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If you have ever owned a slave,
please raise your hand.
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And there's not one hand
going up anywhere in this theatre.
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Slavery is not our fault.
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We didn't do it.
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We didn't cause it.
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It's not our responsibility.
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But it is our shared history.
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And when we try and turn it
into something that it's not...
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when we try and make
more light of it than it was,
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then we are denying who we really are,
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and we are impeding our ability
to truly move forward
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as a community or as a nation.
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We're at the Lorraine Motel.
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And right outside Room 306,
there's a wreath,
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which is approximately
where Dr King was standing
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when he was shot down.
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And if you look across the street,
there's a building over there
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from where the shots were fired.
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It was a shot that almost couldn't miss.
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Exactly one week
before Dr King was shot,
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there was a demonstration here
in Downtown Memphis
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to support
the striking sanitation workers,
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and my dad took my older brother
and I to that demonstration.
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It broke into violence
and my dad told us to run.
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It's difficult to think about now,
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because there was a young Black teenager
named Larry Payne.
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He lost his life that day.
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He encountered a police officer
and was killed, and...
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It's just one of those events
in my childhood
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that made me realise how lucky I was.
33
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How lucky I was
not to end up like Larry Payne.
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And how lucky I was
to have come out of Memphis...
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in the way that I did.
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We've gotta give ourselves
to this struggle until the end.
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Nothing would be more tragic...
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than to stop...
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00:03:03,851 --> 00:03:06,812
at this point in Memphis.
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We've gotta see it through.
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Tonight, Jeff Robinson
will tell us stories that we've not heard.
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Stories that we think we know,
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but have not wrestled
with their meaning yet.
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The story of us.
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Ladies and gentlemen,
give it up for Jeff Robinson, y'all.
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Hey, y'all.
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I was 11 years old in 1968.
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And to my young eyes,
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we had been on a path
toward racial justice that was amazing.
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00:03:57,863 --> 00:04:01,158
There was the Civil Rights Act,
the Voting Rights Act.
51
00:04:01,241 --> 00:04:04,536
We were winning on buses
and at lunch counters.
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We were seemingly, to me,
at a tipping point
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where we were either gonna roll forward
54
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with this incredible momentum
on racial justice
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or we could roll back.
56
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And then April 4th happened.
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And King got shot in the neck.
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And it felt like the whole thing
just rolled back.
59
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Because then came Richard Nixon
and the War on Drugs.
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We're 50 years later now.
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And once again,
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young activists in America are making
Americans take a look in the mirror,
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in terms of our true history
of race and racial prejudice.
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Once again, the young activists
are calling us to account.
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Once again, America is having to look
at issues of race dead in the eye,
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and once again, we are at a tipping point.
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And the question
for all of us in this room is:
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"What are we gonna do about it?"
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We are our own worst enemies
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when it comes to making
true racial progress in America.
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And unless we are willing to take
a long and hard look in the mirror,
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this concept of taking two steps forward
and three steps backward
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is where we are going
to continue moving in this country.
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In 2011, my wife and I became parents.
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My sister-in-law who lived here in Queens
passed away,
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and we became the parents
of her then-13-year-old son.
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And if you ask Matthew Liam Brooks,
"What are you?"
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He will tell you, "I'm Puerto Rican,
Taíno Indian and African American."
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And he's very proud of that.
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And when I look at him, I say,
"I understand, dude.
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But you're a young Black male.
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'Cause that's what America is gonna see."
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And all of a sudden,
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the surface skimming
that I felt like I had been doing
85
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on the history of race
and what racism meant in America,
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it wasn't enough,
and so I started reading more.
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And I found myself getting angry
and feeling ignorant.
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I went to Marquette University
and I graduated from Harvard Law School.
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I've had one of the best educations
in America,
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and I started learning stuff
about the history of race in this country
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that I had never heard before.
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And I thought,
"How could I not have known this?
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How could I not have been taught this?"
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And I started thinking,
"If I don't know this,
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I wonder how many other people
don't know."
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Slavery had nothing to do with the war.
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That was not the cause
of the Southern states seceding.
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That was not the cause of the first shot
being fired on that fort over there.
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It was about money.
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And it was not about slavery.
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It was about Morrill Tariffs.
It was about more money.
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Lincoln wanted to impose 45%
more taxes on the Southern states.
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Taxes on the goods
the Southern states were producing.
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And those goods were,
essentially, cotton, tobacco, and rice.
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Predominantly.
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And those goods...
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were produced by slave labour.
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All of it.
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Isn't that right?
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I mean...
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Ninety-five percent of it?
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Isn't that right?
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If it's 95% produced by slave labour,
enslaved people...
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and the North is saying,
"We're gonna tax you on that
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because we want some of that money,"
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and the South is saying,
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"Wait a minute.
We're the ones producing,
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so you shouldn't be taking the money,"
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that money wouldn't exist
without slave labour.
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That did affect the bottom line,
wouldn't you agree with that?
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They chose to stay.
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In most cases, in the South,
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that's the way it worked,
because they were treated as family.
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And they knew what they had.
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They didn't know what they were
being faced with if they left.
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So your view is that enslaved people
were treated as family?
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Then why wouldn't it be all right
for me to own you,
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as long as I treated you like family?
129
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If that's the way economics work.
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Would you be satisfied with that?
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-In today's world?
-In any world.
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-In today's time?
-At any time.
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No.
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So was slavery evil?
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Yes.
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I'm not denying it.
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And this flag has nothing to do with that?
138
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No.
139
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This was a soldier's battle flag.
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I think I need to--
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I'm a little sick today,
and so I'm just standing in the heat.
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Thank you for talking to me.
I will say that.
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I appreciate that.
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-Thank you very much for talking to me.
-Yes, sir.
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I needed to walk away.
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I am definitely interested in engaging
with people that don't agree.
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But it seemed like facts...
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were not that important to this gentleman.
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He knew that what he was saying
made no sense whatsoever,
150
00:10:01,310 --> 00:10:03,645
but he believes it so deeply...
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00:10:04,730 --> 00:10:06,899
that he's unwilling to let go of it.
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So I don't know if he can be reached.
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But I know that if no one tries,
he definitely won't change.
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People aren't just good or bad.
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People are many things.
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Every person in this theatre
knows that's true,
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'cause every one of us has been
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a saint or a sinner
at some times in our life.
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00:10:47,981 --> 00:10:49,399
And you know what?
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Countries aren't just one thing either.
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They're many things.
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America has demonstrated its greatness
time and time and time again.
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And America is one
of the most racist countries
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on the face of the Earth.
165
00:11:04,623 --> 00:11:07,960
Those two things
are not mutually exclusive.
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00:11:08,919 --> 00:11:11,088
It is not an either-or.
167
00:11:15,759 --> 00:11:18,554
And the reason I'm asking us
to think about this
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is that, literally,
the future is at stake.
169
00:11:26,812 --> 00:11:29,022
Can I see a show of hands?
170
00:11:29,106 --> 00:11:32,693
How many people can see
a triangle in the form on the board?
171
00:11:32,776 --> 00:11:34,361
Just throw your hands up.
172
00:11:34,444 --> 00:11:35,779
How about a circle?
173
00:11:37,197 --> 00:11:38,448
How about a star?
174
00:11:39,783 --> 00:11:41,243
The Star of David?
175
00:11:42,327 --> 00:11:44,997
You realise none of those shapes
are on this screen?
176
00:11:45,080 --> 00:11:46,498
Not one of them.
177
00:11:46,999 --> 00:11:48,250
Not one of them.
178
00:11:48,333 --> 00:11:52,296
But what your brain does
is to fill in the gaps,
179
00:11:52,379 --> 00:11:54,173
so that the world makes sense.
180
00:11:54,256 --> 00:11:57,843
And we look at these shapes
and we say, "I kind of recognise them."
181
00:11:57,926 --> 00:12:01,305
And so we fill in the gaps
so the world makes sense.
182
00:12:01,388 --> 00:12:04,641
And that doesn't have any problem
when you're doing something like this.
183
00:12:04,725 --> 00:12:09,897
But the thing is that we can
fill in the gaps on all sorts of things,
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including our judgements about people.
185
00:12:12,274 --> 00:12:13,108
And sometimes,
186
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what we're filling in the gaps with
comes from a really ugly place.
187
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This is the only time tonight
I'm going to ask you to do this.
188
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I want you to work with me,
189
00:12:23,827 --> 00:12:27,456
and I'm gonna ask you to,
loudly and quickly,
190
00:12:27,539 --> 00:12:30,709
say the colour, not the word.
191
00:12:30,792 --> 00:12:32,794
-Are we ready?
-Yes.
192
00:12:32,878 --> 00:12:34,171
Ready?
193
00:12:34,254 --> 00:12:35,214
Go.
194
00:12:35,297 --> 00:12:39,176
Red, yellow, blue, green, brown.
195
00:12:39,259 --> 00:12:41,762
Blue, brown, red, yellow, green.
196
00:12:41,845 --> 00:12:42,763
Faster.
197
00:12:42,846 --> 00:12:45,724
Red, yellow, blue, green, brown.
198
00:12:45,807 --> 00:12:48,143
Blue, brown, red, yellow, green.
199
00:12:53,857 --> 00:12:58,403
This thing is 80 years old.
200
00:12:59,404 --> 00:13:03,158
And what it does is to simply demonstrate
201
00:13:03,242 --> 00:13:05,118
that you are making connections
202
00:13:05,202 --> 00:13:09,248
between the word and the colour
below your conscious level.
203
00:13:09,331 --> 00:13:11,542
You don't even know that you're doing it.
204
00:13:11,625 --> 00:13:14,294
And when that connection is broken,
205
00:13:14,378 --> 00:13:18,173
it actually takes
just a little bit more time
206
00:13:18,257 --> 00:13:20,425
to get to the right answer.
207
00:13:20,509 --> 00:13:26,765
That is the heart of the science
about unconscious bias.
208
00:13:26,849 --> 00:13:31,270
Whether it's unconscious bias
or deliberate bias...
209
00:13:32,145 --> 00:13:36,525
the person experiencing it
experiences exactly the same thing.
210
00:13:36,608 --> 00:13:40,112
If you don't get the job
because a racist doesn't hire you,
211
00:13:40,195 --> 00:13:42,739
or because somebody has unconscious bias,
212
00:13:42,823 --> 00:13:44,449
you still don't have a job.
213
00:13:44,533 --> 00:13:49,580
If you get arrested because somebody
had bias to call the police
214
00:13:49,663 --> 00:13:53,917
because someone Black
is existing in space and they're nervous,
215
00:13:54,001 --> 00:13:56,378
whether it's unconscious or deliberate,
216
00:13:56,461 --> 00:13:59,590
you still have to deal
with a law enforcement officer.
217
00:13:59,673 --> 00:14:02,009
The difference is meaningless
218
00:14:02,092 --> 00:14:06,805
when it is talking about the experience
of the person who is victimised by it.
219
00:14:08,223 --> 00:14:12,060
I'm moving from D.C., I'm sweating
right now. I'm in my apartment.
220
00:14:12,144 --> 00:14:13,562
But, you know...
221
00:14:14,062 --> 00:14:16,523
somebody called the cops on me
in my own building.
222
00:14:16,607 --> 00:14:18,025
About-- How many of y'all?
223
00:14:19,443 --> 00:14:21,153
About six of y'all showed up.
224
00:14:22,154 --> 00:14:25,782
New at 5:00, a rude welcome
to the neighbourhood
225
00:14:25,866 --> 00:14:28,577
for a man on the Upper West Side.
226
00:14:28,660 --> 00:14:30,787
He was moving into his apartment building
227
00:14:30,871 --> 00:14:35,334
when a half-dozen NYPD officers
suddenly showed up.
228
00:14:35,417 --> 00:14:39,296
Darren Martin streamed the encounter live
on Instagram.
229
00:14:39,379 --> 00:14:42,049
He says one of his neighbours
called the police
230
00:14:42,132 --> 00:14:44,593
thinking that he was actually
breaking into the apartment.
231
00:14:44,676 --> 00:14:46,637
Even claiming that he had a weapon.
232
00:14:48,931 --> 00:14:52,518
-So this is 106th Street in Manhattan?
-Yep.
233
00:14:52,601 --> 00:14:54,603
And on the night in question,
234
00:14:55,103 --> 00:14:57,814
looking at where this car
is parked right here,
235
00:14:57,898 --> 00:14:59,316
is this where your U-Haul was?
236
00:14:59,399 --> 00:15:03,278
Our U-Haul was parked right outside.
Right over here where this car is.
237
00:15:03,362 --> 00:15:05,113
Right in front of the building.
238
00:15:05,197 --> 00:15:07,950
-And then, it looks like 56 is--
-Right over here, yeah.
239
00:15:08,033 --> 00:15:10,452
So this is the apartment
that I was moving into.
240
00:15:10,536 --> 00:15:11,703
Yeah, this is it.
241
00:15:13,121 --> 00:15:16,834
And it's outside. It's a regular building.
Looks like any other walk-up here.
242
00:15:16,917 --> 00:15:19,461
I don't know what those cops' intentions
were when they came.
243
00:15:19,545 --> 00:15:21,421
They were looking for someone
with a weapon.
244
00:15:22,673 --> 00:15:24,091
I could've been killed.
245
00:15:25,551 --> 00:15:28,136
-Can I go see my guy? Can I go upstairs?
-Not right now.
246
00:15:28,220 --> 00:15:30,889
-Why not? Why can't I go anywhere?
-We have to check it out.
247
00:15:30,973 --> 00:15:32,349
What's the problem? I live here.
248
00:15:32,432 --> 00:15:35,227
-We gotta do our investigation.
-What are you investigating?
249
00:15:35,310 --> 00:15:36,603
Listen, they called, right?
250
00:15:36,687 --> 00:15:38,772
-We're doing our job. That's it.
-Who called you?
251
00:15:38,856 --> 00:15:40,190
If you're doing nothing wrong--
252
00:15:40,274 --> 00:15:42,359
-Who called you?
-Someone called us.
253
00:15:43,068 --> 00:15:45,612
Well, I'm glad that this is nothing more
254
00:15:45,696 --> 00:15:48,824
than a cramped space in a hallway
255
00:15:48,907 --> 00:15:52,578
in an apartment building
on 106th Street in New York,
256
00:15:52,661 --> 00:15:54,746
and not another landmark
257
00:15:54,830 --> 00:15:59,209
where another person from our community
is killed by the police
258
00:15:59,293 --> 00:16:00,711
and we're asking why.
259
00:16:04,464 --> 00:16:07,676
The biases and prejudices
260
00:16:07,759 --> 00:16:11,889
about race in America
are so deep in our DNA
261
00:16:11,972 --> 00:16:16,185
that sometimes we don't even
recognise that they're there.
262
00:16:17,144 --> 00:16:20,647
Take the Implicit Association Test,
if you haven't taken it.
263
00:16:21,440 --> 00:16:23,066
It's up on the Harvard website,
264
00:16:23,150 --> 00:16:27,905
and it tests your implicit or unconscious
association on all kinds of things.
265
00:16:27,988 --> 00:16:30,782
On race, on gender, all kinds of things.
266
00:16:30,866 --> 00:16:33,660
And I was interested, as I was
looking at all of this information,
267
00:16:33,744 --> 00:16:37,581
so I went and took it,
and it made a mistake.
268
00:16:37,664 --> 00:16:39,291
So I had to take it again.
269
00:16:41,168 --> 00:16:45,088
Because, see, it gave these results
and it's like, "That ain't me."
270
00:16:45,172 --> 00:16:46,882
So I took it again.
271
00:16:46,965 --> 00:16:49,301
And it had the same results.
272
00:16:49,384 --> 00:16:52,429
A negative impression of Black males.
273
00:16:53,263 --> 00:16:56,558
A negative impression of myself.
274
00:16:57,726 --> 00:17:00,646
And I thought, "Where did that come from?"
275
00:17:00,729 --> 00:17:07,736
I've had some good days
276
00:17:07,819 --> 00:17:09,363
I've had...
277
00:17:09,445 --> 00:17:10,948
All right, Betty Jo, where you at?
278
00:17:11,031 --> 00:17:15,285
Some hills to climb
279
00:17:15,368 --> 00:17:20,374
I've had some weary days
280
00:17:20,457 --> 00:17:23,417
And some sleepless nights...
281
00:17:23,502 --> 00:17:25,420
Well, he's got his hands up there
for her now.
282
00:17:28,382 --> 00:17:30,092
This guy's still walking.
283
00:17:31,218 --> 00:17:32,886
He isn't following commands.
284
00:17:33,846 --> 00:17:35,639
Time for a Taser, I think.
285
00:17:37,474 --> 00:17:40,602
That looks like a bad dude too.
May be on something.
286
00:17:41,436 --> 00:17:43,230
He may have just been Tasered.
287
00:17:43,897 --> 00:17:45,357
Shots fired!
288
00:17:46,733 --> 00:17:50,279
Twenty-one, we have shots fired.
We have one suspect down.
289
00:17:53,740 --> 00:17:57,995
Sometimes clouds hang low
290
00:17:59,246 --> 00:18:05,419
I can hardly see the road
291
00:18:10,465 --> 00:18:14,428
Has your brother been misportrayed,
in terms of who he was?
292
00:18:14,511 --> 00:18:16,513
Yes, he has. The narrative...
293
00:18:17,973 --> 00:18:21,518
started out as Terence being a suspect.
294
00:18:21,602 --> 00:18:24,062
Well, he was a student, not a suspect.
295
00:18:24,563 --> 00:18:27,232
Just left school 15 minutes earlier.
296
00:18:27,316 --> 00:18:29,943
Fifteen minutes later, he was dead.
297
00:18:31,612 --> 00:18:33,739
In the media, he was a thug.
298
00:18:33,822 --> 00:18:36,200
He was a criminal. He was a drug addict.
299
00:18:36,825 --> 00:18:39,244
-He was a bad dude.
-Yes.
300
00:18:39,328 --> 00:18:41,997
Nobody ever humanised my brother.
301
00:18:42,080 --> 00:18:46,418
And I had to let America know
who that bad dude was.
302
00:18:46,502 --> 00:18:47,711
That was my twin.
303
00:18:49,129 --> 00:18:50,297
He was a father.
304
00:18:52,090 --> 00:18:53,091
He was a son.
305
00:18:53,175 --> 00:18:56,386
He was a brother, an uncle, a cousin.
306
00:18:57,095 --> 00:18:58,514
He was a friend.
307
00:18:59,848 --> 00:19:01,892
He had a family who loved him.
308
00:19:03,435 --> 00:19:06,104
And my brother did not deserve to die,
309
00:19:06,605 --> 00:19:09,191
unarmed, with his hands in the air.
310
00:19:09,274 --> 00:19:14,738
Nobody deserves to die
and take their last breath alone.
311
00:19:15,572 --> 00:19:17,533
He took his last breath alone.
312
00:19:18,742 --> 00:19:21,245
He laid in the street like an animal.
313
00:19:30,170 --> 00:19:33,924
George Orwell did not write about a year.
