YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → Mississippi A Self Portrait (1966)

Mississippi A Self Portrait (1966) — Transcript

by Real Black History · 6,947 words · 1,103 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:01Then one had a what you call a riding
0:04strap. He le and beat me in the face. He
0:07beat till he knocked me over.
0:11And then he jumped me back up on my
0:12knees and they said, "Now you'll tell
0:15the white man the truth." And he handed
0:18me a bottle of Castro
0:20and told me to drink every bit of it.
0:22And I drank it. And then that time one
0:24shoved a single bear gun across my nose.
0:27Let it lead right across there like that
0:29and say [ __ ] smell what you going to
0:32die of.
0:35And that time the other had to do a gun
0:37said get up on your feet. I stood up and
0:40looked him looked at the hood. I
0:42couldn't look him in the eyes. Just
0:44looked at the hood. He said [ __ ] run.
0:46And I took off and run and they shot
0:48right where they seen me last. They just
0:50empty guns right over my head and I was
0:52laying there. According to history, the
0:55clan saved the South.
0:58And I believe if it's to be saved again,
1:01that the clan will save it because we
1:04believe in calling a spade a spade,
1:06regardless of who it may hurt.
1:09The great majority of white people in
1:11this state
1:13uh disapprove of, abhore, saddened by
1:17these horrible crimes of violence that
1:19have taken place. However, I do not
1:21believe it is just to indict a whole
1:24people for the transgressions of a few.
1:28The men you have just seen are
1:30Mississippians speaking in Mississippi.
1:33One gave his view of the present and
1:35feels the state deserves some blame, but
1:37that indicting all its people is unjust.
1:40Another gave his view of the past and
1:41present and feels the clan is the savior
1:44of the south. The other, the Negro,
1:47expressed no view, merely recited how he
1:49was nearly murdered. Their statements
1:51form the first broad strokes in a
1:53self-portrait of Mississippi.
2:01[singing]
2:05[singing]
2:10[singing]
2:15Help me
2:19[singing]
2:23in the way. [singing]
2:39Mississippians say they are a
2:41god-fearing people and they mean it in
2:43the sense of the Old Testament. God is
2:45wrathful, but his son Jesus will
2:48intercede. They also believe the
2:50admonition of Moses. Be sure your sin
2:52will find you out. The sins of some have
2:55been washed up by the silent, sluggish
2:57waters of the rivers.
3:01This is the Talahhatchee. Emit Till, a
3:0415-year-old negro boy visiting from
3:06Chicago, whistled at a white woman. His
3:09body was found in the Talahhatchee,
3:11trusted with wire, and weighted down
3:12with a pulley from a cotton gin. Cotton
3:15and negroes, white fiber and black
3:18labor. Both have enriched the state and
3:20left a curse upon it.
3:24Mississippi is not all cotton land. Much
3:26of it is rolling sandy clay hills
3:28covered with longleaf pine.
3:30Mississippians call these piny woods.
3:32The sun broils the sap in the trees and
3:34the air reeks with resin.
3:41Near the town of Popularville is the
3:43Wolf River. It's beautiful. Marter's
3:46body was found here. He was a negro
3:49accused of rape. He was not tried or
3:51convicted. He was lynched.
4:03Cool rivers, stands of fragrant pines,
4:06and the long hot summer.
4:10More recently, fires have flared in the
4:12piny woods, not from trees, but from
4:14negro churches.
4:16Friendship,
4:18Society Hill,
4:20Mount Zion. There were 38 of them.
4:30And of more infamous memory, Nishoba
4:32County. Not long ago, three civil rights
4:35workers were killed by a lynch mob.
4:37Their bodies were concealed in the clay
4:39embankment of this pond.
4:44These are but recent examples. Violence
4:47practiced and threatened has been at the
4:48surface of life in Mississippi for more
4:50than a hundred years. Violence has ebbed
4:53and flowed in keeping with the rise and
4:55fall of efforts to change the life of
4:56the Negro. In denying change for the
4:59Negro, Mississippians have denied change
5:01for themselves. Individual growth and
5:04development have been curbed.
