldwin: To prove your fervor like this, that we want to be free.

00:46:38.000 --> 00:46:39.000
James Baldwin: That I prayer we appraise the wisest man.

00:46:39.000 --> 00:46:41.000
My Lord!

00:46:41.000 --> 00:46:46.000
We shall overcome!

00:46:46.000 --> 00:46:48.000
My God!

00:46:48.000 --> 00:46:59.000
We shall overcome! Someday!

00:46:59.000 --> 00:47:06.000
Oh, deep in my heart!

00:47:06.000 --> 00:47:14.000
I know that I do believe!

00:47:14.000 --> 00:47:23.000
Oh, we shall overcome! Someday!

00:47:23.000 --> 00:47:23.520
John Lewis: One more time for those...

00:47:26.000 --> 00:47:31.000
[[multiple voices singing]] We shall overcome,

00:47:31.000 --> 00:47:33.000
{unknown voice} Praise The Lord,

00:47:33.000 --> 00:47:38.000
[[multiple singing voices]] We shall overcome,

00:47:38.000 --> 00:47:40.000
{unknown voice} Praise The Lord,

00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:51.000
[[Multiple singing voices, gradually getting louder]] We shall overcome some day,

00:47:51.000 --> 00:47:57.000
[[Multiple singing voices]] oh-oh-oh deep in my heart

00:47:57.000 --> 00:47:59.000
{unknown voice} I know that,

00:47:59.000 --> 00:48:04.000
[[Multiple singing voices]] I do believe,

00:48:04.000 --> 00:48:14.000
[[Multiple singing voices, gradually getting quieter]] oh-oh-oh we shall overcome, some day.

00:48:14.000 --> 00:48:20.000
{indistinct voice} that was good you guys [[indistinct background noise]] [[coughing]]

00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:23.064
[[silence]]