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Transcription: {SPEAKER name="John Lewis"}
[00:07:57]
That's right, this happened in Greenwood!
[00:08:00]
Some of you may have forgotten about Block being beaten up there.
[00:08:04]
It was a rough time, but all of you remember though the shooting of Jimmy Travis here in Greenwood.
[00:08:11]
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.
[00:08:19]
All of us remember those things, am I right?!
[00:08:21]
[[crowd murmuring agreement]]
[00:08:22]
These things happened right here in Greenwood less than 6 months ago.
[00:08:27]
That's right. And a new time came to Greenwood. We were in a moment of crises then.
[00:08:34]
That's right. The town was crippled with fear. The white folks didn't know what to do!
[00:08:41]
Because instead of us running and leaving Greenwood, more workers came into Greenwood. Am I right?
[00:08:48]
[[applause]]
People came in.
[00:08:51]
And you see that's what the white man wanted you to do.. wanted us to do.
[00:08:57]
Shoot a nigger and watch him run, that's what he was saying.
[00:09:00]
But this is a new nigger and you tell black that old man Hammond down there, we ain't running no more.
[00:09:06]
And the next people that's goin' to run is goin' to be that political, corrupt crowd out of that courthouse.
[00:09:11]
We're going to run 'em outta there.
[00:09:12]
[[applause]]
[00:09:17]
And they know that the handwriting is on the wall. They know it. It's on the wall. They can't stop it.
[00:09:24]
They cannot stop it for whatever they do.
[00:09:27]
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.
[00:09:37]
They ain't gonna stand for it. You hear what I'm saying?
[00:09:40]
It's impossible to be learning freedom songs and grow up to be a slave.
[00:09:46]
'Cause there's something about them songs that make you want to be free. Is that right? Something about them.
[00:09:51]
They get inside you and they make you think about all of things that you've been doing.
[00:09:58]
You see all of the things that you've been doing wrong.
[00:10:01]
And this is the same way all across the South.

Transcription Notes:
old man Hammond - Buff Hammond, Police Commissioner Greenwood, MS