5:06The state has become increasingly
5:08isolated. The society increasingly
5:10ingrown. Inevitably, the people have
5:13felt increasingly misunderstood and
5:14abused. What manner of people are
5:17Mississippians?
5:20As we come to thee this evening,
5:22heavenly father, we come to thee as
5:24needy creatures.
5:26Put race aside, and most Mississippian
5:28are humble, gentle, charming, courteous,
5:32hospitable, and humorous people.
5:35The summer is ended.
5:38The harvest is passed, they said, and we
5:42are still lost. We haven't been saved.
5:45Add race. And many Mississippians become
5:48fearful and sense doom in the future.
5:50They feel they are surrounded by negroes
5:53used as unwitting instruments by
5:55outsiders who do not realize they are
5:57being used in a larger plot to weaken
5:59the white race and destroy America. And
6:02as I lift up my eyes, I notice one of
6:05the signs that says in the background,
6:09"Wake up or be buried." The Bible says
6:14they see themselves as the last
6:16defenders of Western civilization.
6:18These are some of the attitudes we found
6:20in traveling the length and breadth of
6:22the state for 3 months, filming and
6:24recording.
6:25Compass about.
6:28This is Greenwood, a town that has
6:30remained rigid on race relations.
6:31Negroes outnumber whites 3 to2 in
6:33Greenwood. It's a cotton town in the
6:35heart of the Delta, and there's been
6:36trouble here. EMTT Till was murdered in
6:38the environs of [music] Greenwood.
6:43And living now in Greenwood is Byron
6:45Delay Beckwith, twice tried, not
6:47convicted, of the murder of Negro Leader
6:49Megar Evers.
6:53This is Carnagio's restaurant. Gathered
6:55here are five men representative leaders
6:58who speak for Greenwood. They voice the
7:00orthodox liturgy. Hardy lot the attorney
7:03who defended delay Beckwith
7:05stories about the south and keeping up.
7:06Mayor Charles Samson
7:08I'd estimate that about
7:09Noel Davis, Stanley Sanders, Robert
7:13Windgate
7:14puzzles me and it has all of my life and
7:18that is the fact that people in other
7:20sections of the country are thoroughly
7:23convinced that we are prejudiced against
7:25color people on account of the color of
7:27their skin.
7:28I think you're absolutely right. As a
7:30matter of fact, there's a very warm
7:31feeling on the part of most southerners
7:33toward the
7:34This is a private club. Greenwood
7:36avoided integrating its public
7:37accommodations by converting public
7:39eating places into private clubs for
7:41whites only. No negroes enter here
7:44except as servants. It still exists
7:47before the social security system
7:48existed uh was set up by the federal
7:51government when a plantation owner had a
7:54colored person who had worked for him
7:56for a number of years and had gotten too
7:58old to put in a day in the field. He
8:00didn't run him off. He didn't fire him.
8:02He left him with a home. He gave him
8:04food. He gave him clothes and he gave
8:07him a place to live his life out in
8:09peace and contentment.
8:11Oh yes instances where these older
8:14colored people are still living on
8:15plantations charge no rent. They do no
8:18field work or no other kind of work. Uh
8:20they're still looked after, carried to
8:22the hospital and uh helped out in many
8:26ways.
8:26And we wouldn't do that if we didn't
8:28like them. But what they would come back
8:30with uh always and say if that's true
8:34and you're not prejudiced against them
8:37uh why do you want to keep your separate
8:39schools? Uh isn't that prejudice? Of
8:43course it's not. It's difficult for me
8:46to believe that the American people
8:47being that we know but we're part of
8:49them being fair-minded people would want
8:52to impose upon any area of this nation a
8:55situation in which illiterates
8:58would be allowed to vote. That's true.