314
00:19:34,007 --> 00:19:36,802
He wrote about a mindset of oppression.
315
00:19:36,885 --> 00:19:41,098
And there are two things that he said
that I would strive for each of us
316
00:19:41,181 --> 00:19:43,642
to please remember as we go forward.
317
00:19:43,725 --> 00:19:47,396
The first, "Who controls the past,
controls the future.
318
00:19:47,479 --> 00:19:50,607
And who controls the present,
controls the past."
319
00:19:50,691 --> 00:19:52,985
A government that is in power
320
00:19:53,068 --> 00:19:58,156
has the ability to shape the views
of the population it governs
321
00:19:58,240 --> 00:20:04,955
by putting out a narrative that sometimes
has nothing to do with the truth.
322
00:20:07,207 --> 00:20:09,710
People don't realise, the Civil War--
323
00:20:12,212 --> 00:20:15,507
-Yeah.
-If you think about it, why?
324
00:20:15,591 --> 00:20:17,217
People don't ask that question.
325
00:20:17,301 --> 00:20:19,052
"But why was there the Civil War?"
326
00:20:19,136 --> 00:20:21,763
Why could that one
not have been worked out?
327
00:20:21,847 --> 00:20:23,974
I mean, had Andrew Jackson
been a little bit later,
328
00:20:24,057 --> 00:20:25,684
you wouldn't have had the Civil War.
329
00:20:25,767 --> 00:20:26,768
He was--
330
00:20:27,603 --> 00:20:30,355
He was a very tough person,
331
00:20:30,439 --> 00:20:33,108
but he had a big heart and he was--
332
00:20:33,942 --> 00:20:36,445
He was really angry...
333
00:20:37,196 --> 00:20:40,199
that he saw what was happening
with regard to the Civil War.
334
00:20:40,282 --> 00:20:42,534
He said, "There's no reason for this."
335
00:20:44,369 --> 00:20:47,164
There are several things
that are problematic there.
336
00:20:49,875 --> 00:20:55,297
The first is that Andrew Jackson died
almost 16 years before the Civil War.
337
00:20:55,380 --> 00:20:59,885
The second is that if he had said,
"There's no reason for this,"
338
00:20:59,968 --> 00:21:02,638
it wouldn't have been
because he was saying,
339
00:21:02,721 --> 00:21:05,224
"There's no reason to have slavery,"
340
00:21:05,307 --> 00:21:10,062
because Andrew Jackson had
no problem with enslaving people.
341
00:21:10,145 --> 00:21:12,231
He was a slaver.
342
00:21:12,314 --> 00:21:18,779
And Andrew Jackson will tell you
what he thinks about slavery himself.
343
00:21:18,862 --> 00:21:22,449
Andrew Jackson posted this ad
offering a reward
344
00:21:22,533 --> 00:21:26,954
for the capture of an enslaved person
who had escaped from him.
345
00:21:27,704 --> 00:21:33,377
And the ad describes the enslaved man,
what he was wearing, where he might run,
346
00:21:33,460 --> 00:21:37,422
promises to pay all expenses
involved in capturing him
347
00:21:37,506 --> 00:21:40,592
in addition to the $50 reward,
348
00:21:40,676 --> 00:21:47,140
and $10 extra for every hundred lashes
any person will give him,
349
00:21:47,224 --> 00:21:49,810
to the amount of 300.
350
00:21:51,186 --> 00:21:55,148
That's who Andrew Jackson was.
351
00:21:55,232 --> 00:22:01,029
And that is who is on the face
of our $20 bills.
352
00:22:02,573 --> 00:22:05,033
Countries aren't just one thing.
353
00:22:08,412 --> 00:22:11,790
They would sell enslaved people
out of this location
354
00:22:11,874 --> 00:22:13,542
six days a week.
355
00:22:13,625 --> 00:22:18,297
Everyone from newborns to 70-year-olds
were sold out of here.
356
00:22:19,965 --> 00:22:23,594
For enslaved people
to make the most money
357
00:22:23,677 --> 00:22:26,805
for the traders and for the sellers,
358
00:22:26,889 --> 00:22:28,974
they have to be prepped first.
359
00:22:29,057 --> 00:22:34,855
Prep could be everything
from high-fat and high-protein diets
360
00:22:34,938 --> 00:22:37,274
to get them into better physical shape,
361
00:22:37,357 --> 00:22:39,818
as well as, you know, fresh clothing.
362
00:22:39,902 --> 00:22:43,363
You have this sort of prepping of the skin
through oiling.
363
00:22:43,447 --> 00:22:45,282
If they're looking a little bit older,
364
00:22:45,365 --> 00:22:47,784
they could either dye the hair
365
00:22:47,868 --> 00:22:50,287
or pluck any greys
that someone would have,
366
00:22:50,370 --> 00:22:54,333
things of that nature, in order to,
when they come up onto the block,
367
00:22:54,416 --> 00:22:57,836
they're able to garner
the largest amount of money.
368
00:22:59,505 --> 00:23:02,799
And I'm looking at, here,
a "List of Negroes."
369
00:23:02,883 --> 00:23:08,263
And it says, number one,
the name is Sunday, the age is 45.
370
00:23:08,347 --> 00:23:11,308
Enslaved people,
they didn't have last names,
371
00:23:11,391 --> 00:23:14,561
generally, until the 1870 Census.
372
00:23:15,854 --> 00:23:19,066
And so it was the question of,
"What is your name?"
373
00:23:20,526 --> 00:23:23,278
Because the names could be changed
each time you were sold?
374
00:23:23,362 --> 00:23:24,696
They would be changed.
375
00:23:24,780 --> 00:23:27,533
That's the first thing that is changed
every time you're sold.
376
00:23:27,616 --> 00:23:29,993
So on all broadsides you will ever see,
377
00:23:30,077 --> 00:23:32,120
this is just the name
they come to the sale with.
378
00:23:32,204 --> 00:23:35,999
And keep in mind
that the enslaved property of slave owners
379
00:23:36,083 --> 00:23:38,544
was worth more
than everything else they owned.
380
00:23:38,627 --> 00:23:40,629
It was worth more than the plantation.
381
00:23:40,712 --> 00:23:42,089
It was worth more than the land.
382
00:23:42,172 --> 00:23:44,550
More than the goods
that are produced on that plantation.
383
00:23:44,633 --> 00:23:45,509
More than the house.
384
00:23:45,592 --> 00:23:48,136
More than any other liveries
that they have.
385
00:23:48,220 --> 00:23:53,934
So the first thing that's going to be sold
to pay for a debt is your enslaved.
386
00:23:54,017 --> 00:23:55,894
Because you didn't have to
buy them outright.
387
00:23:56,562 --> 00:23:57,896
You could mortgage them.
388
00:24:00,524 --> 00:24:03,861
When it came to movement of enslaved,
389
00:24:03,944 --> 00:24:08,156
prior to being brought onto that block,
they're going to be chained.
390
00:24:08,240 --> 00:24:10,409
Now, everyone's going to be chained.
391
00:24:10,492 --> 00:24:12,411
It's not just going to be grown-ups.
392
00:24:12,494 --> 00:24:15,455
It's not going to be the elderly.
It'll also be the children.
393
00:24:15,956 --> 00:24:19,376
And so I think what I'm looking at
are shackles
394
00:24:19,459 --> 00:24:22,796
that were designed for an adult male,
395
00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:28,760
and shackles that were designed
for a child of maybe 3 or 4.
396
00:24:28,844 --> 00:24:30,137
Yes. Yes.
397
00:24:37,394 --> 00:24:38,520
Ista...
398
00:24:39,479 --> 00:24:40,772
what are...
399
00:24:43,150 --> 00:24:48,739
the three holes that I see
in these bricks in the walls there?
400
00:24:48,822 --> 00:24:50,115
They're fingerprints.
401
00:24:51,408 --> 00:24:55,329
Enslaved people would begin to learn
a skill at the age of about 6.
402
00:24:55,412 --> 00:24:58,832
And so fingerprints and handprints
and thumbprints
403
00:24:58,916 --> 00:25:01,293
exist all throughout the city,
404
00:25:01,376 --> 00:25:03,837
because enslaved people built the city.
405
00:25:04,588 --> 00:25:08,717
And so on churches, on businesses, on--
406
00:25:08,800 --> 00:25:10,677
In alleyways, you see these.
407
00:25:10,761 --> 00:25:13,847
In theatres, you see these
all throughout the city
408
00:25:13,931 --> 00:25:15,474
in very, very subtle ways.
409
00:25:15,557 --> 00:25:18,393
And if you don't know what you're
looking for, you may not see them.
410
00:25:18,894 --> 00:25:19,978
But they're there.
411
00:25:20,062 --> 00:25:25,901
Absolutely, and they are a way
of the enslaved who created this city
412
00:25:25,984 --> 00:25:28,862
and created the economy
that created this country
413
00:25:28,946 --> 00:25:31,865
to remind us, "Hey, I was here too."
414
00:25:44,002 --> 00:25:45,879
And so if I make the statement to you:
415
00:25:45,963 --> 00:25:50,259
"America was founded on white supremacy."
416
00:25:51,009 --> 00:25:54,263
You could say,
"Jeff, that's an extreme statement."
417
00:25:54,346 --> 00:25:58,725
And what I would say to you is,
"Don't believe a word I say about it.
418
00:25:58,809 --> 00:26:02,312
Just listen to what Americans said."
419
00:26:02,396 --> 00:26:06,275
Because they were willing to tell you
exactly what they thought.
420
00:26:06,358 --> 00:26:08,485
All you have to do is go look.
421
00:26:08,569 --> 00:26:12,990
We know that in 1619,
20-and-odd enslaved people
422
00:26:13,073 --> 00:26:16,326
were brought to America,
landed in Jamestown.
423
00:26:17,452 --> 00:26:21,039
And by 1636, less than 20 years later,
424
00:26:21,123 --> 00:26:26,753
we launched the first
American-made slave ship, the Desire.
425
00:26:26,837 --> 00:26:29,506
And it wasn't built
in Alabama or Mississippi.
426
00:26:29,590 --> 00:26:32,134
It was built in Massachusetts.
427
00:26:32,217 --> 00:26:35,637
And look at the name of the ship.
The Desire.
428
00:26:35,721 --> 00:26:40,017
And the names of the three
subsequent ships built in America
429
00:26:40,100 --> 00:26:43,312
to go to Africa to get enslaved people.
430
00:26:43,395 --> 00:26:47,441
The Fortune, the Hope andthe Prosperity.
431
00:26:47,524 --> 00:26:51,570
They are telling you
with language that is crystal clear
432
00:26:51,653 --> 00:26:55,282
what they think
about the concept of white supremacy.
433
00:26:55,365 --> 00:26:58,285
In 1662, Virginia passed a law that said,
434
00:26:58,368 --> 00:27:01,371
"Children of enslaved mothers
are also enslaved."
435
00:27:01,455 --> 00:27:02,539
Very simple law.
436
00:27:02,623 --> 00:27:03,874
Why did they need it?
437
00:27:03,957 --> 00:27:07,461
Because it was clear
that white slave masters
438
00:27:07,544 --> 00:27:12,841
were raping Black women
on a normal and regular basis,
439
00:27:12,925 --> 00:27:15,302
and these rapes were producing children.
440
00:27:15,385 --> 00:27:18,347
And the law just wanted to say,
"We don't want there to be any mistake.
441
00:27:18,430 --> 00:27:21,225
If those babies come out
with blue eyes or freckles,
442
00:27:21,308 --> 00:27:25,145
those aren't people,
those are enslaved people."
443
00:27:25,896 --> 00:27:27,814
The law made sure to know that.
444
00:27:27,898 --> 00:27:31,985
Virginia then passed a law saying,
"If slaves become Christians,
445
00:27:32,069 --> 00:27:33,820
that doesn't mean that they're freed."
446
00:27:33,904 --> 00:27:37,699
Because you become a Christian
if you are enslaved
447
00:27:37,783 --> 00:27:42,204
only by the charity
and piety of your owner.
448
00:27:42,287 --> 00:27:46,667
This is the language
that Americans were using
449
00:27:46,750 --> 00:27:49,127
to describe the institution of slavery.
450
00:27:49,211 --> 00:27:52,631
They equated it with charity and piety.
451
00:27:52,714 --> 00:27:55,509
1669, Virginia passed a law,
452
00:27:55,592 --> 00:28:00,931
"An enslaved person's death
while resisting a master is not a felony."
453
00:28:01,014 --> 00:28:03,559
Would you look at those words, please?
454
00:28:03,642 --> 00:28:07,396
And think about the videos
you have seen in the past ten years
455
00:28:07,479 --> 00:28:13,485
of Black and brown people ending up dead
in altercations with police officers
456
00:28:13,569 --> 00:28:15,612
when they are unarmed?
457
00:28:15,696 --> 00:28:17,739
It's still not a felony.
458
00:28:20,409 --> 00:28:24,830
In 1739, there was a slave revolt
in Stono, South Carolina,
459
00:28:24,913 --> 00:28:26,582
that was incredibly violent.
460
00:28:26,665 --> 00:28:29,585
There were some white people
that were actually beheaded.
461
00:28:29,668 --> 00:28:33,797
And the state of South Carolina responded,
and they responded quickly.
462
00:28:33,881 --> 00:28:38,886
By 1740, they had passed a 58-chapter law,
463
00:28:38,969 --> 00:28:42,973
and the purpose of that law,
in their words, not mine,
464
00:28:43,056 --> 00:28:48,604
"So that the slave may be kept
in due subjugation and obedience."
465
00:28:50,522 --> 00:28:55,110
This wasn't just social racism
or individual racism.
466
00:28:55,194 --> 00:28:58,739
This was the law inscribing this.
467
00:29:01,450 --> 00:29:05,621
Can you talk just a little bit
about where you're taking us?
468
00:29:05,704 --> 00:29:08,999
I'm taking you on Ashley Avenue
469
00:29:09,082 --> 00:29:13,295
between Fishburne and Line Streets.
470
00:29:14,755 --> 00:29:17,633
Now, the neighbourhood
didn't look like it looks today.
471
00:29:17,716 --> 00:29:20,219
It was a lot of farmland
and some wooded area.
472
00:29:25,724 --> 00:29:29,603
Some people just refer to it
as the Ashley Avenue Oak.
473
00:29:32,689 --> 00:29:37,110
Lynchings or hangings
took place here on this very spot.
474
00:29:40,864 --> 00:29:45,827
This happened from slavery, it happened
all the way up until the early 1900s.
475
00:29:45,911 --> 00:29:49,623
So there were lynchings here
even after the Civil War ended?
476
00:29:49,706 --> 00:29:50,832
Absolutely.
477
00:29:56,797 --> 00:29:59,716
Well, everybody needs to know
what happened here
478
00:29:59,800 --> 00:30:01,802
so that we would all
be able to learn from it.
479
00:30:01,885 --> 00:30:03,554
Because it's a part of our history.
480
00:30:04,346 --> 00:30:05,597
American history.
481
00:30:18,735 --> 00:30:22,322
The word "slavery"
appears once in the Constitution.
482
00:30:22,406 --> 00:30:26,201
That's in the 13th Amendment,
outlawing slavery.
483
00:30:26,285 --> 00:30:28,287
And if you go back
to the historical documents,
484
00:30:28,370 --> 00:30:31,290
what you'll see is that
the Southern states would get upset
485
00:30:31,373 --> 00:30:33,375
when the word "slavery" was used.
486
00:30:33,458 --> 00:30:37,629
And for God's sakes, we don't wanna make
white people uncomfortable.
487
00:30:37,713 --> 00:30:41,216
So the Northerners said, "Don't worry,
we won't use the word 'slavery'
488
00:30:41,300 --> 00:30:43,177
when we go to the Constitution.
489
00:30:43,260 --> 00:30:47,097
We'll call them things like
'such persons.'"
490
00:30:47,890 --> 00:30:52,269
The Three-fifths Clause in Article I,
Section 2 of the Constitution.
491
00:30:52,352 --> 00:30:56,523
All those Black folks in Virginia,
236,000?
492
00:30:56,607 --> 00:30:59,526
Well, they will be counted
as three-fifths of a person.
493
00:30:59,610 --> 00:31:00,944
Each one of them.
494
00:31:01,028 --> 00:31:07,534
Article I, Section 9, no ban on migration
or importations of such persons
495
00:31:07,618 --> 00:31:08,869
until 1808.
496
00:31:08,952 --> 00:31:10,204
What are they saying?
497
00:31:10,287 --> 00:31:13,874
"We have built all of these ships
to go get enslaved people,
498
00:31:13,957 --> 00:31:17,085
and we need at least about 20 years
to keep doing it."
499
00:31:17,169 --> 00:31:18,712
So the Constitution says,
500
00:31:18,795 --> 00:31:21,465
"You can keep doing it
for the next 20 years."
501
00:31:21,548 --> 00:31:23,050
Article II, Section 1.
502
00:31:23,133 --> 00:31:25,135
"Each state shall appoint
a number of electors
503
00:31:25,219 --> 00:31:28,514
equal to the number
of senators and representatives."
504
00:31:28,597 --> 00:31:32,434
What we are talking about, folks,
is the Electoral College.
505
00:31:32,518 --> 00:31:35,437
The Electoral College
was based on the fact
506
00:31:35,521 --> 00:31:37,981
that the Southern states were concerned
507
00:31:38,065 --> 00:31:39,900
about the power that they would have
508
00:31:39,983 --> 00:31:44,655
to prevent the government from taking
the enslaved people from them.
509
00:31:44,738 --> 00:31:46,865
And this was one of the compromises.
510
00:31:46,949 --> 00:31:49,034
That Three-fifths Clause?
511
00:31:49,117 --> 00:31:53,914
Three-fifths of 236,000
adds a lot of delegates.
512
00:31:55,791 --> 00:31:58,585
Article IV, Section 2,
no freedom for a runaway,
513
00:31:58,669 --> 00:32:01,296
because slaves have to be returned
to owners on demand.
514
00:32:01,380 --> 00:32:05,676
And people have said that the folks
who wrote our Constitution were brilliant.
515
00:32:05,759 --> 00:32:07,094
And I agree with that.
516
00:32:07,177 --> 00:32:09,346
They were brilliant
and they were sneaky too.
517
00:32:09,429 --> 00:32:14,434
Because they said, "You know, somebody
may try and amend the Constitution
518
00:32:14,518 --> 00:32:17,104
and get rid of Article I, Section 9.
519
00:32:17,187 --> 00:32:21,400
So in Article V, they said
"You can't amend Article I, Section 9,
520
00:32:21,483 --> 00:32:22,776
until 1808."
521
00:32:22,860 --> 00:32:27,906
This is how important
the concept of white supremacy
522
00:32:27,990 --> 00:32:30,993
was to the people
that founded the country.
523
00:32:31,076 --> 00:32:34,955
When they were talking about life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness,
524
00:32:35,038 --> 00:32:38,959
they saw that
as being completely consistent
525
00:32:39,042 --> 00:32:41,920
with enslaving people.
