The New Mood

foreign is from net the national educational television network I am an invisible man no I'm not a spook like one of those who haunted Eddie Allen Poe no am I one of your Hollywood movie ectoplasms I'm a man of substance flesh and bone of fiber and liquids and I might even be said to possess a mind I'm invisible simply because people refuse to see me it is sometimes advantageous to be unseen although it is most often rather wearing on the nerves you wonder whether you aren't simply a phantom in other people's minds you ache with a need to convince yourself that you do exist in the real world those lines were written by the Negro novelist Ralph Ellison in the late 1940s and at that time the Negro was indeed The Invisible Man of American society present in body absent from America's consciousness yet the time was coming when Negroes would begin to emerge from the dark prison of their exile when the sights and sounds of the Negro protest would reverberate in the land many moods of protest from Martin Luther King to Malcolm X mirrored and often furthered by a Rising group of negro writers and Poets our program is the story of 10 years of events in the headlines from the Supreme Court segregation decision of 1954. to the civil rights law of 1964. 10 years two of reflection on those events together they make our story some of the Deeds the voices and the moods of a turbulent time [Music] foreign we were on a journey from the Shacks of the South and the ghettos of the North a feeling arose [Music] somehow there had to be a move into the mainstream of America crowded years ahead yet we felt deeply that we were on our way when did this feeling begin who can say for sure perhaps it began in the tired body of a negro woman who had taken one too many trips to the back of the bus or did it begin with the explosive Supreme Court decision of 1954. to separate young people from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and Minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone we conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of separate but equal has no place separate educational facilities are inherently unequal ity [Applause] [Music] I've come this far to Freedom and I won't turn back I'm climbing to the highway from my old dirt track I'm stretching and I'm growing and I'll reap what I've been sowing or my skin not black on December 5th 1955 many of Montgomery's buses were empty the result of a negro boycott that began when Rosa Parks made a momentous decision I work as a seamstress and Department stone on December 1st 1955 after working all day I was very tired I got the bus to go home and after I had taken a seat on the bus the driver demanded that I give this seat up for a white man I didn't feel that I was being treated as a human being I refused to give up this speed I said no and I wouldn't give it up whereas a majority of the Negro citizens of Montgomery Alabama have refrained from riding city buses since December 5th 1955 because of mistreatment be it therefore resolved that we the Negro citizens of Montgomery Alabama do now and will continue to carry on our Mass protest all in favor let it be known by standing on your feet for more than a year Montgomery's Negroes went to work in taxes carpools are on foot then on November 13 1956 the Supreme Court declared bus segregation unconstitutional the Jim Crow signs came down [Applause] [Music] [Applause] for the first time Montgomery's Negroes entered buses through the front door they could sit everywhere and they could sit alongside of whites what's happened to this town it was peaceful here we all got along we didn't have no trouble they had their ways we had ours and everything went along the way God intended now they tell us we've got to send our kids to school with [ __ ] why everybody knows that ain't gonna work [ __ ] can't learn like white folks three years after the Supreme Court decision in Little Rock Arkansas nine negro children left their families to attend Central High School fifteen-year-old Elizabeth eckford was one of them I caught the bus and I got off a block from the school I saw a large crowd of people standing across from a soldier's Garden Central then someone shouted here she comes get ready the crowd moved in close and they began to follow me calling me names then somebody started yelling lyncher lyncher no [ __ ] [ __ ] is going to get in our school get out of here I don't know why the bench seemed like a safe place to me but I don't think I could have gone another step someone hollered drag her over to this tree February 1st 1960 in Greensboro North Carolina negro students launched a movement that electrified the nation the sit-ins what college folks you've been knowing all your life you're almost afraid to hire them almost afraid to talk to them you don't know what they're thinking the South reacted violently but sit-ins were almost an immediate success hundreds of lunch counters hotels and theaters were desegregated and the sit-ins led to the freedom rides an attempt to break the back of segregation and transportation for the first time the federal government intervened as the non-violent protest movement was greeted with Savage violence crazy quickly you grab me pull me over a short rating under the pavement we'll take hitting we'll take beating we're willing to accept death but we're going to keep coming until we can ride from