9:01You can build the schools as we have and
9:04provide the teachers
9:06but you can't go down and get them by
9:07the neck and make them absorb an
9:09education. That's something they have to
9:10do for themselves.
9:12uh it's difficult for me to understand
9:14why the entire country is so intent on
9:17integrating our schools.
9:19I think that they feel like we do not
9:21have adequate schools for the for our
9:24colored children. And I think that it
9:26would change considerably the national
9:29attitude if people could come in and see
9:32our colored school.
9:34Many negro schools do look adequate.
9:36It's also true many were built belatedly
9:38to give equal facilities in a vain
9:40effort to keep separate facilities.
9:42Josephine Haxton gives an unorthodox
9:44view.
9:45I don't know a great deal about the
9:47Negro school system just because per
9:50force white people don't know too much
9:52about the life of Negroes in the towns
9:53they live in. The problem of getting
9:56qualified Negro teacher teachers in the
9:58Negro school systems I understand is
10:01very hard. Probably the Negro student
10:04who graduates from the best Negro high
10:08schools in the state doesn't have as
10:10good an education as a white child in
10:13comparable school simply because the
10:14teachers are not as good because he has
10:17been raised in an in a deprived
10:19environment and he hasn't had as much to
10:22bring to his education.
10:26We know the colored people so well. And
10:29knowing the colored people here, now I'm
10:31not talking about somewhere else. I'm
10:33talking about here in Mississippi. Uh
10:35it's not going to be good for them. The
10:37average colored child is not going to
10:39keep up with the average white child uh
10:42in an integrated school and it's going
10:44to give them an inferior uh feeling of
10:46inferiority and it's not going to be
10:48good for them at all.
10:50Correct.
10:52Well, we have we have in in Greenwood, I
10:54think we have wonderful relations with
10:56our colored people. It has been
10:58demonstrated through the years in all
11:00the businesses type of businesses. The
11:02colored people are very happy, extremely
11:05happy in in Mississippi. And I think
11:08they feel just as warmly toward us.
11:09That's fact. Do you know anybody
11:11disagrees with that?
11:14This is Booker Wright. The white men
11:16we've just seen and heard think he's a
11:18hardworking, carefree negro. But what
11:21does he think? He has his own place in
11:23the Negro district where he works by
11:25day.
11:26But at night, he waits on white folks.
11:29He tells how an evening goes with white
11:31folks who say they know him so well.
11:34Glad to see y'all. We don't have a
11:36written menu. I'll be glad to tell you
11:37what we're going to serve tonight.
11:39Everything we serve is alikot. We have
11:40fresh shrimp cocktail, lusc shrimp,
11:42fresh orchard on the half shell, baked
11:44oyster, oyster, Rockefeller, oyster,
11:46armadine, stewed oysters, fried oyster,
11:48Spanish mro, watson solan steak, club
11:50steak, t-bone steak, pa house steak, ri
11:52steak, lusco special steak, broad
11:54mushroom, flavor of garlic, tank
11:55spaghetti, meatballs, soft shell crab,
11:57French fried onion, golden brown donut
11:59style. Best food in the world is served
12:00to the lusco.
12:02Now that's what my customers I say my
12:05customers be expecting of me. When I
12:07come in, this way want me dressed.
12:10Booker, tell my people what you got.
12:12Some people are nice, some is not. Some
12:15call me Booker, some call me John, some
12:17call me Jim, some call me [ __ ] All
12:20that hurts, but you have to smile. If
12:23you don't, what's wrong with you? Why
12:25you not smiling? Get over there and get
12:27me so and so and so and so. There are
12:28some nice people. Don't talk to Booker
12:30like that. His name is Booker. Then I
12:32got some more people come in real nice.
12:34How you do, waiter? What's your name?
12:36Then I take care of S so good and I keep
12:38that smile. Always learn to smile. The
12:41meaner the man be, the more you smile.