526
00:32:43,463 --> 00:32:45,007
The law picked a side.
527
00:32:48,594 --> 00:32:51,763
If you read the historians,
they will tell you
528
00:32:51,847 --> 00:32:56,476
that modern-day police departments
were originally formed,
529
00:32:56,560 --> 00:32:59,688
especially in the South, in slave patrols.
530
00:32:59,771 --> 00:33:02,524
I am not saying
that modern-day police officers
531
00:33:02,608 --> 00:33:04,484
are members of a slave patrol.
532
00:33:04,568 --> 00:33:05,694
They are not.
533
00:33:05,777 --> 00:33:09,364
There are law enforcement officers
all over America
534
00:33:09,448 --> 00:33:12,826
who are fighting for racial justice
535
00:33:12,910 --> 00:33:17,664
and Constitutional and decent policing
in our communities.
536
00:33:17,748 --> 00:33:19,291
But I will tell you this:
537
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:21,502
People in my community,
538
00:33:21,585 --> 00:33:25,339
from my great-great-great grandfathers
on down,
539
00:33:25,422 --> 00:33:28,509
have had a reason to fear that badge.
540
00:33:28,592 --> 00:33:30,093
Because the people wearing it,
541
00:33:30,177 --> 00:33:32,679
and the weapons and guns
that they carried,
542
00:33:32,763 --> 00:33:35,891
were used to oppress us.
543
00:33:35,974 --> 00:33:37,809
So the next time you're wondering,
544
00:33:37,893 --> 00:33:42,147
"Why is there such animosity
in the Black community
545
00:33:42,231 --> 00:33:43,815
when it comes to policing?
546
00:33:43,899 --> 00:33:45,317
Why is there such concern?"
547
00:33:45,400 --> 00:33:47,444
It's in our DNA.
548
00:33:50,489 --> 00:33:52,491
I always used to tell Eric,
549
00:33:52,574 --> 00:33:57,621
you know, "Don't have any interactions
with the police officers.
550
00:33:57,704 --> 00:34:00,582
Because the police officers,
they have the upper hand.
551
00:34:00,666 --> 00:34:03,001
You have to remember,
they're the ones with the guns.
552
00:34:03,126 --> 00:34:07,381
They're the ones that could arrest you,
and no matter what you say."
553
00:34:07,464 --> 00:34:10,342
So he would say, "Oh, yeah, I know, Ma."
554
00:34:10,842 --> 00:34:13,679
And even with all the talk,
555
00:34:13,762 --> 00:34:18,058
we can talk to our children
as much as we want,
556
00:34:18,141 --> 00:34:24,523
it's not always gonna be a good turnout
when things like this happen.
557
00:34:25,690 --> 00:34:26,900
That's Eric.
558
00:34:26,984 --> 00:34:31,737
Eric is, I think, five months old
in that picture, if that old.
559
00:34:32,906 --> 00:34:34,699
He was my first-born.
560
00:34:36,784 --> 00:34:40,539
Eric was a gentle giant.
561
00:34:40,621 --> 00:34:43,583
He was a person
who cared about other people
562
00:34:43,667 --> 00:34:46,378
and who thought everyone was his friend.
563
00:34:46,460 --> 00:34:47,462
Are you serious?
564
00:34:52,384 --> 00:34:54,219
If you can share it...
565
00:34:55,929 --> 00:35:00,184
what was going through your mind
as you heard your son saying,
566
00:35:00,267 --> 00:35:01,560
"I can't breathe"?
567
00:35:02,186 --> 00:35:07,482
Until now, I cannot look
at that video in its entirety,
568
00:35:07,566 --> 00:35:09,818
because when I seen it for the first time,
569
00:35:09,902 --> 00:35:13,530
I remember me going
through this house banging on walls,
570
00:35:13,614 --> 00:35:18,035
yelling at the police officers,
"Let him go! Let him go!"
571
00:35:18,118 --> 00:35:21,121
Now I could see exactly
what they did to him.
572
00:35:21,205 --> 00:35:22,539
Do not touch me.
573
00:35:22,623 --> 00:35:28,337
When this tragedy happened to me,
I just wanted to take to my bed,
574
00:35:29,254 --> 00:35:30,839
and just go to sleep,
575
00:35:30,923 --> 00:35:34,843
and just wake up
when this terrible nightmare was over.
576
00:35:36,178 --> 00:35:38,138
But it was never over.
577
00:35:38,222 --> 00:35:44,520
And the Holy Spirit
spoke to me one evening and says,
578
00:35:44,603 --> 00:35:48,315
"Are you gonna lay there
and die like your son?
579
00:35:48,398 --> 00:35:52,194
Or are you gonna get up, lift up his name,
580
00:35:52,277 --> 00:35:59,201
and let people know exactly who he was
and not let the media demonise him?"
581
00:35:59,284 --> 00:36:02,788
My son will not have died in vain.
582
00:36:02,871 --> 00:36:05,541
We are gonna support him
every step of the way.
583
00:36:05,624 --> 00:36:08,794
Me and my grandchildren,
my nieces, nephews, sisters,
584
00:36:08,877 --> 00:36:12,673
everybody is going to support this cause,
585
00:36:12,756 --> 00:36:15,717
'cause we won't rest until we get justice.
586
00:36:15,801 --> 00:36:21,390
Even though it's too late for my son,
we have to save other lives.
587
00:36:22,724 --> 00:36:25,477
How would you like your son
to be remembered?
588
00:36:26,562 --> 00:36:29,898
Well, I would like my son
to be remembered as
589
00:36:29,982 --> 00:36:36,071
the sacrificial lamb,
that everyone knows his name now.
590
00:36:36,154 --> 00:36:40,576
And I am so glad that
it is making a difference,
591
00:36:40,659 --> 00:36:44,454
that people are more aware of the cruelty
592
00:36:44,538 --> 00:36:48,125
and the injustice that's going on
with people of colour,
593
00:36:48,208 --> 00:36:52,629
and maybe they will stand up
and take notice, and say,
594
00:36:52,713 --> 00:36:55,507
"Well, hey, we have
to do something about this."
595
00:36:58,385 --> 00:36:59,469
This is real.
596
00:36:59,553 --> 00:37:02,556
We see what's actually going on
in this world today.
597
00:37:03,515 --> 00:37:09,313
And I'm just hoping that his name
will live on in history forever.
598
00:37:09,396 --> 00:37:13,400
And as long as I live,
I will always say his name,
599
00:37:13,483 --> 00:37:16,695
and I will ask everyone else
to please say his name,
600
00:37:16,778 --> 00:37:20,073
and tell people what does it mean to them.
601
00:37:21,200 --> 00:37:23,493
-His name was Eric Garner.
-Yes.
602
00:37:23,577 --> 00:37:26,830
Eric Garner was his name. Is his name.
603
00:37:30,834 --> 00:37:35,339
A home and country
604
00:37:35,422 --> 00:37:40,302
Should leave us no more
605
00:37:40,385 --> 00:37:44,723
Their blood has washed out
606
00:37:44,806 --> 00:37:50,270
Their foul footsteps' pollution
607
00:37:50,354 --> 00:37:55,317
No refuge could save
608
00:37:55,400 --> 00:37:59,613
The hireling and slave
609
00:37:59,696 --> 00:38:04,368
From the terror of flight
610
00:38:04,451 --> 00:38:09,289
Or the gloom of the grave
611
00:38:09,373 --> 00:38:14,211
And the star-spangled banner
612
00:38:14,294 --> 00:38:20,425
In triumph doth wave...
613
00:38:20,509 --> 00:38:22,928
In case you doubt
the lyrics to the third verse
614
00:38:23,011 --> 00:38:25,180
of the national anthem
that you just heard,
615
00:38:25,264 --> 00:38:29,059
these are the handwritten lyrics
from Francis Scott Key.
616
00:38:29,142 --> 00:38:34,565
"No refuge could save the hireling
and slave from the terror of flight,
617
00:38:34,648 --> 00:38:37,067
or the gloom of the grave."
618
00:38:37,150 --> 00:38:41,530
He is celebrating
the murder of enslaved people.
619
00:38:41,613 --> 00:38:43,198
And why would he do that?
620
00:38:43,282 --> 00:38:45,576
He was the wealthy owner
of enslaved people.
621
00:38:45,659 --> 00:38:48,120
He came from a Maryland
plantation-owning family.
622
00:38:48,203 --> 00:38:51,248
In United States v. Reuben Crandall,
623
00:38:51,331 --> 00:38:55,544
he prosecuted a man
for possessing abolitionist literature.
624
00:38:55,627 --> 00:38:58,505
He was the city prosecutor
in Washington, D.C.,
625
00:38:58,589 --> 00:39:01,091
and he sought the death penalty.
626
00:39:01,175 --> 00:39:03,218
And here is his closing argument.
627
00:39:03,302 --> 00:39:06,930
"Are you willing, gentlemen,
to abandon your country,
628
00:39:07,014 --> 00:39:11,476
to permit it to be taken from you
and occupied by the abolitionist,
629
00:39:11,560 --> 00:39:17,816
according to whose taste it is to
associate and amalgamate with the Negro?"
630
00:39:19,401 --> 00:39:24,364
I guess he wrote a nice poem,
but that's who Francis Scott Key is.
631
00:39:27,242 --> 00:39:31,705
By 1835, cotton
from enslaved people's labour,
632
00:39:31,788 --> 00:39:35,042
55% of U.S. exports.
633
00:39:35,125 --> 00:39:38,754
So when we see America
starting to become industrialised,
634
00:39:38,837 --> 00:39:43,383
we see that cotton
from the labour of enslaved people
635
00:39:43,467 --> 00:39:45,761
was a critical part of this.
636
00:39:45,844 --> 00:39:49,640
Twelve U.S. presidents
owned enslaved people.
637
00:39:49,723 --> 00:39:53,519
This covered about
50 of America's first 60 years,
638
00:39:53,602 --> 00:39:55,646
and that's why I am saying to you,
639
00:39:55,729 --> 00:40:00,025
the people that founded this country
had no problem with white supremacy.
640
00:40:00,108 --> 00:40:05,697
They depended on it
to make America a great nation.
641
00:40:11,078 --> 00:40:13,664
So when did slavery end in New York?
642
00:40:13,747 --> 00:40:17,459
Slavery in New York ended in 1827,
643
00:40:17,543 --> 00:40:21,797
but to really understand New York's rise,
644
00:40:21,880 --> 00:40:24,800
in terms of becoming
a financial powerhouse,
645
00:40:24,883 --> 00:40:28,637
it's important to understand
the connection between New York
646
00:40:28,720 --> 00:40:35,727
and enslavement, even after slavery
was abolished in New York City.
647
00:40:37,354 --> 00:40:42,025
The building behind us is the
Cotton Exchange, established in the 1850s,
648
00:40:42,109 --> 00:40:46,780
one of the greatest
commodities exchanges in the country.
649
00:40:46,864 --> 00:40:52,995
New York was a centre for finance,
is still the centre for finance,
650
00:40:53,078 --> 00:40:56,206
and this is where slaveholders would come
651
00:40:56,290 --> 00:40:59,626
to get all their endeavours
financed and insured.
652
00:40:59,710 --> 00:41:05,257
We found out recently
that major insurers like AIG and Aetna
653
00:41:05,340 --> 00:41:08,760
insured enslaved people as goods.
654
00:41:08,844 --> 00:41:14,933
Enslaved people who died en route
during the Middle Passage,
655
00:41:15,017 --> 00:41:17,686
enslaved people who died
on the plantation,
656
00:41:17,769 --> 00:41:20,606
all those people,
with their lives, were insured.
657
00:41:20,689 --> 00:41:22,691
So they have life insurance policies.
658
00:41:22,774 --> 00:41:27,237
Also, major investment banks,
like the now-defunct Lehman Brothers,
659
00:41:27,863 --> 00:41:31,950
provided financing for slaveholders.
660
00:41:32,784 --> 00:41:36,413
So the economy of New York
was entwined with slavery.
661
00:41:38,707 --> 00:41:43,712
We're walking up just from the waterfront,
right back here, about a block away,
662
00:41:43,795 --> 00:41:49,259
and as we're coming to the corner
of Water and Wall Streets,
663
00:41:49,343 --> 00:41:51,011
there is this little park.
664
00:41:58,060 --> 00:42:01,813
I have an idea in my mind when you say
"slave market."
665
00:42:01,897 --> 00:42:06,777
But can you just tell us, explicitly,
what was happening on this site?
666
00:42:06,860 --> 00:42:09,196
So there was
a municipal market, a pavilion,
667
00:42:09,279 --> 00:42:13,283
that operated from 1711 until 1762.
668
00:42:13,367 --> 00:42:18,705
By the mid-1700s,
one in five New Yorkers were enslaved.
669
00:42:18,789 --> 00:42:20,499
So they created this municipal market,
670
00:42:20,582 --> 00:42:23,335
where once you were kidnapped
and brought here,
671
00:42:23,418 --> 00:42:25,629
you would be sold at this pavilion.
672
00:42:26,380 --> 00:42:29,007
In addition, if you were already
enslaved in New York,
673
00:42:29,091 --> 00:42:32,135
and your slaveholder didn't have something
for you to do during the day,
674
00:42:32,219 --> 00:42:36,557
you could be rented out
for the day at this market.
675
00:42:36,640 --> 00:42:40,143
Like any other transaction
that might occur in the city
676
00:42:40,227 --> 00:42:43,105
where the city would impose
a tax to get revenue,
677
00:42:43,188 --> 00:42:46,567
the slave trade was just
another thing to be taxed?
678
00:42:46,650 --> 00:42:49,862
Exactly. And that's why New York City
was such a pro-slavery city.
679
00:42:49,945 --> 00:42:51,905
When we say that to people,
they're shocked.
680
00:42:51,989 --> 00:42:54,449
New York was pro-slavery.
681
00:42:54,533 --> 00:42:58,370
New York received, from cotton alone,
682
00:42:58,453 --> 00:43:01,915
$200 million in that time's currency.
683
00:43:01,999 --> 00:43:06,795
So if you could imagine the interests
that would wanna protect that.
684
00:43:09,631 --> 00:43:13,177
How many of you knew that
the mayor of New York City
685
00:43:13,260 --> 00:43:17,681
advocated that New York leave
the Union during the Civil War?
686
00:43:18,348 --> 00:43:20,475
He didn't say, "Join the Confederacy."
687
00:43:20,559 --> 00:43:24,354
What he said was, "With our aggrieved
brethren of the slave states,
688
00:43:24,438 --> 00:43:27,316
we have friendly relations
and a common sympathy.
689
00:43:27,399 --> 00:43:32,487
We have not participated in the warfare
upon their Constitutional rights
690
00:43:32,571 --> 00:43:34,531
or their domestic institutions."
691
00:43:34,615 --> 00:43:37,326
He was saying, "We can't give this up.
692
00:43:37,409 --> 00:43:40,370
If we withdraw from the Union,
we don't have to join the South.
693
00:43:40,454 --> 00:43:44,416
We can make business deals with the North,
and business deals with the South.
694
00:43:44,499 --> 00:43:46,960
The money will keep coming in."
695
00:43:48,712 --> 00:43:53,592
So, what was the role of slavery
in America on the eve of the Civil War?
696
00:43:53,675 --> 00:43:59,223
Well, that yearly cotton production,
1.5 million pounds in 1790,
697
00:43:59,306 --> 00:44:05,646
try 2.3 billion pounds,
60% of U.S. exports by 1860.
698
00:44:05,729 --> 00:44:11,109
If any of you have ever held a ball
of freshly picked cotton in your hand,
699
00:44:11,193 --> 00:44:13,529
with no stems or no sticks on it,
700
00:44:13,612 --> 00:44:17,449
you will know that
it weighs virtually nothing.
701
00:44:18,116 --> 00:44:20,911
How much of that
do you think you had to pick
702
00:44:20,994 --> 00:44:24,706
to get to 2.3 billion pounds of it?
703
00:44:24,790 --> 00:44:25,958
And how did they do that?
704
00:44:26,041 --> 00:44:29,545
Because the number of enslaved people
wasn't 700,000 anymore.
705
00:44:29,628 --> 00:44:31,421
It was 4 million.
706
00:44:31,964 --> 00:44:37,511
And remember, we're not bringing
over people on slave ships after 1808.
707
00:44:37,594 --> 00:44:40,347
Now, history will show
there were definitely ships
708
00:44:40,430 --> 00:44:46,103
of enslaved people brought after 1808,
but that market dried up very quickly.
709
00:44:46,186 --> 00:44:49,898
This was done by breeding.
710
00:44:50,607 --> 00:44:53,151
Black women were bred...
711
00:44:54,528 --> 00:44:56,822
so that they would bear children
712
00:44:56,905 --> 00:45:00,659
who could continue
American cotton production.
713
00:45:04,329 --> 00:45:08,041
The value of enslaved people,
in 1860 dollars,
714
00:45:08,125 --> 00:45:11,545
$3.5 billion dollars.
715
00:45:12,379 --> 00:45:16,633
One hundred billion dollars
in today's money.
716
00:45:17,718 --> 00:45:20,596
More millionaires per capita
in the Mississippi Valley,
717
00:45:20,679 --> 00:45:22,764
that's Tennessee,
Mississippi, and Louisiana,
718
00:45:22,848 --> 00:45:24,641
than any place else in America.
719
00:45:24,725 --> 00:45:29,146
Today, that is one of the
poorest sections in the country.
720
00:45:29,229 --> 00:45:33,400
There are all kinds of people
who are desperate to make arguments
721
00:45:33,483 --> 00:45:37,487
that the Civil War was about
something other than slavery.
722
00:45:37,571 --> 00:45:42,951
In the state of Texas,
elected officials are trying to pass laws
723
00:45:43,035 --> 00:45:47,289
that will require their school teachers
to teach that slavery
724
00:45:47,372 --> 00:45:50,459
was a side issue in the Civil War.
725
00:45:51,668 --> 00:45:55,422
And my response to that is,
once again, don't believe me.
726
00:45:55,506 --> 00:45:59,051
Just go back
and look at what the states said.
727
00:45:59,134 --> 00:46:04,014
"Our position is thoroughly identified
with the institution of slavery,
728
00:46:04,097 --> 00:46:07,226
the greatest material interest
of the world."
729
00:46:07,309 --> 00:46:12,481
"The people of the slaveholding states are
bound together by the same necessity
730
00:46:12,564 --> 00:46:16,527
and determination
to preserve African slavery."
731
00:46:16,610 --> 00:46:20,197
"That the servitude of the African race,
as existing in these states,
732
00:46:20,280 --> 00:46:24,618
is mutually beneficial
to both bond and free."
733
00:46:24,701 --> 00:46:28,413
"The election of Mr Lincoln
cannot be regarded otherwise
734
00:46:28,497 --> 00:46:30,207
than a solemn declaration
735
00:46:30,290 --> 00:46:33,669
on the part of a great majority
of the Northern people
736
00:46:33,752 --> 00:46:38,382
of hostility to the South,
her property, and her institutions."