anywhere in the south to any place else we saw without anybody making any comments and just as American citizens in Alabama and to Mississippi it took the government and Federal Marshals to enforce the 1954 Supreme Court decision troops were brought in to protect Negroes who tried to get into segregated schools in 1956 authoring Lucy was admitted to the University of Alabama but was later expelled in 1961 Charlene Hunter and Hamilton Holmes applied for admission to the University of Georgia and in 1962 James Meredith assorted mission to the University of Mississippi kind of a lonely life for you despite all these people around you I've been living alone in life a long time go home now despite threats and violence Negroes did win entry into all white universities but up to 1964 only one percent of negro students went to integrated schools [Music] green and Nightmare nightmare dreams all screaming that the Negroes of the South have taken over in White pillared Mansions sitting on their wide Verandas wealthy Negroes have white servants and colored children have white mammoths dear dear darling old white mammons sometimes even buried with our family hand me my mint julep Mammoth make haste a parade Grand Marshal in his white suit will proceed it and behind will come with fan and drum on foot on foot on foot motorcycle cops white out of sight if they can solid black can't be right marching marching marching noon till night I never knew that many Negroes were on Earth did you I never knew parade a chance to let parade the whole world see parade oh black me Birmingham May 1963. 100 years after emancipation James Bowen wrote to his nephew dear James if the word integration means anything this is what it means that we with love shall Force our brothers to see themselves as they are to see spleen from reality and begin to change it for this is your home my friend do not be driven from [Applause] great men have done great things here and will again and we can make America what America must become it will be hard James but you come from sturdy peasant stuff men who pick cotton in damned rivers and built railroads and in the most terrifying odds achieved an assailable and Monumental dignity [Applause] don't shop for anything on Capitol Street let's let the merchants down on Capital Street feel the economic pinch let me say this to you I had one Merchant to call me and he said I want you to know that I've talked to my national office today and they want me to tell you that we don't need [ __ ] business June 1st 1963 Medgar Evers Secretary of the NAACP in Mississippi was selected by the New York Times as the man in the news and referred to as the quiet integrationist our relatives our neighbors not to trade at these stores now finally ladies and gentlemen and this is final we'll be demonstrating here until Freedom comes to Negroes here in Jackson Mississippi on June 12 1963 a sniper's bullet killed Medgar Evers [Applause] Medgar Evers once said it may sound funny but I love the song I don't choose to live anywhere else there's land here where man can raise cattle and I'm going to do that someday there's room here for my children to play and grow and become good citizens if the white man will only let them green [Music] and Nightmares we are confronted primarily with a moral issue it is as old as the scriptures and it is as clear as the American Constitution before President Kennedy sent to Congress the most sweeping civil rights legislation in history he spoke to the nation whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated if an American because his skin is dark cannot eat lunch in a restaurant open to the public if he cannot send his children to the best public school available if he cannot vote for the public officials who represent him if insured he cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want then who Among Us would be content we have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place who Among Us would then be content with the councils of patience and delay 100 Years of delay of past President Lincoln freed the slaves yep their heirs their grandsons are not fully free they are not yet freed from the bonds of Injustice they are not yet not yet freed from social and economic oppression and this nation for all its hopes and all exposed will not be fully free until all its citizens are free even though we Face the difficulties of today and tomorrow I still have a dream it is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up live out the true meaning of its Creed we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created August 28 1963 more than 200 000 people black and white marched on Washington for jobs and freedom for Negroes the nation had never seen anything like it where they will not be judged by the color of our skin but by the content of their character I have a dream I have a dream that one day in Alabama with its vicious races with its Governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification one day right bad in Alabama a little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers I have a dream to do we will be able to work together to pray together to struggle together to go to jail together to stand up for Freedom together knowing that we will be free one day this will be the day with all of God's children be able to sing with new meaning my country tearsity with land of liberty