12:43Although you crying on the inside. Are
12:45you wondering what else can I do?
12:46Sometime you tip you sometime you say
12:49I'm not going to tip that [ __ ] You
12:50don't look for no tip. Yes sir. Thank
12:52you. What did you say? Come back. Be
12:55glad I take care of you. Don't talk to
12:56him like that. That's a good [ __ ]
12:58That's my [ __ ] Oh yes sir, boss. I'm
13:00your [ __ ] I'm trying to make a living.
13:03Why? I got three children. I want them
13:05to get an education. I wasn't fortunate
13:07enough to get an education, but I want
13:08them to get it. And they are doing good.
13:10Night after night, I lay down and I
13:12dream about what I had to go through
13:14with. I don't want my children have to
13:15go through with it. I want them to be
13:17able to get the job that they be
13:18qualified for. That's what I'm
13:20struggling. I don't want this and I
13:22don't want that, but I just don't want
13:24my children have to go through what I go
13:25through with. Hey, tell that [ __ ] hurry
13:26with that coffee. I'm on my way. So,
13:29that's what you have to go through with.
13:31But remember, you have to keep that
13:32smile.
13:38Now what happened to us here in
13:39Mississippi, it happened all over over
13:41the south and that is up until 1954.
13:46There was no great outcry from the
13:48intellectuals uh from the teachers from
13:51the columnists about the immorality of
13:54this type of social structure.
13:56Then all of a sudden in 1954, this
13:59decision
14:01uh not only changed the whole concept of
14:04of uh the social order, but in effect
14:07what it said was that we had been living
14:09in sin for low these many years
14:13and that this thing became really a
14:15moral issue.
14:18Now this this was quite a traumatic
14:20experience for us in the south and I
14:22think it was for the rest of the nation.
14:25uh to be told all of a sudden that what
14:29you've been doing and what you've been
14:31believing in the way you've been living
14:34all your life uh and the way your
14:36parents live before you and your
14:39forebears
14:40is not only wrong but immoral is is
14:44quite a is quite a shock and therefore
14:48it's it's it's easy to understand why
14:50the the attitude of the white people in
14:54Mississippi to this new order of the
14:56day, this new change was one of uh
15:00inflexibility and one of defiance.
15:03And how can you look in these stripes of
15:05red and this flag knowing very well that
15:08your forefathers, yes, yours, not mine,
15:11yours, all of them,
15:13that that stripe represents that blood
15:16that they spilled on this soil, American
15:18soil, something that you have never had
15:20to do to give you this God-given right
15:24of racial purity and a heritage.
15:26[applause]
15:36Racial purity, southern heritage.
15:38[music] There are no more enduring
15:40beliefs in Mississippi than those
15:41arising from a romanticized version of
15:44plantation life. [music] As told and
15:46retold since the Civil War, it was an
15:48idyllic existence, a perfectly ordered
15:50society. [music]
15:51Happy Negroes worked in the fields,
15:53devoted to their white masters who ruled
15:55the plantations, [music] and cotton was
15:57king. Some remnants remain. This is
16:00Waverly.
16:02[music]
16:04This was a center of hospitality in this
16:06part of Mississippi and of course was
16:08[music] built chiefly with slave labor
16:10and is a beautiful historical landmark.
16:14[music] Colonel Young came here from
16:16Georgia and built the house. He made his
16:19money in cotton land and owned near a
16:22thousand slaves. In those days, of
16:24course, all the cotton money was clear
16:26[music]
16:27because uh he owned his labor.
16:29All slave societies from Greece [music]
16:32to the American South generated fears.
16:35But in the south of that day, it was not
16:37fear [music] of race mixing. It was fear
16:39of slave insurrection.
16:42Fear of the overthrow of a life so rich
16:44it fostered guilt. [music]
16:46They had many lovely weddings at
16:48Waverly.
16:51Colonel Young had four daughters.
16:53Each of those were married in Wavely.