737
00:46:38,465 --> 00:46:41,593
"They have endeavoured
to weaken our security,
738
00:46:41,677 --> 00:46:45,055
to disturb our domestic peace
and tranquillity,
739
00:46:45,138 --> 00:46:47,933
and persistently refused to comply
740
00:46:48,016 --> 00:46:52,145
with their express
Constitutional obligations to us,
741
00:46:52,229 --> 00:46:54,439
in reference to that property."
742
00:46:54,940 --> 00:46:59,695
Georgia was essentially saying,
"You freaking lied to us.
743
00:46:59,778 --> 00:47:03,490
You told us that we could keep
these people as enslaved people,
744
00:47:03,574 --> 00:47:05,617
and now you're taking them away from us,
745
00:47:05,701 --> 00:47:07,786
and we're leaving the Union
because of it."
746
00:47:07,870 --> 00:47:10,038
And you know what? Georgia was right.
747
00:47:10,581 --> 00:47:15,210
They were promised that they would get
to keep people as enslaved people.
748
00:47:15,836 --> 00:47:20,048
I'm from the state of Tennessee,
and if I wanna go to my home state,
749
00:47:20,132 --> 00:47:24,761
and walk into the Tennessee statehouse
to see one of my state legislators,
750
00:47:24,845 --> 00:47:28,682
I gotta walk past this guy,
Nathan Bedford Forrest,
751
00:47:28,765 --> 00:47:33,395
who was either the originator of the KKK,
or one of its first Grand Wizards,
752
00:47:33,478 --> 00:47:39,234
somebody that was clearly involved
with the KKK coming to a height of power,
753
00:47:39,318 --> 00:47:42,029
somebody that was a Confederate soldier,
754
00:47:42,112 --> 00:47:45,199
and what he had to say about
the Civil War, at least he was honest,
755
00:47:45,282 --> 00:47:49,119
"If we ain't fighting for slavery,
then what the hell are we fighting for?"
756
00:47:51,079 --> 00:47:57,294
Ignorance is not bliss, because
it allows a false history to thrive.
757
00:47:57,377 --> 00:48:00,339
"Who controls the past,
controls the future."
758
00:48:00,422 --> 00:48:04,134
And if slavery just ended,
and then we had the Civil Rights Movement,
759
00:48:04,218 --> 00:48:07,429
and everything was fine,
then what are we still complaining about?
760
00:48:07,513 --> 00:48:10,224
"Who controls the past,
controls the future."
761
00:48:10,307 --> 00:48:12,726
And your children, they are being taught
762
00:48:12,809 --> 00:48:15,103
that slavery was a side issue
in the Civil War.
763
00:48:19,149 --> 00:48:21,902
Six months
before the Emancipation Proclamation,
764
00:48:21,985 --> 00:48:26,490
Abraham Lincoln
passed the Compensated Emancipation Act.
765
00:48:26,573 --> 00:48:28,116
What did that do?
766
00:48:28,200 --> 00:48:29,993
He freed D.C. slaves,
767
00:48:30,077 --> 00:48:34,748
and first, he set up a commission
to pay approximately $300,
768
00:48:34,831 --> 00:48:37,793
which was about $7000 in today's money,
769
00:48:37,876 --> 00:48:43,590
in compensation to former slave owners,
for each enslaved African freed.
770
00:48:43,674 --> 00:48:46,635
Please read that carefully.
I'm not fooling.
771
00:48:46,718 --> 00:48:53,433
After nine months, 900 slave owners
were paid $1 million,
772
00:48:53,517 --> 00:48:56,186
in 1860 money...
773
00:48:57,396 --> 00:48:59,648
for lost property.
774
00:49:00,482 --> 00:49:05,112
So when people have a discussion
about reparations for slavery,
775
00:49:05,195 --> 00:49:09,741
it's a false debate, because
reparations have already been paid.
776
00:49:09,825 --> 00:49:12,452
They were paid to slave owners.
777
00:49:14,538 --> 00:49:19,668
At the very same time that America
refused to give the Negro any land...
778
00:49:20,377 --> 00:49:23,255
through an act of Congress,
779
00:49:23,338 --> 00:49:28,010
our government was giving away
millions of acres of land
780
00:49:28,093 --> 00:49:30,053
in the West and the Midwest.
781
00:49:31,221 --> 00:49:33,515
Which meant that
it was willing to undergird
782
00:49:33,599 --> 00:49:36,643
its white peasants
from Europe with an economic floor.
783
00:49:36,727 --> 00:49:39,354
But not only did they give the land...
784
00:49:40,189 --> 00:49:42,649
they built land grant colleges
785
00:49:42,733 --> 00:49:45,861
with government money
to teach them how to farm.
786
00:49:45,944 --> 00:49:52,284
Not only that, they provided county agents
to further their expertise in farming.
787
00:49:52,367 --> 00:49:56,121
Not only that,
they provided low interest rates
788
00:49:56,205 --> 00:49:59,166
in order that they could
mechanise their farms.
789
00:49:59,249 --> 00:50:02,628
Not only that, today many of these people
790
00:50:02,711 --> 00:50:07,674
are receiving millions of dollars
in federal subsidies not to farm,
791
00:50:07,758 --> 00:50:10,219
and they are the very people
telling the Black man
792
00:50:10,302 --> 00:50:13,430
that he ought to lift himself
by his own bootstraps.
793
00:50:14,598 --> 00:50:18,143
And this is what we are faced with,
and this is the reality.
794
00:50:18,227 --> 00:50:20,270
Now, when we come to Washington...
795
00:50:21,230 --> 00:50:26,944
in this campaign,
we are coming to get our cheque.
796
00:50:30,531 --> 00:50:32,199
So, what happened after the war?
797
00:50:32,282 --> 00:50:34,493
Something was happening in the South,
798
00:50:34,576 --> 00:50:38,080
because the enslaved people
who were newly freed
799
00:50:38,163 --> 00:50:41,917
had been in the starting blocks
for 246 years.
800
00:50:42,000 --> 00:50:45,045
And when the word "go" came,
they were ready.
801
00:50:45,128 --> 00:50:51,093
'Cause what many people fail to recognise
is Reconstruction was actually working.
802
00:50:52,302 --> 00:50:56,223
In 1868, before the 15th Amendment passed,
803
00:50:56,306 --> 00:51:01,228
there were 700,000
Black registered voters in the South.
804
00:51:01,311 --> 00:51:05,774
Two thousand Black men
served in elected office.
805
00:51:05,858 --> 00:51:08,819
There was a Civil Rights Act in 1875.
806
00:51:08,902 --> 00:51:12,573
I bet most of the lawyers
in this room don't even know this.
807
00:51:12,656 --> 00:51:14,741
It outlawed racial discrimination
808
00:51:14,825 --> 00:51:18,787
in housing, schools,
public transportation, and jury service.
809
00:51:18,871 --> 00:51:22,624
It was just overruled
by the Supreme Court in 1883.
810
00:51:23,208 --> 00:51:25,878
And then Rutherford Hayes
got elected president.
811
00:51:25,961 --> 00:51:29,882
And in 1877, he withdrew
the Northern troops from the South,
812
00:51:29,965 --> 00:51:32,718
and what happened then is that
the Confederates regrouped
813
00:51:32,801 --> 00:51:35,262
as organisations like the KKK.
814
00:51:35,345 --> 00:51:39,766
The Southern states started passing laws
to enforce and maintain white supremacy,
815
00:51:39,850 --> 00:51:45,564
and if you want an example of what
was happening, in 1896 in Louisiana,
816
00:51:45,647 --> 00:51:50,736
there were 130,344
Black registered voters,
817
00:51:50,819 --> 00:51:53,655
and two years later,
there were just over 5000.
818
00:51:53,739 --> 00:51:58,619
Why do you think 125,000 people
819
00:51:58,702 --> 00:52:01,455
decided not to vote?
820
00:52:04,833 --> 00:52:07,669
There was a chance
at the end of the Civil War,
821
00:52:08,212 --> 00:52:11,089
and there was Reconstruction,
and it was working.
822
00:52:11,173 --> 00:52:15,177
And they reached the tipping point,
and they just rolled right back.
823
00:52:17,221 --> 00:52:20,140
And this is what we rolled back to.
824
00:52:22,518 --> 00:52:27,981
In 1896, the United States Supreme Court
decided Plessy v. Ferguson.
825
00:52:28,065 --> 00:52:32,778
Mr Plessy got on a train, on purpose,
knowing he would be arrested,
826
00:52:32,861 --> 00:52:35,822
to test the law in America.
827
00:52:35,906 --> 00:52:38,575
And the United States Supreme Court said,
828
00:52:38,659 --> 00:52:43,038
"The law of America is separate,
but equal."
829
00:52:43,121 --> 00:52:47,376
It's not the custom,
it's the law of the land.
830
00:52:50,379 --> 00:52:52,798
Now, I'm gonna ask you
to look at that image,
831
00:52:52,881 --> 00:52:57,135
and understand what was normal,
832
00:52:57,219 --> 00:53:00,556
accepted, and American...
833
00:53:02,599 --> 00:53:03,684
in our country.
834
00:53:13,986 --> 00:53:17,781
Because you wanna talk about race in
America at the turn of the 20th century,
835
00:53:17,865 --> 00:53:21,201
well, there were race riots
in New Orleans and New York City.
836
00:53:21,285 --> 00:53:25,122
In 1901, 105 Black people are lynched.
837
00:53:25,205 --> 00:53:28,208
1902, 85 Black people are lynched.
838
00:53:28,292 --> 00:53:31,461
1903, 84 Black people lynched.
839
00:53:31,545 --> 00:53:34,923
1904, 76 Black people lynched.
840
00:53:35,007 --> 00:53:38,135
1905, 57 Black people lynched.
841
00:53:38,218 --> 00:53:41,388
1906, 62 Black people lynched.
842
00:53:41,471 --> 00:53:44,600
1907, 58 Black people lynched.
843
00:53:44,683 --> 00:53:47,728
1908, 89 Black people lynched.
844
00:53:47,811 --> 00:53:50,856
1909, 69 Black people lynched.
845
00:53:50,939 --> 00:53:54,151
1910, 67 Black people lynched.
846
00:53:54,234 --> 00:53:57,404
Between 1877 and 1950,
847
00:53:57,487 --> 00:54:03,702
more than 4000 racial,
terrorised lynchings in America.
848
00:54:14,213 --> 00:54:18,800
This article appeared in
the Chicago Defender, December 20, 1947.
849
00:54:18,884 --> 00:54:25,307
It says, "Enraged, jealous whites
shoot down successful businessman.
850
00:54:25,390 --> 00:54:29,728
Believed Dixie gang murdered young father.
851
00:54:29,811 --> 00:54:33,982
Enraged whites, jealous over
the business success of a Negro,
852
00:54:34,066 --> 00:54:37,528
are believed to be the lynchers
of Elmore Bolling,
853
00:54:37,611 --> 00:54:42,157
who was found last week,
riddled with shotgun and pistol bullets.
854
00:54:42,241 --> 00:54:48,163
Those who know say Bolling
has long been a marked man,
855
00:54:48,247 --> 00:54:54,294
since he was rated by whites here
as too successful to be a Negro."
856
00:54:58,423 --> 00:55:01,593
Your family found
your father's body in a ditch.
857
00:55:02,135 --> 00:55:04,263
Is this the ditch that
we're looking at now?
858
00:55:04,346 --> 00:55:06,181
Yes, this is actually the spot,
859
00:55:06,265 --> 00:55:10,102
and it's ingrained in my memory
860
00:55:10,185 --> 00:55:13,856
where I'm just looking at him
in the ditch with his eyes open.
861
00:55:16,984 --> 00:55:18,277
We heard the shots.
862
00:55:19,152 --> 00:55:22,447
We thought that someone
was killing some cows,
863
00:55:22,531 --> 00:55:25,200
but we actually heard the shots
that killed my dad.
864
00:55:27,953 --> 00:55:31,582
We all went down there,
not knowing what to expect.
865
00:55:33,375 --> 00:55:37,880
His truck that he was driving
was still running, with the lights on.
866
00:55:39,548 --> 00:55:43,218
He had been shot six times with a pistol,
and once in the back with a shotgun.
867
00:55:46,513 --> 00:55:50,350
I knew that what had happened to my father
868
00:55:50,434 --> 00:55:53,645
was extremely bad.
869
00:55:54,354 --> 00:56:00,736
I cried most of the time until my mom
finally sent me away with the neighbour.
870
00:56:02,988 --> 00:56:05,782
This is a fabulous picture.
871
00:56:05,866 --> 00:56:08,035
Could you tell us who is here?
872
00:56:08,118 --> 00:56:14,374
This is Mom, Bertha Bolling.
Bertha Nowden Bolling.
873
00:56:15,876 --> 00:56:19,004
And this is my dad, Elmore Bolling.
874
00:56:19,087 --> 00:56:23,342
And one of the things that
we always laugh about, the children,
875
00:56:23,425 --> 00:56:28,722
is that this thing in his hand,
actually, is her purse.
876
00:56:28,805 --> 00:56:30,599
She kept the money.
877
00:56:30,682 --> 00:56:36,188
So on this picture, Dad took her purse
and had it under his arm,
878
00:56:36,271 --> 00:56:37,940
because that was the money.
879
00:56:42,778 --> 00:56:47,866
What was the trajectory of your family
after your father was lynched?
880
00:56:48,492 --> 00:56:51,245
By my father being the main breadwinner,
881
00:56:51,328 --> 00:56:55,874
we went from prosperity
to poverty almost overnight.
882
00:56:55,958 --> 00:57:01,797
And my mom, she became
a presser in a dry cleaners.
883
00:57:01,880 --> 00:57:05,717
And her arms had the burns that showed,
884
00:57:05,801 --> 00:57:08,971
you know, that came along
with that kind of labour.
885
00:57:09,054 --> 00:57:12,140
And that was the labour
that put me through college.
886
00:57:15,018 --> 00:57:19,815
The lynchings occurred
for terroristic purposes.
887
00:57:19,898 --> 00:57:22,651
They wanted to keep Blacks terrified,
888
00:57:22,734 --> 00:57:26,321
to keep them from trying to do things,
and it worked.
889
00:57:28,615 --> 00:57:30,033
Was anyone ever prosecuted?
890
00:57:30,117 --> 00:57:36,874
No. The killers who, actually, one of them
actually admitted that he killed my father
891
00:57:36,957 --> 00:57:41,044
because he insulted his wife
over the telephone, were never indicted.
892
00:57:48,343 --> 00:57:51,889
And that was what made me decide
to do the historic marker.
893
00:57:53,390 --> 00:57:58,478
I had to have some symbol
to tell the world
894
00:57:58,562 --> 00:58:05,319
that here was a good man that
was killed just because he was successful.
895
00:58:05,861 --> 00:58:10,866
Am I correct that it is on, literally, the
very spot where your father was killed?
896
00:58:10,949 --> 00:58:13,744
Within feet of where
he was actually killed.
897
00:58:32,763 --> 00:58:36,600
And Confederate monuments
started appearing in America.
898
00:58:37,184 --> 00:58:40,771
And these weren't monuments
that were built right after the Civil War,
899
00:58:40,854 --> 00:58:43,982
when people were thinking,
"Oh, my God, we just lost this war,
900
00:58:44,066 --> 00:58:47,819
and our heroes are so dear to our heart.
We wanna memorialise them."
901
00:58:47,903 --> 00:58:51,240
No, no.
They came mostly in the 20th century.
902
00:58:52,366 --> 00:58:54,660
This is a guy named John Pelham.
903
00:58:55,369 --> 00:58:56,828
What did he do?
904
00:58:56,912 --> 00:59:00,040
Well, he resigned from West Point in 1861
905
00:59:00,123 --> 00:59:04,002
to join the Confederate Army,
and here's what he did to get a monument.
906
00:59:04,545 --> 00:59:09,132
"He displayed a genius for dashing
to a spot that commanded the battlefield,
907
00:59:09,216 --> 00:59:11,802
and bravely raining shot and canisters
908
00:59:11,885 --> 00:59:14,596
on forces that greatly
outnumbered his own."
909
00:59:14,680 --> 00:59:19,393
Translated, he killed
a whole bunch of American soldiers
910
00:59:19,476 --> 00:59:21,478
in defence of slavery.
911
00:59:22,437 --> 00:59:28,360
And they built a monument to him for that,
not for something else.
912
00:59:28,443 --> 00:59:32,030
When people say, "Well, George Washington
owned slaves too, and he has a monument.
913
00:59:32,114 --> 00:59:33,782
Are you gonna take away his monument?"
914
00:59:33,866 --> 00:59:37,536
And my response
is the Washington Monument was not built
915
00:59:37,619 --> 00:59:39,705
because George Washington owned slaves.
916
00:59:39,788 --> 00:59:43,792
He did own slaves,
and he will be damned for that.
917
00:59:43,876 --> 00:59:48,088
Having said that, George Washington
led the Revolutionary Army,
918
00:59:48,172 --> 00:59:49,965
and, I don't know, he founded the country?
919
00:59:50,048 --> 00:59:52,551
So maybe that's why
they built him a monument.
920
00:59:54,761 --> 00:59:59,266
The fact that he owned enslaved people
had nothing to do with his monument.
921
00:59:59,349 --> 01:00:02,978
The Confederate monuments
were built for one reason,
922
01:00:03,061 --> 01:00:08,150
to honour people
for what they did from 1861 to 1865.
923
01:00:08,233 --> 01:00:10,319
And those monuments honour people
924
01:00:10,402 --> 01:00:13,280
during that time period
for doing one thing,
925
01:00:13,363 --> 01:00:16,366
maiming and murdering American soldiers
926
01:00:16,450 --> 01:00:20,078
so that they could keep
owning enslaved people.
927
01:00:21,538 --> 01:00:23,415
That's where the monuments are.
928
01:00:25,417 --> 01:00:27,544
Those are the top ten states.
929
01:00:29,755 --> 01:00:33,258
And this is who we are in America.
930
01:00:34,426 --> 01:00:37,888
What's up, y'all? Tami Sawyer here.
931
01:00:38,847 --> 01:00:42,643
I'm live at the
Nathan Bedford Forrest statue.
932
01:00:43,352 --> 01:00:45,479
Right here in Memphis, Tennessee.
933
01:00:45,562 --> 01:00:49,858
I just wanted to come down
and let Nathan Bedford Forrest know...
934
01:00:50,943 --> 01:00:53,445
that he has a formidable opponent.
935
01:00:56,490 --> 01:01:02,120
I was asked, "What's one thing you think
you could make happen in a year?"
936
01:01:02,204 --> 01:01:04,581
I said, "We can get
these damn statues removed."
937
01:01:04,665 --> 01:01:09,378
And I didn't believe it, but I said,
"That sounds like one thing we could do."
938
01:01:09,461 --> 01:01:12,798
And I went on Facebook,
and I made a post that said,
939
01:01:12,881 --> 01:01:15,217
"Who wants to talk about these statues?"