of Beyonce land where my father's side land of the Pilgrim's Pride from every Mountainside Let Freedom Ring and if Americans to be a great nation this must become true [Applause] [Music] [Applause] from every state in every city we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children black men and white men Jews and Gentiles Protestants and Catholics will be able to turn hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual free at last free at last thank God Almighty thank you what happens to a Dream Deferred I've lost so many I mean I want so many favors sometimes I think they're gonna drive me crazy see I'm 35 years old and I ain't got nothing I ain't gonna be nothing mama just look at it says look at me I'm looking at you and you're a good looking boy you got a jobifying wife or some job now I open and close car doors I drive a man around in his limousine and icing yes and no sir and should I take the driver mama daddy the job that is messing it off even if I can make you understand understand what baby well sometimes it's like I can see my future just stretched out in front of me my whole future a big blank empty space full of nothing just hanging at the edge of my days but it don't have to be sometimes when I'm downtown driving a man around we passed them cool quiet looking restaurants I look in see these white boys they sit talking talking about Deals Deals worth millions of dollars mama and half the time so now money is life Once Upon a Time Freedom used to be life but now it's money it was always money something's changed he was something new boy in my time we was worried about not being lynched in and getting to the north and how to stay alive and still have offensive dignity too now here come you and beneath us talking about things we ain't hard never thought about me and your daddy you ain't satisfied or probably nothing we've done I mean that you had a home and then we kept you out of trouble till he was grown and that you don't have to ride to work on the back of nobody's Street collar my children but how different we've become [Music] [Applause] what happens to a Dream Deferred does it dry up Like A Raisin in the Sun or Fester like a sore and then run does it stink like rotten meat crust and sugar over like a syrupy sweet maybe it just sags like a heavy load or does it explode [Music] explosive demonstrations Rock the north as well as the South as Negroes struggled for equal opportunities [Applause] yeah yeah um [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] greens and Nightmares nightmares and dreams by 1960 civil rights organizations turned their attack upon Southern voting practices from the north civil rights workers came down to assist and persuade Negroes who were afraid or indifferent to register the only way to to better your life the better it lies of your children to go down and ready to go united register to go to United first band citizens you like to go through both of these places no all right thank you very much by 1963 negro groups decided to make voting a major goal as late as 1961 only about 25 percent of negroes in the South could vote in 1964 it rolled to 40 percent on August 4th 1964 three civil rights workers Michael schwerner Andrew Goodman and James Chaney were found buried near Philadelphia Mississippi they had been shocked when I die I'm sure I will have a big funeral curiosity is eager coming to see if I am really dead or just trying to make trouble what Civil Rights Act is a challenge to all of us to go to work in our communities and our states in our homes and in our hearts July 2nd 1964. president Lyndon B Johnson signed the Civil Rights bill into law so tonight I urge every public official every religious leader every Business and Professional man every working man every housewife I urge every American to join in this effort to bring Justice and hope to all our people and to bring peace to our land [Music] if the word integration means anything this is what it means that we with love shall Force our brothers to see themselves as they are to cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it [Music] I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when 22 million Negroes of the United States are engaged in a creative battle to end a long night of racial Injustice the day of Ryan in the begin is outdated we gotta go out and get what we want it isn't until the very the so-called Beast of us is free but I'm free or for that matter any of us because if as human beings we cannot live in our country and be accepted as human beings and free citizens and something doesn't matter with something and it isn't me and we let them know that we ain't trading around like that song Jim sang we mean that we'll never turn back the history of the past decade ends as it began with a question where does the Revolution end the answer is of course that there are no convenient dates that Mark the beginning or the end of a period what seems to have started at Montgomery or with the Supreme Court decision did not really stop there nor did it end with the civil rights law of 1964 or Selma or what may happen tomorrow today America's Negroes are saying the same things they said 10 years ago or 100 years ago for that matter but something new has happened since 1954 for the first time the rest of America was listening [Music] no [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music]