16:55[music]
16:57They came down with all the grace of an
16:59antibbellum lady [music]
17:01down the four twin circular stairwells
17:03down to the U [music]
17:05hall and into the wedding alcove which
17:07he had built for his daughter's wedding
17:09ceremonies.
17:11[music]
17:13But it ended in the process of saving
17:16the union. Slavery [music] was
17:18abolished. The planter aristocracy was
17:20destroyed.
17:23The planters, the [music] natural
17:25leaders of the South, were denied
17:26positions of leadership in the immediate
17:28post-war period. [music] Leadership
17:31passed to the poor whites. Their fears
17:33of race mixing, arising in part from
17:36personal guilt, became [music] public
17:37racial policy. Planters whipped slaves
17:40to ensure obedience. Poor [music] whites
17:43lynch negroes to ensure racial purity.
17:47Protect southern womanhood.
17:50They do it in the name of southern
17:52heritage.
17:53And again, how can you look upon the
17:55white of this flag which represents the
17:57purity and the chastity of womanhood,
18:00not realizing the turmoils of sacrifice
18:04to give this beloved mother, this sister
18:07and this daughter this sanctuary and
18:08this purity and this protection.
18:11So the lost cause of the Confederate
18:13aristocracy has been perverted into the
18:16basist kind of human fear. I think that
18:19one thought this back in the white
18:21person's mind that the close
18:23relationship or connection or
18:25companionship that might result from
18:28things such as going to the same
18:29swimming pool or going to school
18:30together
18:32and going to dances and participating in
18:36school activities that extra school
18:38activities I should say will inevitably
18:42lead to to much intermarriage and much
18:44social mixing and with an amalgamation
18:48and a mongolization of the races. And uh
18:52I would be less than frank if I didn't
18:54say that that is the one end result that
18:59the white person in the south most fears
19:03and that is the reason why he most
19:07strongly resists the
19:10movement that's going on now because he
19:13sees it as a mortal danger to his
19:16civilization.
19:19This fear requires that the negro
19:21[music] be denied advancement. The fear
19:23is that any forward move will lead by
19:25fearful extension to mongrelizing the
19:27races. Socially, economically, the negro
19:30has stagnated [music] for 150 years.
19:34But while the social order held, the
19:36economic order was changing. [music]
19:41Machines have provided even cheaper
19:43labor than negro hands.
19:45It used to be that we had to rely almost
19:48entirely on hand labor and now the need
19:51for this type labor is gradually phasing
19:53out. So that we have a a large segment
19:56of our negro population
19:58who really do not have a a ready market
20:02for their labor for their services. For
20:04instance, on on my own plantation, we
20:07have about 24 families who are living
20:11there. Many of them were born there.
20:13They raised their families there.
20:15we actually no longer need them in our
20:17operation. But I think quite obviously
20:19someone who has been born in a place and
20:22has worked for you or your family for a
20:26generation or two that they can't be
20:29asked to move on. Uh these people
20:32present a real economic problem to to uh
20:35not only to the whole state but
20:37particularly to our area. [music]
20:41The personal concern of nearly all
20:43Mississippians for individual Negroes
20:45[music] is genuine. It's warm and deep.
20:48They feel a responsibility for the
20:49welfare of Negroes they know care for
20:52them in illness and distress often
20:54intercede for them in minor brushes with
20:56the law. It's paternalism [music]
20:58tinged with guilt an outgrowth of the
21:00slave master relationship requiring
21:03subservience of the negro. A plantation
21:06manager insisted [music] we bring
21:07cameras and microphones into the homes
21:09of his negro field hands so all could
21:11see and he hoped finally understand.
21:14I'll show you some that it started out
21:17with just one mule and he's in good
21:19shape has a bank account and I can show
21:21you some been here with me 23 years in
21:23the same shape he was 23 years ago. Now,
21:26this across the road over here is the
21:29one that you going to see. That's
21:32absolutely a good tenant. And I'm glad
21:35you came down and I like to show him to
21:36you. Mo Stewart has been here for 30
21:39years or more and has lived well and and
21:42has plenty and he's he's a taxpayer. He
21:45pays income tax. Most of these men want
21:48to look through your house. I want
21:50Come right in.