And next thing,
940
01:01:15,300 --> 01:01:19,763
we had filled Bruce Elementary gym
with 350 Memphians of all ages,
941
01:01:19,847 --> 01:01:22,349
races, genders, sexualities, creeds,
942
01:01:22,432 --> 01:01:25,602
even a descendant
of Nathan Bedford Forrest himself,
943
01:01:25,686 --> 01:01:27,604
who came together to say,
944
01:01:28,188 --> 01:01:31,191
"We want Nathan Bedford Forrest
and Jefferson Davis,
945
01:01:31,275 --> 01:01:34,236
and all Confederate memorabilia,
removed from our city."
946
01:01:34,319 --> 01:01:36,697
-Take them down.
-901.
947
01:01:36,780 --> 01:01:38,991
-Take them down.
-901.
948
01:01:40,242 --> 01:01:42,494
Protect the people, not the statue.
949
01:01:42,578 --> 01:01:44,663
Protect the people, not the statue.
950
01:01:44,746 --> 01:01:47,249
Protect the people, not the statue.
951
01:01:49,543 --> 01:01:51,503
How do you respond to the people that say,
952
01:01:51,587 --> 01:01:55,507
"This isn't about slavery
or oppression of Black people.
953
01:01:55,591 --> 01:01:58,635
This is about Southern culture,
and Southern history,
954
01:01:58,719 --> 01:02:00,971
and maintaining our history"?
955
01:02:02,431 --> 01:02:07,102
I think that those people
need to, one, learn history.
956
01:02:07,186 --> 01:02:10,856
When people talk about Southerners,
they think about white people.
957
01:02:10,939 --> 01:02:14,109
But the economy of the South
and the culture of the South
958
01:02:14,193 --> 01:02:16,653
was built off slavery.
959
01:02:16,737 --> 01:02:21,116
The food we eat, right?
Fried chicken, ham hocks, collard greens.
960
01:02:21,200 --> 01:02:22,618
That's Black people.
961
01:02:22,701 --> 01:02:24,369
The music we listen to.
962
01:02:24,453 --> 01:02:29,291
Elvis is not Elvis
without Black musicians, right?
963
01:02:29,374 --> 01:02:32,503
Martin Luther King was killed here, right?
964
01:02:32,586 --> 01:02:34,880
Blackness, the blood of Black people,
965
01:02:34,963 --> 01:02:38,091
seeps so deeply
into the ground of the South,
966
01:02:38,175 --> 01:02:39,510
you cannot look at--
967
01:02:39,593 --> 01:02:42,638
You cannot describe Southerners
or Southern history
968
01:02:42,721 --> 01:02:46,725
or American history
with the exclusion of Black people.
969
01:02:46,808 --> 01:02:51,647
And so the people who say that we're
rewriting history, they rewrote history.
970
01:02:51,730 --> 01:02:54,066
Now, if we had a statue that says,
971
01:02:54,149 --> 01:02:59,196
"Here lies the graves of a notorious
slave owner and his wife,
972
01:02:59,988 --> 01:03:02,950
who only became one
of the richest people in Memphis
973
01:03:03,033 --> 01:03:07,204
because of his brutal practises
towards Black Americans."
974
01:03:07,955 --> 01:03:13,460
But that's not the history
that people are ready to reconcile.
975
01:03:15,337 --> 01:03:18,257
And I see our Black kids,
their lights go out in their eyes
976
01:03:18,340 --> 01:03:21,134
at 3, 4, 5 years old.
977
01:03:21,218 --> 01:03:24,930
They believe they're lesser than
by the time they've reached kindergarten.
978
01:03:26,557 --> 01:03:28,892
And if we can change anything,
979
01:03:28,976 --> 01:03:31,812
I believe that we could change
the landscape of our city
980
01:03:31,895 --> 01:03:35,023
so they didn't have
to be reminded on a daily basis
981
01:03:35,107 --> 01:03:39,361
that they are considered second-class
citizens by many people in this country.
982
01:03:41,572 --> 01:03:45,701
History is being made in Memphis tonight.
983
01:03:47,160 --> 01:03:48,912
Within the next few hours...
984
01:03:50,205 --> 01:03:56,044
both the Nathan Bedford Forrest
and Jefferson Davis statues
985
01:03:56,128 --> 01:03:58,714
will no longer stand in our city.
986
01:04:04,136 --> 01:04:06,305
While we watched the cranes come in,
987
01:04:06,388 --> 01:04:10,392
the park get filled with workers, and
I was right across the street to witness,
988
01:04:10,475 --> 01:04:13,437
at 9:01 on December 20th, 2017,
989
01:04:13,520 --> 01:04:16,481
Nathan Bedford Forrest
rise above that pedestal
990
01:04:16,565 --> 01:04:18,483
for the first time since he was placed.
991
01:04:23,280 --> 01:04:24,740
What was that feeling like?
992
01:04:25,490 --> 01:04:27,451
It's a complicated feeling.
993
01:04:27,534 --> 01:04:32,623
One of relief, one of joy,
and one of sadness.
994
01:04:32,706 --> 01:04:33,916
Where was the sadness from?
995
01:04:34,917 --> 01:04:38,003
We had to fight so hard, right?
996
01:04:38,086 --> 01:04:41,340
That I had friends
who went to jail for this,
997
01:04:41,423 --> 01:04:44,426
that a woman was killed for this, right?
998
01:04:44,510 --> 01:04:46,803
And that our statue came down,
999
01:04:46,887 --> 01:04:51,266
and almost another thousand stand
across the country.
1000
01:04:52,226 --> 01:04:54,811
And that people
are working harder to protect them
1001
01:04:54,895 --> 01:04:58,357
and tell us that
we are wrong or attention-seekers
1002
01:04:58,440 --> 01:05:02,277
than they are to reconcile
and get to a point of truth
1003
01:05:02,361 --> 01:05:04,988
and understanding about
who these people were.
1004
01:05:23,966 --> 01:05:27,678
February 10, 1915,
The Birth of a Nation is released.
1005
01:05:27,761 --> 01:05:34,017
D.W. Griffith's stupendous motion picture
production of Thomas Dixon's famous story,
1006
01:05:34,101 --> 01:05:35,227
The Clansman.
1007
01:05:35,310 --> 01:05:40,941
It employed the services of 18,000 people,
and a symphony orchestra of 40.
1008
01:05:41,024 --> 01:05:43,569
As you can see,
it took three years in production.
1009
01:05:45,737 --> 01:05:49,825
It was one of the first movies
screened in the White House.
1010
01:05:51,910 --> 01:05:55,914
And it had white actors in blackface,
like this one.
1011
01:05:58,333 --> 01:06:00,335
And this story, by the way...
1012
01:06:02,045 --> 01:06:07,509
does damage,
not only to every Black person...
1013
01:06:09,011 --> 01:06:13,348
but it takes the issue
of sexual assault...
1014
01:06:13,974 --> 01:06:18,812
and twists it in a way that's incredible.
1015
01:06:20,856 --> 01:06:24,067
Because, of course,
rather than let a Black man touch her...
1016
01:06:28,822 --> 01:06:30,490
she'll jump to her death.
1017
01:06:35,454 --> 01:06:38,248
This is what Woodrow Wilson
had to say about the movie.
1018
01:06:38,332 --> 01:06:41,793
"The white men were roused
by a mere instinct of self-preservation
1019
01:06:41,877 --> 01:06:45,923
until at last, there had sprung
into existence a great Ku Klux Klan,
1020
01:06:46,006 --> 01:06:50,761
a veritable empire of the South,
to protect the Southern country."
1021
01:06:50,844 --> 01:06:54,139
This is the president
of the United States.
1022
01:06:54,223 --> 01:06:58,519
Folks, this was entertainment.
1023
01:06:59,353 --> 01:07:03,190
This was a pleasant evening at the movies.
1024
01:07:04,316 --> 01:07:09,154
This is who we are as Americans
at the turn of the last century.
1025
01:07:17,704 --> 01:07:21,875
Over your shoulder is a bridge
with a man's name on it.
1026
01:07:21,959 --> 01:07:27,339
And I have seen pictures of that bridge
ever since I was a young, young child,
1027
01:07:27,422 --> 01:07:31,176
and I see the name Edmund Pettus.
1028
01:07:31,260 --> 01:07:33,470
I think there are
very few people in America
1029
01:07:33,554 --> 01:07:36,390
who know who Edmund Pettus really was.
1030
01:07:38,225 --> 01:07:44,731
Edmund Pettus
was a powerful leader in this area.
1031
01:07:45,566 --> 01:07:48,819
He was a former U.S. Senator.
1032
01:07:50,612 --> 01:07:57,202
Most importantly, he was
the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.
1033
01:07:57,286 --> 01:07:58,453
Highest leader.
1034
01:07:58,537 --> 01:08:02,416
When this bridge was completed
in 1940 or so,
1035
01:08:02,499 --> 01:08:04,376
they wanted a symbol.
1036
01:08:04,459 --> 01:08:05,919
They wanted to name...
1037
01:08:06,712 --> 01:08:12,634
the bridge after somebody
who would send a signal
1038
01:08:12,718 --> 01:08:14,469
of "stay in your place,"
1039
01:08:14,553 --> 01:08:20,475
because symbols
are more powerful than words.
1040
01:08:20,559 --> 01:08:23,895
And so this is a very powerful symbol.
1041
01:08:23,979 --> 01:08:29,067
Every time someone cross
the Edmund Pettus Bridge, it gets in them.
1042
01:08:29,151 --> 01:08:33,529
Every time someone see
a photo of it, it gets in them.
1043
01:08:33,613 --> 01:08:38,160
Every time one sees something
on TV, it gets in them.
1044
01:08:38,243 --> 01:08:40,203
So that's why, in the Senate,
1045
01:08:40,996 --> 01:08:45,000
I introduced a resolution
1046
01:08:45,082 --> 01:08:49,087
to change the name
from Edmund Pettus Bridge
1047
01:08:49,171 --> 01:08:51,506
to the Freedom Bridge.
1048
01:08:51,590 --> 01:08:54,926
The state of Alabama,
last year, passed a law that said
1049
01:08:55,010 --> 01:08:58,430
you cannot change the names
of any of these
1050
01:08:58,514 --> 01:09:01,558
so-called iconic
white supremacist symbols.
1051
01:09:03,393 --> 01:09:05,895
And somebody says,
"Well, this is history."
1052
01:09:06,772 --> 01:09:09,191
This is symbolism. This is not history.
1053
01:09:09,274 --> 01:09:12,903
We ought never confuse
symbolism with history.
1054
01:09:13,946 --> 01:09:19,952
Symbolism is somebody's idea
about a response to what happened.
1055
01:09:20,035 --> 01:09:21,411
Not what happened.
1056
01:09:21,495 --> 01:09:23,872
You are to move off
of the street immediately
1057
01:09:23,956 --> 01:09:26,792
and assemble in front
of Lehman's Pontiac Dealer,
1058
01:09:26,875 --> 01:09:29,002
otherwise you will not be protected.
1059
01:09:39,513 --> 01:09:43,934
And here it is,
50-some years later after that,
1060
01:09:44,017 --> 01:09:46,603
and we're still fighting
for the right to vote,
1061
01:09:46,687 --> 01:09:50,357
we're still fighting to keep our children
from being killed,
1062
01:09:50,439 --> 01:09:56,029
we're still fighting to keep
our people from being incarcerated,
1063
01:09:56,113 --> 01:09:58,740
we're still fighting
for all kinds of things.
1064
01:09:58,824 --> 01:10:02,744
So that just demonstrates
the depth of white supremacy.
1065
01:10:02,828 --> 01:10:05,581
And I didn't fully understand that.
1066
01:10:16,425 --> 01:10:18,760
The Greenwood neighbourhood in Tulsa
1067
01:10:18,844 --> 01:10:21,471
was called Black Wall Street
by many people.
1068
01:10:22,055 --> 01:10:25,475
These are some of the images
of how Black Americans
1069
01:10:25,559 --> 01:10:30,439
were living in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921.
1070
01:10:30,522 --> 01:10:35,068
The level of economic advancement
was astounding.
1071
01:10:39,364 --> 01:10:44,786
Six hundred businesses, 21 churches,
21 restaurants, 30 grocery stores,
1072
01:10:44,870 --> 01:10:48,874
two movie theatres, six private airplanes,
1073
01:10:48,957 --> 01:10:53,837
a hospital, bank, post office, schools.
1074
01:10:53,921 --> 01:10:58,467
Libraries, law offices, even a bus system.
1075
01:10:59,468 --> 01:11:03,722
On May 30th of 1921,
a young Black man was arrested
1076
01:11:03,805 --> 01:11:08,310
and accused of trying to assault
a white female elevator operator.
1077
01:11:08,393 --> 01:11:12,648
All of the historical records
say that the kid tripped in the elevator
1078
01:11:12,731 --> 01:11:14,358
and bumped into this white woman.
1079
01:11:14,441 --> 01:11:17,110
But he was arrested,
and the rumour mill started,
1080
01:11:17,194 --> 01:11:18,403
and a lynch mob formed.
1081
01:11:21,448 --> 01:11:24,993
Well, the men in Greenwood
were World War I veterans,
1082
01:11:25,077 --> 01:11:26,745
and when they heard
about the lynch mob,
1083
01:11:26,828 --> 01:11:29,414
they got their guns
and they went down to the courthouse.
1084
01:11:29,498 --> 01:11:34,294
Not to break anybody out,
but to keep the lynch mob out.
1085
01:11:38,799 --> 01:11:43,470
On June 1st, 1921,
white people rented airplanes.
1086
01:11:43,554 --> 01:11:45,848
They got burning balls of turpentine,
1087
01:11:45,931 --> 01:11:49,893
and they dropped them
on the businesses and homes in Greenwood.
1088
01:11:50,727 --> 01:11:54,523
And when Black people ran out
of the burning buildings and homes,
1089
01:11:54,606 --> 01:11:58,861
they were shot dead
by white people standing outside.
1090
01:12:00,279 --> 01:12:04,616
I get angry when I read about this
1091
01:12:04,700 --> 01:12:07,286
referred to as "the Tulsa Riot."
1092
01:12:07,369 --> 01:12:11,206
This was not a riot.
This was a massacre.
1093
01:12:22,509 --> 01:12:26,680
This was the cost
of preventing a lynching.
1094
01:12:33,312 --> 01:12:36,231
I thought the world was coming to an end.
1095
01:12:37,232 --> 01:12:40,360
I felt, "Well, what in the world
is going on?"
1096
01:12:40,444 --> 01:12:44,740
Being as young as I was,
I didn't understand.
1097
01:12:44,823 --> 01:12:46,116
But it was quite a mess.
1098
01:12:46,992 --> 01:12:48,660
It was quite something.
1099
01:12:52,372 --> 01:12:56,126
Would you introduce yourself, please?
Tell folks your name?
1100
01:12:57,044 --> 01:13:01,256
My name is Lessie Evelyn Randle.
1101
01:13:01,882 --> 01:13:05,010
It was Benningfield
before I married, and...
1102
01:13:06,637 --> 01:13:09,640
I am 100 and...years old.
1103
01:13:21,068 --> 01:13:23,904
I remember, I don't know
what you call them, rebels,
1104
01:13:23,987 --> 01:13:25,697
or what they were, came in,
1105
01:13:25,781 --> 01:13:28,408
and they just spared
Grandmother's home,
1106
01:13:28,492 --> 01:13:30,118
they didn't burn her home.
1107
01:13:30,202 --> 01:13:33,580
But the homes all around us were burned,
1108
01:13:33,664 --> 01:13:39,253
and stores were just cleaned out...
1109
01:13:40,212 --> 01:13:43,006
and everything,
but it was quite something.
1110
01:13:43,090 --> 01:13:45,717
I never want to see
anything like that again.
1111
01:13:47,928 --> 01:13:54,852
I saw two or three being shot down
as we were escaping.
1112
01:13:56,812 --> 01:14:02,568
At one time, we went in an area
where they had killed so many,
1113
01:14:02,651 --> 01:14:08,657
just had them piled up
in the street in a pile.
1114
01:14:09,283 --> 01:14:12,619
And I thought that was terrible.
1115
01:14:13,245 --> 01:14:16,039
I remember thinking that...
1116
01:14:16,123 --> 01:14:18,876
I said, "What are these people doing
lying around like this?"
1117
01:14:18,959 --> 01:14:23,005
One of the people told me,
"They're dead. They were killed."
1118
01:14:23,839 --> 01:14:25,174
I said, "Oh, my God."
1119
01:14:25,257 --> 01:14:28,677
That, of course, scared me,
being a kid and everything,
1120
01:14:28,760 --> 01:14:30,596
but it was quite something.
1121
01:14:38,979 --> 01:14:43,066
-So this is a city-owned cemetery?
-Yes.
1122
01:14:43,150 --> 01:14:45,652
-The name of it is...?
-Oaklawn Cemetery.
1123
01:14:46,361 --> 01:14:50,282
And it was a place where we have
1124
01:14:50,365 --> 01:14:52,618
very credible evidence,
1125
01:14:52,701 --> 01:14:55,579
eyewitness testimony
that's been passed down,
1126
01:14:55,662 --> 01:14:56,788
that bodies were dumped.
1127
01:14:57,706 --> 01:15:01,877
And we've gotten documented stories
from white citizens that live in Tulsa
1128
01:15:01,960 --> 01:15:05,464
who had families here
during the massacre and before.
1129
01:15:05,547 --> 01:15:07,758
'Cause one of the guys
that I interviewed told me,
1130
01:15:07,841 --> 01:15:09,384
he said, "My father took me..."
1131
01:15:10,052 --> 01:15:12,888
You used to be able to walk up
to the rail system.
1132
01:15:13,514 --> 01:15:18,185
He said they brought rail cars
through here, flatbed rail cars,
1133
01:15:18,268 --> 01:15:20,145
and they just rolled bodies off.
1134
01:15:21,271 --> 01:15:24,316
But our contention was
the bodies were dumped
1135
01:15:25,275 --> 01:15:27,653
all the way where the underpass is,
1136
01:15:27,736 --> 01:15:32,783
and they intentionally put
the interstate on top of their bodies,
1137
01:15:32,866 --> 01:15:35,661
knowing that nobody would ever think...
1138
01:15:35,744 --> 01:15:37,788
-To look under the road.
-To look under the road.
1139
01:15:40,332 --> 01:15:45,921
What is the most reasonable estimate
of how many people died?
1140
01:15:46,004 --> 01:15:50,259
You're looking at 4000 people...
1141
01:15:50,926 --> 01:15:53,053
- Easy.
-that you cannot account for.
1142
01:15:53,637 --> 01:15:56,014
-Yeah, I agree.
-So it's a genocide.
1143
01:15:56,098 --> 01:15:57,933
It's an ethnic cleansing, you know?
1144
01:15:58,016 --> 01:16:01,103
Even to call it a massacre
marginalises it,
1145
01:16:01,186 --> 01:16:03,981
because it's just too big.
1146
01:16:04,064 --> 01:16:05,941
It's too big of a story.
1147
01:16:08,235 --> 01:16:10,654
-You see the steps over to the left?