21:50And Mo Stewart.
21:52Yes, sir. Come right in.
21:53Which one room you want to go in this
21:55room for? Well, you can just go right in
21:56here.
21:59Just come right in.
22:00Come right on in. Now, y'all see inside.
22:04Sit up. Shut up.
22:05Yeah. Yeah.
22:08Come on in. We want to show you through
22:09the house.
22:11Mo. This is Mo's mother right here. She
22:14doesn't pick cotton. She getting too
22:16old.
22:18We're going back through here. And Mo's
22:21fixed up with knife. We're going to fix
22:23them up a little more though.
22:25and a good worker. This another one of
22:28his bedroom and utility kind of oatmeal
22:32stuff you have put away for when that
22:35you put away through the winter time. He
22:37he put this in in the winter but wife
22:40cooked some pies yesterday and they put
22:42those in there.
22:43My mother cooked them. My wife she's
22:45gone.
22:45Wife's gone. I talk loud enough.
22:49Uh we we uh trying to show these people
22:54uh how you can live if you work for it.
22:56Yes.
22:57And I think you work for yours.
22:59Yes.
23:00And we want to keep the locker full.
23:03We're going to put the bathroom in here.
23:04Yes.
23:05And uh we we're going to put them in all
23:07the houses that are like this. But we
23:10putting them in every deserving tenant.
23:12We're going to do that.
23:13Yes. But we can't do it to some because
23:16if they if they come up lick log like
23:18you and and these others I mentioned
23:21then we can always fix them up. We we've
23:24never denied you anything have.
23:26Yeah. No.
23:27When do you ever ask me anything?
23:29I you never have denied me because I
23:31always would try to
23:33advantage. Yeah. And and I have plenty
23:36more in the place that I don't deny but
23:38there are some that I just can't go too
23:41far with because they're not deserve. In
23:43other words,
23:43yes.
23:44And Mo know them all. He visited them
23:46and they we've got homes there as nice
23:49as these.
23:50Yes.
23:50And but we have some that not because
23:53they don't take advantage of it as most
23:56folks say at this point.
23:58And I just want to show you the house
23:59right here. The difference. I want to
24:01show you the contrast in the the good
24:05tenant and the one that doesn't stay at
24:07home and take care of his family. Good
24:09worker, but he just doesn't take care of
24:11his family. I want to show you inside
24:12the house. You You see that? Won't even
24:15nail. You won't even put a nail in
24:17anything. Now you see it won't even put
24:19a nail in that. And you let it fall down
24:21before you put it in there. He pull it
24:23out, but he won't put it back. Just
24:25won't take care. It won't stay at home
24:27long enough to tend anything. I want to
24:28carry inside the house and show you
24:31inside, too. Luella,
24:34we come out here. I want to show them
24:35inside your house. And
24:38how you this morning?
24:39All right. How you doing? All right. Uh,
24:42one of them is show them the difference
24:43in the house over here in your house.
24:45And I just like for them to hear you
24:49said just why you you don't have the
24:51chickens and holes and cows and and the
24:53yard and the butane gas and and things
24:58like that that the others have. Now you
25:01just tell them your own wood.
25:02Well, reading that thing don't, you
25:04know, be in good shape like the rest of
25:06them. just don't stay at home to help me
25:11just and I stay here do the very best
25:13that I can. I have desire to have holes
25:17chicken
25:19and gas what I
25:21Well, you have
25:22convenient convenient to my home but I
25:25just don't have my husband just don't
25:26have he don't have the mind to help me.
25:29You've been under me I'd say close to 30
25:33years.
25:33Yes.
25:34But I knew your dad and
25:35Yes. And I've been trying to Have I ever
25:38tried to help you?