-Yes.
1148
01:16:10,737 --> 01:16:14,032
We call those the Steps of No Return.
1149
01:16:15,492 --> 01:16:18,287
And why are they called
the Steps of No Return?
1150
01:16:18,370 --> 01:16:20,622
'Cause the houses were never rebuilt.
1151
01:16:25,294 --> 01:16:26,712
Yeah, it's a powerful...
1152
01:16:28,714 --> 01:16:30,215
Powerful place to be.
1153
01:16:31,175 --> 01:16:33,093
And you look forward,
you look at the city,
1154
01:16:33,177 --> 01:16:35,888
-and you just imagine what was.
-And what could have been.
1155
01:16:35,971 --> 01:16:38,515
-Yeah.
-If this hadn't been destroyed.
1156
01:16:40,017 --> 01:16:43,353
This city could've had
an incredibly different destiny.
1157
01:16:43,437 --> 01:16:45,480
-Yeah.
-Definitely.
1158
01:16:55,949 --> 01:16:58,911
I never wanna see
anything like that again.
1159
01:16:59,536 --> 01:17:03,040
Of course, you never know
what may happen again. You never know.
1160
01:17:03,457 --> 01:17:06,710
Because the way it's going now,
from what I've seen...
1161
01:17:08,378 --> 01:17:11,048
I feel like anything could happen.
1162
01:17:14,760 --> 01:17:18,263
How is it possible
that this could happen in America
1163
01:17:18,347 --> 01:17:23,060
and not be taught in history books
up one side and down the other?
1164
01:17:26,647 --> 01:17:30,275
Do you know how many people
were prosecuted for the Tulsa Massacre?
1165
01:17:30,359 --> 01:17:31,360
Zero.
1166
01:17:32,069 --> 01:17:37,824
Do you think law enforcement didn't know
who rented an airplane on June 1st?
1167
01:17:37,908 --> 01:17:41,411
Do you think law enforcement
couldn't tell from the pictures
1168
01:17:41,495 --> 01:17:44,915
who were walking around town
with shotguns over their shoulders
1169
01:17:44,998 --> 01:17:48,085
to figure out who may have shot
some of the Black people?
1170
01:17:48,168 --> 01:17:52,339
Do you really think law enforcement
didn't know what happened?
1171
01:17:52,965 --> 01:17:56,635
The reason I have shown this,
and shown the pictures of lynchings,
1172
01:17:56,718 --> 01:18:00,556
is that these kind of things
could not happen
1173
01:18:00,639 --> 01:18:05,269
without law enforcement acquiescence
or direct involvement.
1174
01:18:05,352 --> 01:18:08,939
You can't hang somebody
from a tree in the middle of the city
1175
01:18:09,022 --> 01:18:11,400
and have the police not know about it.
1176
01:18:15,279 --> 01:18:19,366
The hand you see in that picture
is the hand of Emmett Till's mother.
1177
01:18:19,908 --> 01:18:23,579
That woman is one of
the bravest women in American history,
1178
01:18:23,662 --> 01:18:27,916
because she took her personal tragedy,
1179
01:18:28,458 --> 01:18:32,921
her incredibly personal tragedy,
and she made a decision.
1180
01:18:33,005 --> 01:18:37,217
"I am going to make America
look at who we are."
1181
01:18:37,301 --> 01:18:43,640
And in 1955, this next picture
appeared in newspapers across America.
1182
01:18:44,808 --> 01:18:46,852
And I believe, personally,
1183
01:18:46,935 --> 01:18:49,938
that many white people
across America woke up
1184
01:18:50,022 --> 01:18:51,982
and looked at this picture in the paper,
1185
01:18:52,065 --> 01:18:54,860
and said something
to themselves like this:
1186
01:18:55,360 --> 01:18:58,280
"I know those coloured people down there
are causing a problem...
1187
01:18:59,448 --> 01:19:01,491
but I didn't sign up for this."
1188
01:19:12,127 --> 01:19:14,129
Everyone thinks that America
1189
01:19:14,213 --> 01:19:17,633
is still one of the most
segregated countries in the world
1190
01:19:17,716 --> 01:19:22,554
because of social
individual prejudice, and finances.
1191
01:19:22,638 --> 01:19:26,225
And I'm not saying that those two things
don't have some relationship
1192
01:19:26,308 --> 01:19:28,393
to our segregated country.
1193
01:19:29,311 --> 01:19:32,731
What I am saying is,
federal, state and local governments
1194
01:19:32,814 --> 01:19:35,776
deliberately sabotaged
Black homeownership.
1195
01:19:35,859 --> 01:19:37,819
This wasn't a mistake.
1196
01:19:37,903 --> 01:19:42,407
This was the deliberate policy
of the federal government.
1197
01:19:43,367 --> 01:19:46,411
The Federal Housing Authority
drew redline maps
1198
01:19:46,495 --> 01:19:50,666
of every major city in America.
1199
01:19:50,749 --> 01:19:54,127
That's the redline map
of Brooklyn, New York.
1200
01:19:56,129 --> 01:20:00,884
"A," or green ranking,
meant the neighbourhood was homogeneous.
1201
01:20:00,968 --> 01:20:03,971
A "B," or blue ranking,
meant it was still desirable
1202
01:20:04,054 --> 01:20:05,931
and expected to remain stable.
1203
01:20:06,014 --> 01:20:08,725
A "C" ranking meant it was declining,
1204
01:20:08,809 --> 01:20:12,563
beginning to be integrated,
bordering on Black neighbourhoods.
1205
01:20:12,646 --> 01:20:18,610
And a "D" ranking was red,
for redlining, any Black presence at all.
1206
01:20:19,862 --> 01:20:24,283
And this was the truth
from sea to shining sea.
1207
01:20:25,576 --> 01:20:28,954
And then we reach 1954,
with Brown v. The Board.
1208
01:20:29,538 --> 01:20:32,124
I will tell you,
this had a major impact on my life,
1209
01:20:32,207 --> 01:20:34,585
in terms of school desegregation.
1210
01:20:36,044 --> 01:20:39,006
This is what Thurgood Marshall
argued in the Supreme Court.
1211
01:20:39,631 --> 01:20:42,342
"Separate but equal was
the inherent determination
1212
01:20:42,426 --> 01:20:46,930
that people who were formerly in slavery,
regardless of anything else,
1213
01:20:47,014 --> 01:20:50,601
shall be kept as near that stage
as is possible."
1214
01:20:50,684 --> 01:20:52,144
And doesn't that make sense?
1215
01:20:52,227 --> 01:20:55,314
What the heck is
"separate but equal" except:
1216
01:20:55,397 --> 01:20:57,232
"You are not human enough.
1217
01:20:57,316 --> 01:21:00,611
Don't drink my water
out of my water fountain,
1218
01:21:00,694 --> 01:21:06,074
don't use the bathroom and my toilet,
don't go to school with my children."
1219
01:21:07,284 --> 01:21:13,040
Let's stroll and see if we can find
our eighth grade graduation picture
1220
01:21:13,123 --> 01:21:16,752
and second grade
First Communion picture.
1221
01:21:17,461 --> 01:21:18,670
It used to be down here.
1222
01:21:19,922 --> 01:21:23,467
I think the lights may come on as we walk.
1223
01:21:25,928 --> 01:21:27,513
-There we go.
-There it is.
1224
01:21:28,263 --> 01:21:29,389
Here we go.
1225
01:21:29,848 --> 01:21:32,309
-Yeah.
-1963.
1226
01:21:33,101 --> 01:21:36,063
-There's First Communion.
-First Communion.
1227
01:21:36,146 --> 01:21:37,314
That's me.
1228
01:21:39,107 --> 01:21:41,193
-That's Opie right there.
-That's right.
1229
01:21:41,276 --> 01:21:43,654
-That's my older brother, Herbert.
-Yep.
1230
01:21:47,741 --> 01:21:51,370
My older brother, Herbert, and I
were the first two Black kids
1231
01:21:51,453 --> 01:21:53,330
to come to school at St. Louis.
1232
01:21:53,413 --> 01:21:57,709
Opie, you and I met each other
the summer before the second grade,
1233
01:21:57,793 --> 01:22:01,338
and that was the start of
one of the best friendships
1234
01:22:01,421 --> 01:22:03,590
I've ever had in my life.
1235
01:22:04,633 --> 01:22:09,012
Well, as we were going to school here,
1236
01:22:09,096 --> 01:22:11,265
and different things
were happening in the world,
1237
01:22:11,348 --> 01:22:14,601
I remember when King
was assassinated, for example.
1238
01:22:15,352 --> 01:22:17,104
Op, what do you remember about that?
1239
01:22:17,187 --> 01:22:21,900
I remembered that... I think
it was the first time I saw my father
1240
01:22:22,484 --> 01:22:25,153
be armed with a shotgun in our house
1241
01:22:25,237 --> 01:22:30,367
just because of the fear of civil unrest.
1242
01:22:32,077 --> 01:22:36,665
But we were still so young at that time
1243
01:22:36,748 --> 01:22:41,920
that we didn't have a true sense
of what was really going on.
1244
01:22:42,004 --> 01:22:42,880
Yeah.
1245
01:22:42,963 --> 01:22:44,882
-We were just having fun.
-Yeah.
1246
01:22:44,965 --> 01:22:50,554
And we would go places,
and the only thing that really...
1247
01:22:50,637 --> 01:22:55,058
I think the first time
that I felt any discomfort is,
1248
01:22:55,142 --> 01:22:56,602
and you might recall this,
1249
01:22:56,685 --> 01:23:00,856
we took the bus to the Crosstown Theater,
1250
01:23:00,939 --> 01:23:04,943
and the movie Patton had just come out,
with George C. Scott.
1251
01:23:05,402 --> 01:23:07,070
And at the Crosstown...
1252
01:23:08,655 --> 01:23:11,325
we went and we had to sit in the balcony
1253
01:23:11,408 --> 01:23:17,206
because Jeffery wasn't allowed
to sit in the main area.
1254
01:23:18,165 --> 01:23:22,294
I didn't think much of it because I wanted
to sit in the balcony to start with.
1255
01:23:22,377 --> 01:23:23,545
It's pretty neat up there.
1256
01:23:23,629 --> 01:23:28,967
But it was the first time that I realised
that there were differences
1257
01:23:29,051 --> 01:23:31,720
on how we were treated by others.
1258
01:23:31,803 --> 01:23:35,974
And I remember it was something
that we kind of brushed off
1259
01:23:36,058 --> 01:23:40,979
in our childhood,
but looking back on it, it's just sad.
1260
01:23:42,105 --> 01:23:44,107
One thing I remember
more than anything else
1261
01:23:44,191 --> 01:23:47,027
about those days,
where y'all were concerned,
1262
01:23:47,110 --> 01:23:49,863
and hopefully you don't even
hardly remember this,
1263
01:23:49,947 --> 01:23:55,202
because I tried to take care of it
in a very professional manner.
1264
01:23:56,495 --> 01:24:00,332
We went to Sacred Heart in Walls,
to a basketball game,
1265
01:24:00,415 --> 01:24:05,462
and we were all getting out of the car,
and we were walking into the gym.
1266
01:24:06,046 --> 01:24:09,716
And a man grabbed me by the arm,
and said, "What are you doing?"
1267
01:24:09,800 --> 01:24:10,926
And I said, "Pardon me?"
1268
01:24:11,009 --> 01:24:15,556
And he said, "We don't allow Blacks
in the gym, or to play in the gym."
1269
01:24:15,639 --> 01:24:18,851
So this is Mississippi,
which is right over the line.
1270
01:24:18,934 --> 01:24:20,602
And I said, "Well, that's fine."
1271
01:24:20,686 --> 01:24:23,939
And I remember turning to y'all,
and I said,
1272
01:24:24,022 --> 01:24:26,024
"They've got a problem with the clock,
1273
01:24:26,108 --> 01:24:29,403
and with what's going on here,
we all are out here. We're leaving."
1274
01:24:29,987 --> 01:24:34,992
And the parents of the team,
they were fine with it.
1275
01:24:35,075 --> 01:24:36,702
I explained to a couple of them.
1276
01:24:36,785 --> 01:24:38,829
We were walking out the gym door,
1277
01:24:38,912 --> 01:24:43,417
and the pastor there
at Sacred Heart was coming in.
1278
01:24:44,084 --> 01:24:46,503
He stopped me, and said,
"Mr Orians, what are you doing?"
1279
01:24:46,587 --> 01:24:49,548
And I said, "Well, this is what happened
when I went in the gym."
1280
01:24:49,631 --> 01:24:52,176
And he goes, "No, that ain't happening."
1281
01:24:53,969 --> 01:24:55,846
And he went back in that gym,
1282
01:24:55,929 --> 01:24:59,016
and he got the coaches
and the parents together,
1283
01:24:59,099 --> 01:25:01,310
and we went back into the gym
and we played.
1284
01:25:03,979 --> 01:25:05,439
I didn't know that.
1285
01:25:05,522 --> 01:25:06,607
I figured not.
1286
01:25:17,701 --> 01:25:21,246
What I remember about that tournament,
1287
01:25:21,330 --> 01:25:24,791
a kid on the other team,
at one point, calling me a nigger.
1288
01:25:25,542 --> 01:25:27,503
And I remember there was a time out,
1289
01:25:27,586 --> 01:25:31,006
and my dad must have been
near the bench, and I said to him,
1290
01:25:31,089 --> 01:25:33,175
"You know, this kid called me a nigger."
1291
01:25:33,634 --> 01:25:36,678
He looked me in the eye and he said,
"What do you wanna do about it?
1292
01:25:36,762 --> 01:25:40,474
Do you wanna quit? Do you wanna cry?
Or do you wanna keep playing?"
1293
01:25:40,933 --> 01:25:42,809
And I was like, "I wanna keep playing."
1294
01:25:42,893 --> 01:25:47,439
And he's like, "Then forget about it
and keep playing," which is what I did.
1295
01:25:48,148 --> 01:25:51,652
But my memory of that
was always just that
1296
01:25:51,735 --> 01:25:53,111
it was this kid...
1297
01:25:55,822 --> 01:25:57,366
who had interacted with me.
1298
01:25:58,367 --> 01:26:00,953
I definitely remember the trip
to Walls, Mississippi,
1299
01:26:01,036 --> 01:26:04,873
because I remember that you could
get a Coca-Cola for a nickel
1300
01:26:04,957 --> 01:26:05,958
in those machines,
1301
01:26:06,041 --> 01:26:10,379
and up here, it was like 10 or 15 cents,
and I'm like, "Damn, this is great.
1302
01:26:10,462 --> 01:26:14,091
Maybe we wanna live here," and
my father's like, "I don't think we do."
1303
01:26:14,883 --> 01:26:17,344
But it's one of the things
1304
01:26:17,427 --> 01:26:22,307
that you protected all of us from,
1305
01:26:22,766 --> 01:26:27,187
and I just wondered whether those things
were still in your head.
1306
01:26:29,398 --> 01:26:31,817
I was thinking about this work
that we're doing,
1307
01:26:31,900 --> 01:26:33,902
and thinking about coming back to Memphis,
1308
01:26:33,986 --> 01:26:38,198
that the relationships that I built here,
1309
01:26:38,657 --> 01:26:40,993
even though I haven't
seen people in so long,
1310
01:26:41,076 --> 01:26:44,329
are some of the warmest things
that I can ever remember.
1311
01:26:44,413 --> 01:26:50,169
And these kind of relationships
are the things that are important in life.
1312
01:26:50,252 --> 01:26:52,838
And it is so good to see both of you.
1313
01:26:52,921 --> 01:26:57,551
And I just love the fact
that we were able to grow up together.
1314
01:26:59,219 --> 01:27:01,638
Dick, I'm gonna give you back this ball.
1315
01:27:02,306 --> 01:27:04,850
The first integrated
high school game in Memphis,
1316
01:27:04,933 --> 01:27:08,854
Catholic, 14, Father Bertrand, 7.
1317
01:27:08,937 --> 01:27:10,230
-There you go.
-Yeah.
1318
01:27:10,314 --> 01:27:11,899
-Thank you both so much.
-All right.
1319
01:27:11,982 --> 01:27:14,026
-Jeffery, man, good seeing you.
-Absolutely.
1320
01:27:14,651 --> 01:27:16,570
-Dick, thank you, brother.
-All right, buddy.
1321
01:27:20,949 --> 01:27:25,662
The promise of Brown,
what a lie that's turned out to be.
1322
01:27:28,207 --> 01:27:32,669
American schools today
are almost as segregated
1323
01:27:32,753 --> 01:27:35,255
as they were in the '50s.
1324
01:27:37,716 --> 01:27:43,263
This is the "victory" document
from the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
1325
01:27:43,889 --> 01:27:46,642
The document that was circulated
in the Black community
1326
01:27:46,725 --> 01:27:49,520
the night before the buses
were gonna be integrated,
1327
01:27:49,603 --> 01:27:52,898
a bus boycott that lasted
for more than a year,
1328
01:27:52,981 --> 01:27:56,401
where Black women
were going into white homes,
1329
01:27:56,485 --> 01:27:58,445
being maids in those homes,
1330
01:27:58,529 --> 01:28:01,448
and they were getting up
at 4 and 5:00 in the morning
1331
01:28:01,532 --> 01:28:03,158
to walk to those homes,
1332
01:28:03,242 --> 01:28:06,370
and then walk back to their homes
in the Black neighbourhoods,
1333
01:28:06,453 --> 01:28:09,248
and get there
maybe at 8:30, 9:00 at night,
1334
01:28:09,331 --> 01:28:12,042
try and feed their families,
try and take care of their families,
1335
01:28:12,125 --> 01:28:16,421
and then get up the next day,
and do it all over again for over a year.
1336
01:28:16,505 --> 01:28:20,217
And I get 15 minutes late to work,
and I get pissed off.
1337
01:28:23,345 --> 01:28:25,639
This is the victory document.
1338
01:28:26,598 --> 01:28:30,894
"The bus driver is in charge of the bus,
and has been instructed to obey the law.
1339
01:28:30,978 --> 01:28:35,357
Assume he will cooperate
in helping you occupy any vacant seat.
1340
01:28:35,440 --> 01:28:39,862
Do not deliberately sit by a white person
unless there is no other seat."
1341
01:28:39,945 --> 01:28:41,572
Where did this come from?
1342
01:28:41,655 --> 01:28:45,158
This is the difference that
every Black person in America knows.
1343
01:28:45,242 --> 01:28:47,995
It's the slip between the law and living.
1344
01:28:48,579 --> 01:28:52,165
Yeah, the law says you can ride that bus
and sit wherever you want,
1345
01:28:52,249 --> 01:28:54,960
but don't go
getting yourself killed over it.
1346
01:28:56,086 --> 01:28:58,589
"In case of an incident,
talk as little as possible,
1347
01:28:58,672 --> 01:29:01,675
and always in a quiet tone.
Do not get up from your seat.
1348
01:29:01,758 --> 01:29:04,094
Report all incidents to the bus driver."
1349
01:29:04,178 --> 01:29:08,098
"Talk as little as possible,
and always in a quiet tone."
1350
01:29:08,182 --> 01:29:10,392
Don't make white people uncomfortable,
1351
01:29:10,475 --> 01:29:13,770
because the cost of that
could be your life.
1352
01:29:14,563 --> 01:29:18,525
"If another person is being molested,
do not arise to go to his defence,
1353
01:29:18,609 --> 01:29:20,485
but pray for the oppressor...
1354
01:29:21,945 --> 01:29:26,450
and use moral and spiritual force
to carry on the struggle for justice."
1355
01:29:26,533 --> 01:29:29,077
And I don't know what to say
about that one,
1356
01:29:29,161 --> 01:29:33,749
and I definitely don't know
what to say about this one.
1357
01:29:34,917 --> 01:29:38,879
"If you feel you cannot take it,
walk for another week or two."
1358
01:29:40,422 --> 01:29:44,009
This is the difference between
the law and living...
1359
01:29:44,968 --> 01:29:46,929
when you're Black in America.
1360
01:29:58,357 --> 01:30:01,527
When was the last time
you were here in this temple?
1361
01:30:03,028 --> 01:30:04,238
Fifty years ago.
1362
01:30:06,281 --> 01:30:07,574
Larry's funeral.
1363
01:30:12,371 --> 01:30:16,834
I remember it was around 700 people here.
1364
01:30:16,917 --> 01:30:20,087
I mean, they was all outside,
it was packed.
1365
01:30:21,421 --> 01:30:24,716
And Larry was in a white casket.
1366
01:30:29,012 --> 01:30:33,183
And my mother and father
were standing at his casket.
1367
01:30:34,893 --> 01:30:36,979
And they was crying.
1368
01:30:46,780 --> 01:30:50,367
This is where the march started,
at Clayborn Temple,
1369
01:30:50,450 --> 01:30:52,244
and they marched downtown.
1370
01:30:55,122 --> 01:30:56,915
Larry and...
1371
01:30:58,041 --> 01:31:01,670
some more of his classmates
had left school,
1372
01:31:01,753 --> 01:31:05,716
because the school was
urging everybody to go down there.
1373
01:31:06,425 --> 01:31:10,846
And so him and some of his friends
had went down there.
1374
01:31:14,516 --> 01:31:19,188
What did your family hear about
what actually happened to Larry?
1375
01:31:20,022 --> 01:31:21,690
It was-- Witnesses.
1376
01:31:21,773 --> 01:31:23,609
I mean, a lot of witnesses at that time,
1377
01:31:23,692 --> 01:31:28,405
and they said that the officer,
Leslie Dean Jones,
1378
01:31:28,488 --> 01:31:30,490
he was running with a shotgun,
1379
01:31:30,574 --> 01:31:33,744
and Larry saw him
running with the shotgun.
1380
01:31:33,827 --> 01:31:37,539
So he ran in what they call
a boiler room,
1381
01:31:38,165 --> 01:31:40,167
and he ordered Larry to come out.
1382
01:31:41,210 --> 01:31:45,255
And Larry, he came out
with his hands in the air
1383
01:31:45,339 --> 01:31:46,882
and said, "Don't shoot."
1384
01:31:49,343 --> 01:31:53,430
He put the shotgun in his stomach,
and pulled the trigger...
1385
01:31:54,681 --> 01:31:56,517
at close range.
1386
01:31:58,310 --> 01:31:59,686
At close range.
1387
01:32:05,442 --> 01:32:07,736
My mother, she ran out the house,
1388
01:32:07,819 --> 01:32:09,321
she didn't have no shoes on,
1389
01:32:09,404 --> 01:32:12,616
and she reached to touch Larry,
1390
01:32:12,699 --> 01:32:15,744
and he put the barrel in her chest,
and told her to "Get back, nigger."
1391
01:32:17,788 --> 01:32:19,831
And she said, "That's my son."
1392
01:32:23,710 --> 01:32:27,005
When I got home,
my father, Mason Payne,
1393
01:32:27,089 --> 01:32:29,591
he was in the driveway, and he was crying.
1394
01:32:30,342 --> 01:32:32,427
And I said, "Dad, what's wrong?"
1395
01:32:32,511 --> 01:32:35,931
He said, "Larry gone. He won't be back.
1396
01:32:38,183 --> 01:32:39,351
He won't be back."
1397
01:32:43,939 --> 01:32:45,983
He was a young Black man...
1398
01:32:47,860 --> 01:32:49,570
in school and working.
1399
01:32:53,156 --> 01:32:55,242
He didn't have a chance to live his life.
1400
01:32:56,660 --> 01:32:59,913
Larry was murdered in cold blood
for no reason at all.
1401
01:33:03,125 --> 01:33:05,627
Devastated. We were devastated.
1402
01:33:05,711 --> 01:33:08,338
I mean, still going through it.
1403
01:33:09,047 --> 01:33:10,591
Still going through it.
1404
01:33:12,217 --> 01:33:14,845
Larry's gone,
but he will never be forgotten,
1405
01:33:15,387 --> 01:33:17,055
not by the Payne family.
1406
01:33:35,949 --> 01:33:40,204
But I must confess that
that dream that I had that day
1407
01:33:40,287 --> 01:33:44,124
has, in many points,
turned into a nightmare.
1408
01:33:44,208 --> 01:33:46,210
Now, I'm not one to lose hope.
1409
01:33:46,293 --> 01:33:48,545
I keep on hoping,
1410
01:33:48,629 --> 01:33:51,256
I still have faith in the future,
1411
01:33:51,340 --> 01:33:55,093
but I've had to analyse many things
over the last few years,
1412
01:33:55,177 --> 01:33:57,596
and I would say,
over the last few months,
1413
01:33:57,679 --> 01:34:01,517
I've gone through a lot of soul-searching
and agonising moments,
1414
01:34:02,017 --> 01:34:07,189
and I've come to see that we have
many more difficult days ahead,
1415
01:34:07,272 --> 01:34:11,485
and some of the old optimism
was a little superficial,
1416
01:34:11,568 --> 01:34:14,571
and now it must be tempered
with a solid realism.
1417
01:34:14,655 --> 01:34:20,202
And I think the realistic fact is
that we still have a long, long way to go.
1418
01:34:20,285 --> 01:34:24,581
I think the biggest problem now
is that we got our gains
1419
01:34:24,665 --> 01:34:28,043
over the last 12 years
at bargain rates, so to speak.
1420
01:34:28,126 --> 01:34:29,878
It didn't cost the nation anything.
1421
01:34:29,962 --> 01:34:32,631
In fact, it helped
the economic side of the nation
1422
01:34:32,714 --> 01:34:35,884
to integrate lunch counters
and public accommodations.
1423
01:34:35,968 --> 01:34:41,557
It didn't cost the nation anything
to get the right to vote established.
1424
01:34:42,057 --> 01:34:44,393
Now we are confronting issues
1425
01:34:44,935 --> 01:34:49,398
that cannot be solved without
costing the nation billions of dollars.
1426
01:34:49,481 --> 01:34:52,693
Now, I think this is where
we're getting our greatest resistance.
1427
01:34:52,776 --> 01:34:54,653
They may put it on many other things,
1428
01:34:54,736 --> 01:34:59,658
but we can't get rid of slums and poverty
without it costing the nation something.
1429
01:35:00,409 --> 01:35:02,452
A lot of people who want change,
1430
01:35:02,536 --> 01:35:05,664
they just don't want the change
to cost them anything,
1431
01:35:05,747 --> 01:35:10,085
or to require them to change anything
about the way that they're living.
1432
01:35:13,338 --> 01:35:16,258
Fifty years ago, this report came out.
1433
01:35:16,800 --> 01:35:19,386
It came out about three weeks
before King was killed
1434
01:35:19,469 --> 01:35:21,597
in my hometown of Memphis.
1435
01:35:22,347 --> 01:35:26,810
And these are the things that it said,
the basic conclusion of the Kerner Report:
1436
01:35:26,894 --> 01:35:29,062
"Our nation is moving
toward two societies,
1437
01:35:29,146 --> 01:35:32,774
one Black, one white,
separate, and unequal."
1438
01:35:32,858 --> 01:35:36,695
Folks, this is what
they're saying 50 years ago.
1439
01:35:36,778 --> 01:35:39,489
"The deepening racial divide
is not inevitable.
1440
01:35:39,573 --> 01:35:42,451
The movement apart can be reversed.
1441
01:35:42,534 --> 01:35:44,411
Choice is still possible.
1442
01:35:44,494 --> 01:35:47,080
Our principal task
is to define that choice,
1443
01:35:47,164 --> 01:35:49,750
and press for a national resolution.
1444
01:35:50,584 --> 01:35:52,252
To pursue our present course
1445
01:35:52,336 --> 01:35:56,924
will involve the continuing polarisation
of the American community
1446
01:35:57,007 --> 01:36:02,721
and ultimately the destruction
of basic democratic values."
1447
01:36:03,305 --> 01:36:05,057
Does that sound familiar?
1448
01:36:07,476 --> 01:36:10,020
"What white America
has never fully understood,
1449
01:36:10,103 --> 01:36:12,439
but what the Negro can never forget,
1450
01:36:12,523 --> 01:36:16,527
is that white society
is deeply implicated in the ghetto.
1451
01:36:16,610 --> 01:36:18,862
White institutions created it,
1452
01:36:18,946 --> 01:36:23,742
white institutions maintain,
and white society condones it."
1453
01:36:24,243 --> 01:36:26,411
This is 50 years ago,
1454
01:36:27,037 --> 01:36:30,624
and three weeks later,
that's what happened in my hometown.
1455
01:36:33,335 --> 01:36:38,423
King was killed on April 4th, 1968.
1456
01:36:39,383 --> 01:36:42,845
He was scheduled to give a speech
in a Memphis church
1457
01:36:43,595 --> 01:36:47,099
that Sunday, April 7, 1968.
1458
01:36:47,683 --> 01:36:52,187
This is the title of the speech
that was found among his papers
1459
01:36:52,271 --> 01:36:55,023
in the Lorraine Motel after he was killed.
1460
01:36:56,024 --> 01:36:58,402
I wonder what that speech
would have been like.
1461
01:37:10,372 --> 01:37:16,712
So in 1968, the Fair Housing Act
ended 34 years of legal redlining,
1462
01:37:17,254 --> 01:37:21,508
and what I wanna tell you
for a few minutes now is about luck.
1463
01:37:22,593 --> 01:37:24,887
Because if you look at this picture,
1464
01:37:24,970 --> 01:37:29,558
the guy on your left
with the little gangster lean
1465
01:37:29,641 --> 01:37:31,476
and the tilted hat, that's me.
1466
01:37:33,854 --> 01:37:37,482
The guy in the front with the hat
looking down at my younger sister
1467
01:37:37,566 --> 01:37:40,319
is my younger brother,
who's seated in the front audience.
1468
01:37:41,153 --> 01:37:43,989
And that's my father,
my older brother, and my younger sister.
1469
01:37:44,072 --> 01:37:48,660
That's the house we lived in
in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1962.
1470
01:37:48,744 --> 01:37:51,121
In an all-Black neighbourhood in Memphis.
1471
01:37:51,205 --> 01:37:53,999
And what happened in '68,
after King was killed,
1472
01:37:54,082 --> 01:37:57,336
is that there was a developer
who was essentially buying
1473
01:37:57,419 --> 01:37:59,004
all the houses in our neighbourhood.
1474
01:37:59,838 --> 01:38:02,174
Well, my dad wouldn't sell our house.
1475
01:38:02,883 --> 01:38:05,552
My dad and my mother
were converted Catholics,
1476
01:38:05,636 --> 01:38:07,679
and they wanted their kids
in Catholic school,
1477
01:38:07,763 --> 01:38:10,015
and that meant
schools in East Memphis,
1478
01:38:10,098 --> 01:38:12,518
and that meant
living in a white neighbourhood.
1479
01:38:12,601 --> 01:38:14,811
So my dad made a deal with the developer.
1480
01:38:14,895 --> 01:38:17,606
"You buy me a house,
and I'll give you my house."
1481
01:38:17,689 --> 01:38:18,941
We went looking at houses.
1482
01:38:19,024 --> 01:38:22,236
Every time we would look at a house,
we would offer the asking price,
1483
01:38:22,319 --> 01:38:24,530
and the house would get sold
by somebody else,
1484
01:38:24,613 --> 01:38:25,864
or "Another agent sold it,"
1485
01:38:25,948 --> 01:38:28,325
or "We lost the contract
when we went fishing
1486
01:38:28,408 --> 01:38:31,453
and it fell out of the boat,"
and all these excuses.
1487
01:38:32,287 --> 01:38:34,748
This is the house
that we ended up living in.
1488
01:38:35,332 --> 01:38:38,293
Four bedrooms,
two and a half bathrooms,
1489
01:38:38,377 --> 01:38:41,964
a quiet place for me and my brothers
and sisters to study,
1490
01:38:42,047 --> 01:38:43,549
a good school district,
1491
01:38:43,632 --> 01:38:48,887
all the things that Americans say
you need in order to be successful.
1492
01:38:50,097 --> 01:38:53,517
We went to look at this house
and offered the asking price,
1493
01:38:53,600 --> 01:38:56,520
and we had white friends of ours
go about a half an hour later,
1494
01:38:56,603 --> 01:38:59,356
and they offered less money,
and they sold it to them,
1495
01:38:59,439 --> 01:39:01,191
but they were buying it for us.
1496
01:39:08,782 --> 01:39:10,909
-This does bring back a lot of memories.
-Yeah.
1497
01:39:10,993 --> 01:39:14,746
-And it looks about the same as it was.
-It really does.
1498
01:39:14,830 --> 01:39:19,042
Maybe a little paint, but this is
pretty much how I remember it.
1499
01:39:19,793 --> 01:39:25,132
We moved into this house
after Dr King was killed in 1969.
1500
01:39:25,215 --> 01:39:30,596
And your family played a role
that I never quite understood
1501
01:39:30,679 --> 01:39:33,432
until you and I have just recently talked.
1502
01:39:33,515 --> 01:39:38,103
-Could you tell us about that?
-My mother-in-law was a realtor.
1503
01:39:38,187 --> 01:39:42,858
She was a 64-year-old Jewish woman
who had been born and raised in Memphis.
1504
01:39:42,941 --> 01:39:46,820
And so she agreed
to be your parents' realtor,
1505
01:39:46,904 --> 01:39:49,198
and she would show them houses,
1506
01:39:49,281 --> 01:39:51,491
and when they came
and saw this house,
1507
01:39:51,575 --> 01:39:52,951
it was a brand-new house.
1508
01:39:53,035 --> 01:39:55,329
The real estate agent came to the door,
1509
01:39:55,412 --> 01:39:58,790
and at first, I think she thought
my mother-in-law was the customer.
1510
01:39:58,874 --> 01:40:00,375
My mother-in-law gave her her card,
1511
01:40:00,459 --> 01:40:02,711
and when she realised it,
she said something,
1512
01:40:02,794 --> 01:40:04,880
and slammed the door in their face.
1513
01:40:05,631 --> 01:40:07,841
So by that time,
they'd seen so many houses,
1514
01:40:07,925 --> 01:40:10,552
they just said,
"We've got to find another way."
1515
01:40:10,636 --> 01:40:14,264
So then their friends,
Web and Pat Smith,
1516
01:40:14,348 --> 01:40:17,142
were the ones who bought the house,
1517
01:40:17,226 --> 01:40:20,020
and when they came
and the realtor saw them,
1518
01:40:20,103 --> 01:40:22,189
she was very excited and happy.
1519
01:40:22,272 --> 01:40:26,360
And so then they bought the house,
and transferred it to your parents.
1520
01:40:27,736 --> 01:40:33,784
And what I remember
is you and Andy, and my parents...
1521
01:40:33,867 --> 01:40:37,371
I have this memory of you guys
laughing in our living room,
1522
01:40:37,454 --> 01:40:39,790
and I knew it had something
to do with a house,
1523
01:40:39,873 --> 01:40:43,794
and I knew you and Andy
had helped us to get this house
1524
01:40:43,877 --> 01:40:47,464
and we couldn't talk about it
until we moved in
1525
01:40:47,548 --> 01:40:49,508
because my parents were concerned
1526
01:40:49,591 --> 01:40:51,677
that somebody would do
something to the house,
1527
01:40:51,760 --> 01:40:53,720
if they knew we were moving in.
1528
01:40:54,221 --> 01:40:55,514
But then after you moved in,
1529
01:40:55,597 --> 01:40:58,433
did you have much difficulty
in the neighbourhood?
1530
01:40:58,934 --> 01:41:02,479
I remember the first week
that we moved in,
1531
01:41:02,563 --> 01:41:05,315
my daddy sat
on the carport right here,
1532
01:41:05,399 --> 01:41:10,153
under the carport, in a lawn chair
with a shotgun across his lap.
1533
01:41:10,237 --> 01:41:13,282
And he would sit there
until early in the morning
1534
01:41:13,365 --> 01:41:16,493
because he was gonna be ready
if somebody came to the house.
1535
01:41:16,577 --> 01:41:17,661
I didn't realise that.
1536
01:41:17,744 --> 01:41:20,581
I remember it took a while
for people to get used to us living here.
1537
01:41:20,664 --> 01:41:24,293
The woman that lived right here
came over,
1538
01:41:24,376 --> 01:41:26,795
the day we moved in,
to the front door,
1539
01:41:26,879 --> 01:41:30,299
and she had a plate
of chocolate chip cookies.
1540
01:41:30,757 --> 01:41:32,759
And I am addicted
to chocolate chip cookies,
1541
01:41:32,843 --> 01:41:34,761
and I have been ever since I was a kid.
1542
01:41:34,845 --> 01:41:38,098
And she knocked on the door,
and my mom opened the door,
1543
01:41:38,182 --> 01:41:41,435
and I had run behind my mom,
just to see who it was.
1544
01:41:41,518 --> 01:41:44,605
And she said,
"May I speak to the lady of the house?"
1545
01:41:44,688 --> 01:41:46,899
And my mother said,
"You're looking at her."
1546
01:41:46,982 --> 01:41:50,360
And she just spun,
and walked back to the house.
1547
01:41:50,444 --> 01:41:54,448
-Taking the cookies with her.
-I was like, "Could I have one cookie?"
1548
01:42:09,838 --> 01:42:14,468
And so that was me and Herbert's room.
That was Teresa and Michelle.
1549
01:42:14,551 --> 01:42:16,261
And was that your room
or the bathroom?
1550
01:42:16,345 --> 01:42:19,389
-That's the bathroom, then my window...
-Your window faces that way.
1551
01:42:21,892 --> 01:42:25,062
The yard looks even a little bigger
than I remember.
1552
01:42:25,145 --> 01:42:27,397
I just remember it being huge...
1553
01:42:28,565 --> 01:42:32,194
and having to use those clippers
along the edges of the fence
1554
01:42:32,277 --> 01:42:37,157
to cut that grass
that he never could stand.