25:39Yes, you really try to help. You believe
25:41in folks trying to have something if you
25:43will.
25:44I You can tell them about whether I
25:46instruct you right or not, can't you?
25:50And you tell them about how how well
25:52what I do about trying to get your your
25:55your men folks to help you.
25:57Yes, sir. Sure.
26:00I think we're going to have to bear down
26:01a little harder.
26:02Yes, sir. That's right.
26:08I think Mississippi has done wonders
26:11with our race relations. I think it has
26:14been a marvelous thing that our negro
26:16have come as far as they have and I feel
26:18no sense of guilt and I do not feel that
26:21we need to apologize for what we have
26:23done for them. Now I feel that God had a
26:25purpose in creating the races
26:28separately. I am so proud of Negres who
26:31are proud of being [ __ ] They are what
26:33God made them. And I'm proud of being
26:36white because I am what my white race
26:39has made me. I'm white today because my
26:42parents practiced segregation.
26:45And I wouldn't be anything but white.
26:47And I love negres.
26:50I remember
26:51her name is Mary Kaine. She's editor of
26:53the Mississippi newspaper The Summit
26:55Sun, published in Pike County, an area
26:57of racial violence. Her voice is
26:59important. It's heard throughout
27:01Mississippi. Counseling against change,
27:03praising the present.
27:06In Mississippi, we have any number of
27:08negra craftsmen. We have untold hundreds
27:11of unskilled workers and domestic
27:13helpers. We have 122 Negraowned funeral
27:18homes, 60 negra doctors, 16 negraowned
27:22drugstores, 200 negraowned beauty
27:25parlorers and barber shops, nine negra
27:28lawyers. The number may have gone up
27:29since I had these statistics,
27:31but as a whole people and we might as
27:33well admit a few things about these
27:36facts that we know uh to wit even now
27:39the negro schools in this state turn out
27:41inferior products because the inferior
27:43because they're inferior schools to a
27:45large degree. Now
27:46you know we had a defensible position we
27:49decide the Supreme Court decision of I
27:52think it's 54.
27:54We had separate but equal
27:57doctrine civil war up to that point up
28:01by the Supreme Court.
28:02We had our way.
28:03What did we do? For every $100 we spent
28:06on education, we spent $98 on the white
28:09man's education and $2 on the [ __ ]
28:11But these two are Mississippi voices
28:14recognizing the present counseling
28:16change. This is Eat Place in Greenville.
28:20It's not private. Negroes who can afford
28:22to may eat here. In Greenville,
28:25Mississippians are discussing race
28:27problems with an easy frankness, an
28:29openness that did not come about by
28:31chance.
28:33For a lifetime, as editor of the Delta
28:35Democrat Times, Hutting Carter Senior
28:38has campaigned for a democratic way of
28:40life in his state. His paper has spoken
28:42out against violence, against the
28:44corruption of law enforcement officers,
28:46in favor of fair treatment for the
28:48Negro. The Negro today is unre as
28:52unrecognizable
28:54as the south at large from the Negro of
28:5750 years ago. And this militancy while
29:02it does not win friends for him in the
29:04south, it does influence a lot of
29:07people. And we know now that the
29:11southern negro, the American negro is
29:14not going to give up this quest.
29:17He has economics on his side in the long
29:19run and he has the federal government on
29:22his side in both the short run and the
29:24long run. There's still something else
29:27that I believe is spiritually
29:30meaningful and that is the new mood of
29:34self-examination
29:36that you can find among many
29:38Southerners.
29:42You find southerners today looking at
29:45themselves and at the people around them
29:47and saying, "Well, this isn't right."
29:49They're not saying it loudly. This is
29:51not a majority voice yet, but these
29:53things are being said. They're being
29:55said in my town. They're being said by
29:57someone in every town in Mississippi.