1555
01:42:37,241 --> 01:42:40,077
With all the shit we were taking
about moving in here,
1556
01:42:40,160 --> 01:42:43,580
he's like, you know,
"My yard will be the best yard."
1557
01:42:43,664 --> 01:42:45,123
-The showplace.
-Yeah.
1558
01:42:52,589 --> 01:42:57,636
There's a cemetery
right across the street, and I remember...
1559
01:42:59,555 --> 01:43:03,100
Soon after we moved in,
I was over there one night.
1560
01:43:03,183 --> 01:43:06,019
I'd just come out of the house,
I don't know what I was doing,
1561
01:43:06,103 --> 01:43:10,774
but I was sitting on the wall,
and a police car pulled up.
1562
01:43:10,858 --> 01:43:14,194
And the officers got out
and asked me who I was,
1563
01:43:14,278 --> 01:43:16,989
and they patted me down, and they said,
"Where do you live?"
1564
01:43:17,072 --> 01:43:19,950
I said, "I live right across the street.
I'm just hanging out here."
1565
01:43:20,033 --> 01:43:21,493
They said, "You don't live there."
1566
01:43:21,577 --> 01:43:24,204
And they brought me over here,
and of course,
1567
01:43:24,288 --> 01:43:26,081
Mommy answered the door, and they're like,
1568
01:43:26,164 --> 01:43:28,959
"Just wanted to bring your son home,
make sure he was safe."
1569
01:43:29,042 --> 01:43:32,838
I'm like, "No. They were saying
I didn't live here. Didn't believe me."
1570
01:43:33,797 --> 01:43:35,924
And then I remember Mommy
and Daddy always saying,
1571
01:43:36,008 --> 01:43:37,509
"Well, we don't have to move far.
1572
01:43:37,593 --> 01:43:40,179
We're just going right across the street."
1573
01:43:40,262 --> 01:43:43,182
So the cemetery across the street
is where they're both buried.
1574
01:43:53,192 --> 01:43:55,360
Shortly before my dad died,
1575
01:43:55,444 --> 01:44:01,700
he was asking whether he
and my mom made the right decision,
1576
01:44:01,783 --> 01:44:06,538
saying, "I know it was hard on you
and your brothers and sisters,
1577
01:44:06,622 --> 01:44:08,832
and living in that neighbourhood
had its challenges,
1578
01:44:08,916 --> 01:44:11,335
and maybe it wasn't the right decision."
1579
01:44:11,418 --> 01:44:16,381
And I don't know what would have happened
to my brothers
1580
01:44:17,132 --> 01:44:22,554
or my sisters
or me if we hadn't come here.
1581
01:44:24,765 --> 01:44:28,977
This is part of what made me who I am.
1582
01:44:35,234 --> 01:44:38,111
This is what luck looks like.
1583
01:44:39,321 --> 01:44:43,116
I have worked as hard
as anybody in this theatre
1584
01:44:43,200 --> 01:44:47,538
to get where I am today,
and I am proud of that.
1585
01:44:47,621 --> 01:44:49,581
But I am lucky.
1586
01:44:50,249 --> 01:44:53,585
I was not the smartest kid
in my neighbourhood,
1587
01:44:54,461 --> 01:44:58,674
and that ball that we saw rolling back
when King got shot,
1588
01:44:58,757 --> 01:45:01,426
the only reason
I didn't get crushed by that ball
1589
01:45:01,510 --> 01:45:04,388
is that I had unicorns for parents,
1590
01:45:04,471 --> 01:45:08,517
who figured out some way
to get their kids into a situation
1591
01:45:08,600 --> 01:45:10,602
where they had a better chance to succeed.
1592
01:45:10,686 --> 01:45:13,021
And if that's what it takes
1593
01:45:13,105 --> 01:45:15,774
to have a legitimate chance at success,
1594
01:45:15,858 --> 01:45:19,903
having unicorns for parents,
or just having dumb luck...
1595
01:45:21,154 --> 01:45:24,074
Is that really a country
that you want to live in?
1596
01:45:25,033 --> 01:45:27,035
And so when you hear words,
1597
01:45:27,119 --> 01:45:31,081
when you hear the concept
expressed of "white privilege,"
1598
01:45:31,164 --> 01:45:35,752
I am begging you to think about that
in a different way.
1599
01:45:35,836 --> 01:45:39,047
White privilege doesn't mean
that you haven't worked hard.
1600
01:45:39,131 --> 01:45:42,134
It doesn't mean that you haven't
overcome obstacles.
1601
01:45:42,217 --> 01:45:45,053
It means that you walk
through the world differently
1602
01:45:45,137 --> 01:45:48,223
than the Black and brown people
in this country.
1603
01:45:48,307 --> 01:45:53,103
It does not take away from your hard work
or your accomplishments at all.
1604
01:45:53,187 --> 01:45:57,232
It simply says
this playing field is not level.
1605
01:45:59,234 --> 01:46:02,988
And that's because racism
is more than just prejudice.
1606
01:46:03,071 --> 01:46:07,910
It is prejudice plus social power,
plus legal authority.
1607
01:46:07,993 --> 01:46:12,539
And Black and brown people
have never had the last two in America.
1608
01:46:12,623 --> 01:46:15,959
Not when we were brought here
as enslaved people,
1609
01:46:16,043 --> 01:46:18,253
not during the Civil Rights Movement,
1610
01:46:18,337 --> 01:46:21,673
and not while Barack Obama
was in the White House.
1611
01:46:24,927 --> 01:46:27,012
So, what did our prison population
look like
1612
01:46:27,095 --> 01:46:29,389
as we entered the Nixon years?
1613
01:46:29,473 --> 01:46:33,310
Looked like about that,
just under 400,000 people.
1614
01:46:34,728 --> 01:46:38,607
Here's what John Ehrlichman
had to say about Nixon's strategy.
1615
01:46:39,900 --> 01:46:41,443
"We knew we couldn't make it illegal
1616
01:46:41,527 --> 01:46:44,321
to be either against the war or Black,
1617
01:46:44,404 --> 01:46:47,616
but by getting the public
to associate the hippies with marijuana,
1618
01:46:47,699 --> 01:46:51,203
and Blacks with heroin,
and then criminalising both heavily,
1619
01:46:51,286 --> 01:46:52,955
we could disrupt those communities.
1620
01:46:53,038 --> 01:46:55,499
We could arrest their leaders,
raid their homes,
1621
01:46:55,582 --> 01:46:56,625
break up their meetings,
1622
01:46:56,708 --> 01:47:00,337
and vilify them night after night
on the evening news.
1623
01:47:00,420 --> 01:47:04,800
Did we know we were lying about the drugs?
Of course we did."
1624
01:47:04,883 --> 01:47:08,095
And when we hear, today, America say,
1625
01:47:08,178 --> 01:47:12,641
"My God, the opioid epidemic,
it's taking our children.
1626
01:47:12,724 --> 01:47:15,185
This is horrible. It's a medical issue.
1627
01:47:15,269 --> 01:47:18,355
We can't treat our children
as enemies in a war.
1628
01:47:18,438 --> 01:47:20,232
We have to help our children."
1629
01:47:20,315 --> 01:47:23,819
I'm not trying to be facetious
or to say that's not right.
1630
01:47:23,902 --> 01:47:25,153
Of course it's right.
1631
01:47:25,237 --> 01:47:27,531
But where was that sentiment
when crack cocaine
1632
01:47:27,614 --> 01:47:29,867
was destroying Black communities?
1633
01:47:33,912 --> 01:47:37,708
This is Bill Clinton
signing the 1994 Crime Bill,
1634
01:47:38,250 --> 01:47:41,587
a bill that did more damage
to racial justice
1635
01:47:41,670 --> 01:47:43,130
in the criminal legal system
1636
01:47:43,213 --> 01:47:46,175
than any bill that I can remember
in a long time.
1637
01:47:46,258 --> 01:47:49,303
This is not about Democrat or Republican.
1638
01:47:49,386 --> 01:47:51,638
This is about America.
1639
01:47:51,722 --> 01:47:54,474
Bill Clinton is saying,
"When I sign this Crime Bill,
1640
01:47:54,558 --> 01:47:56,643
we together are taking a big step
1641
01:47:56,727 --> 01:47:59,354
toward bringing the laws of our land
1642
01:47:59,438 --> 01:48:02,191
back into line
with the values of our people."
1643
01:48:02,274 --> 01:48:04,359
And he was speaking the truth,
1644
01:48:04,443 --> 01:48:07,321
because the values
that America has expressed
1645
01:48:07,404 --> 01:48:08,739
up to that point,
1646
01:48:08,822 --> 01:48:10,824
and with what that law did,
1647
01:48:10,908 --> 01:48:14,620
they were the values of mass incarceration
and white supremacy.
1648
01:48:18,207 --> 01:48:19,249
So, what happened?
1649
01:48:20,417 --> 01:48:21,877
That's what happened.
1650
01:48:24,046 --> 01:48:25,547
And it wasn't an accident.
1651
01:48:31,428 --> 01:48:32,638
And so here...
1652
01:48:33,555 --> 01:48:38,644
are pictures
of what I refer to as "snuff films,"
1653
01:48:38,727 --> 01:48:42,397
things that we have now
gotten used to seeing in America.
1654
01:48:42,481 --> 01:48:44,983
The killings of Black
and brown men and women.
1655
01:48:53,909 --> 01:48:56,328
The ten cities with the largest
police departments
1656
01:48:56,411 --> 01:49:02,417
collectively paid out $1.02 billion
1657
01:49:02,501 --> 01:49:06,630
between 2010 and 2015
in police misconduct cases,
1658
01:49:06,713 --> 01:49:08,799
which include alleged beatings,
1659
01:49:08,882 --> 01:49:11,176
shootings, and wrongful imprisonments.
1660
01:49:11,260 --> 01:49:17,099
You can't pay a billion dollars
for police misconduct,
1661
01:49:17,182 --> 01:49:19,142
and not have criminal activity.
1662
01:49:22,729 --> 01:49:27,276
So we now know that to some Americans,
Black Lives Matter is a hate group.
1663
01:49:29,695 --> 01:49:32,072
And what I would encourage you
to think about...
1664
01:49:34,283 --> 01:49:39,872
is that the things that they're saying
about Black Lives Matter activists today
1665
01:49:39,955 --> 01:49:41,874
are the exact same things they were saying
1666
01:49:41,957 --> 01:49:44,418
about Martin Luther King in the '60s.
1667
01:49:48,922 --> 01:49:55,304
Martin Luther King was arrested
30 times in 12 years.
1668
01:49:56,180 --> 01:49:59,308
We have a word for that.
It's called "thug."
1669
01:50:00,142 --> 01:50:03,770
That's what we refer to activists
today as, in America,
1670
01:50:03,854 --> 01:50:06,064
because they're in our face.
1671
01:50:06,148 --> 01:50:08,984
They're making us look at things
we don't want to look at.
1672
01:50:09,067 --> 01:50:11,987
They're interrupting our football games.
1673
01:50:14,114 --> 01:50:18,911
We've gotta give ourselves
to this struggle until the end.
1674
01:50:18,994 --> 01:50:22,831
Nothing would be more tragic than to stop,
1675
01:50:22,915 --> 01:50:25,709
at this point in Memphis.
1676
01:50:25,792 --> 01:50:27,461
We've gotta see it through.
1677
01:50:29,087 --> 01:50:30,339
America was at the point
1678
01:50:30,422 --> 01:50:33,008
where we were going to move
from who we were
1679
01:50:33,091 --> 01:50:36,345
to who we could be,
and who we always wanted to be.
1680
01:50:36,887 --> 01:50:40,474
And I remember thinking as a kid,
"Well, who's going to lead us now?"
1681
01:50:41,308 --> 01:50:44,645
The leader that was going to make
this movement go somewhere
1682
01:50:44,728 --> 01:50:46,271
had been taken away,
1683
01:50:46,355 --> 01:50:50,734
and I think that's a lesson
to be learned about this work,
1684
01:50:50,817 --> 01:50:54,780
and a lesson that the women
who established Black Lives Matter
1685
01:50:54,863 --> 01:50:56,365
have learned clearly:
1686
01:50:56,448 --> 01:51:00,202
You can't kill one person
and stop the Black Lives Matter movement.
1687
01:51:00,285 --> 01:51:03,497
And the three women that set it up
that way did it on purpose,
1688
01:51:03,580 --> 01:51:08,085
so that there would be leaders
in small communities all around America.
1689
01:51:09,461 --> 01:51:11,755
-Say his name!
-George Floyd.
1690
01:51:12,297 --> 01:51:14,716
-No justice.
-No peace.
1691
01:51:15,259 --> 01:51:19,263
You are seeing Black people,
brown people, white people,
1692
01:51:19,346 --> 01:51:23,058
people from every race in this country,
1693
01:51:23,141 --> 01:51:25,686
demonstrating together.
1694
01:51:25,769 --> 01:51:28,981
That has never happened before
1695
01:51:29,064 --> 01:51:31,567
on the scale
that it's happening right now.
1696
01:51:31,650 --> 01:51:33,485
-Say her name!
-Breonna Taylor!
1697
01:51:33,569 --> 01:51:39,032
The possibility of radical change
is in the air.
1698
01:51:39,700 --> 01:51:41,368
-Whose streets?
-Our streets!
1699
01:51:41,451 --> 01:51:42,828
-Whose streets?
-Our streets!
1700
01:51:42,911 --> 01:51:46,957
I want to tell you
why you were invited here tonight,
1701
01:51:47,749 --> 01:51:50,210
and it really comes down to this:
1702
01:51:50,294 --> 01:51:53,046
50 years from now, somebody,
1703
01:51:53,130 --> 01:51:55,424
maybe in an auditorium like this,
1704
01:51:55,507 --> 01:51:57,718
is going to be talking
to a group of people
1705
01:51:57,801 --> 01:52:01,054
about what happened in this generation.
1706
01:52:01,138 --> 01:52:05,726
Did we turn up the volume
on our videos and our TV
1707
01:52:05,809 --> 01:52:10,230
and just let that ball roll back,
like we have every single time
1708
01:52:10,314 --> 01:52:12,524
we've come to a tipping point?
1709
01:52:12,608 --> 01:52:16,653
Or did this generation
decide to do something different?
1710
01:52:16,737 --> 01:52:20,073
And I hope and expect that each one of you
1711
01:52:20,157 --> 01:52:24,286
will be out there with me
pushing that ball to a new direction.
1712
01:52:24,369 --> 01:52:26,538
Thank you very much and good night.
1713
01:53:35,315 --> 01:53:41,780
Well, I woke up this morning with my mind
1714
01:53:42,364 --> 01:53:48,328
Stayed on freedom
1715
01:53:48,954 --> 01:53:54,168
Woke up this morning with my mind
1716
01:53:54,793 --> 01:54:00,424
Stayed on freedom
1717
01:54:01,091 --> 01:54:06,847
Woke up this morning with my mind
1718
01:54:06,930 --> 01:54:11,977
Stayed on freedom
1719
01:54:12,060 --> 01:54:14,771
-Hallelu
-Hallelu
1720
01:54:14,855 --> 01:54:17,482
-Hallelu
-Hallelu
1721
01:54:17,566 --> 01:54:24,406
Hallelujah
1722
01:54:24,948 --> 01:54:27,117
Well, I'm walkin' and talkin'
1723
01:54:27,201 --> 01:54:32,623
With my mind stayed on freedom
1724
01:54:32,706 --> 01:54:35,667
Oh, yes, I'm walkin' and talkin'
With my mind
1725
01:54:35,751 --> 01:54:40,297
You know that it's stayed on freedom
1726
01:54:40,380 --> 01:54:43,342
I said, I'm walkin' and talkin'
With my mind
1727
01:54:43,425 --> 01:54:47,721
You know that it's stayed on freedom
1728
01:54:47,804 --> 01:54:49,806
-Hallelu
-Hallelu
1729
01:54:49,890 --> 01:54:51,725
-Hallelu
-Hallelu
1730
01:54:51,808 --> 01:54:55,562
Hallelujah
1731
01:54:55,646 --> 01:54:59,233
Oh, well, ain't no harm with your mind
1732
01:54:59,316 --> 01:55:03,278
Come on, now!
Stayed on freedom
1733
01:55:03,362 --> 01:55:06,073
Oh, no, there ain't no harm with your mind
1734
01:55:06,156 --> 01:55:09,368
You know it!
Stayed on freedom
1735
01:55:09,451 --> 01:55:11,328
You can sing along, now
1736
01:55:11,411 --> 01:55:13,705
Ain't no harm with your mind
1737
01:55:13,789 --> 01:55:18,168
You know it!
Stayed on freedom
1738
01:55:18,252 --> 01:55:20,003
-Hallelu
-Hallelu
1739
01:55:20,087 --> 01:55:21,964
-Hallelu
-Hallelu
1740
01:55:22,047 --> 01:55:24,675
Hallelujah
1741
01:55:24,758 --> 01:55:26,385
Come on and walk, now
1742
01:55:26,468 --> 01:55:29,346
Walk, walk, you better walk, walk
1743
01:55:29,429 --> 01:55:33,725
Come on and walk
Walk with your mind on freedom!
1744
01:55:33,809 --> 01:55:34,977
Walk, walk
1745
01:55:35,060 --> 01:55:36,687
Come on, now
Walk, walk
1746
01:55:36,770 --> 01:55:41,149
You better walk, walk
With your mind on freedom!
1747
01:55:41,233 --> 01:55:44,278
Oh, oh, oh
1748
01:55:44,361 --> 01:55:46,238
You better walk
1749
01:55:46,321 --> 01:55:48,156
Come on and walk
1750
01:55:48,240 --> 01:55:52,369
While I'm singing and shoutin'
With my mind, yeah
1751
01:55:52,452 --> 01:55:56,248
Stayed on freedom!
Are you stayed on freedom?
1752
01:55:56,331 --> 01:55:59,835
Singing and shoutin' with my mind, yeah
1753
01:55:59,918 --> 01:56:02,713
Stayed on freedom
1754
01:56:02,796 --> 01:56:05,924
You know, you're singing and shoutin'
With my mind
1755
01:56:06,008 --> 01:56:10,304
You know that!
Stayed on freedom
1756
01:56:10,387 --> 01:56:12,014
-Hallelu
-Hallelu
1757
01:56:12,097 --> 01:56:13,849
-Hallelu
-Hallelu
1758
01:56:13,932 --> 01:56:16,351
Hallelujah
1759
01:56:16,435 --> 01:56:17,352
Come on and sing!
1760
01:56:17,436 --> 01:56:19,354
-Hallelu
-Hallelu
1761
01:56:19,438 --> 01:56:21,231
-Hallelu
-Hallelu
1762
01:56:21,315 --> 01:56:23,775
Hallelujah
1763
01:56:23,859 --> 01:56:24,860
One more time!
1764
01:56:24,943 --> 01:56:26,695
-Hallelu
-Hallelu
1765
01:56:26,778 --> 01:56:28,697
-Hallelu
-Hallelu
1766
01:56:28,780 --> 01:56:35,787
Hallelujah