30:00We still haven't gotten over the
30:01attitude of the Civil War. Our
30:04generation has inherited such a
30:05tremendous problem, of course, the
30:07generation that preceded us did nothing.
30:10They didn't educate these people. They
30:12didn't even provide them with school. It
30:14can't of course be said. And the schools
30:16have been built in Mississippi actually
30:20just since the Second World War.
30:22It seems to me the beginning of the
30:25solution of our difficulties is
30:26recognizing the fact that the Negro is a
30:29full citizen and making it possible for
30:31him to be a full citizen with the rights
30:33and the responsibilities of citizenship.
30:36and that that's what we're trying to
30:37work toward in green.
30:39In comparison, the change in Mississippi
30:41is slow, but it is change here, not
30:44outside, that will make the lives of all
30:46its people better. And the change is
30:49painful, calling for a deeper
30:51self-examination than most of us will
30:53ever know.
30:55I've lived in this delta all my life. My
30:58parents before me, my grandparents,
31:01I've hunted and fished this land since I
31:04was a child.
31:06This land is composed of two different
31:10cultures, a white culture and a colored
31:13culture. And I've lived close to them
31:16all my life.
31:18But I'm told now that we've mistreated
31:20them and that we must change. And these
31:23changes are coming faster than I
31:25expected.
31:27And I'm required to make decisions
31:32on a basis of
31:34a new way of thinking. And it's
31:36difficult. It's difficult for me. It's
31:39difficult for all southerners.
31:43An example, uh recently after church, I
31:47went to my favorite inn for dinner. I
31:51was met at the restaurant door by a
31:53waitress and she said, "Mabry, uh, you
31:55better not come in today. The [ __ ]
31:58are here." I went anyway, and why
32:01shouldn't I? I had known them all my
32:05life. They' nourished me. I had eaten
32:08the food that they had prepared. They
32:11had helped raise my children. They had
32:14raised me. I could see no harm in that.
32:18I still don't. There are some facets
32:22though of integration as such that I'm
32:26opposed to.
32:28I'm I'm still opposed to integration of
32:32schools particularly on a grade school
32:35level.
32:37These children of grade school level
32:40know all about life. They know more
32:43about the senior side of life, sex, than
32:48most white high school children.
32:52And I think we'd be doing a disservice
32:54to our children if we mix them too
32:57early.
32:59But I'm
33:01in agreement with the theory that all
33:05men are entitled to equal protection
33:09under the law to dignity.
33:13And I'm willing to see these things
33:17happen in Mississippi and in the Delta
33:19and in the rest of the South.
33:27Wherever people gather in Mississippi,
33:29especially in the larger cities and
33:31urban centers, things are being said
33:33that have never been said before.
33:36We're going to have to make the best of
33:37this thing. We're going to have to
33:39continue to be a part of the United
33:41States. We want to be. And I think
33:43there's a change in the attitude of the
33:46white people of Mississippi.
33:48I'm not saying that they approve of all
33:50of the federal laws that have been
33:51passed, but I think they have decided
33:54that they've got to be lived with. This
33:56problem has to be met. So I think that
34:00the future for our state is hopeful. I
34:03think the day of the racist demagogue is
34:06passed.
34:07If his day is passed, his voice isn't
34:10stilled.
34:12The Bible teaches segregation.
34:14Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with
34:16diver seed, lest the fruit of thy seed
34:19which thou hast sown and the fruit of
34:21thy vineyard be defiled.
34:23His name is brother JC Brown. He's a
34:26radio preacher. Each day he broadcast
34:28from the basement of the Pike Hotel in
34:30Mcome, Mississippi. According to Jay
34:33Edgar Hoover, Mississippi had less crime
34:36per 100,000 population than any other
34:39state in the union. And yet about 46% of
34:42the population of the state are negroes.
34:45Many of them live in brick houses, own
34:47their own homes, drive new automobiles,
34:50and have good incomes. And yet the above
34:53described ungodly misfits. Some hardly
34:56drive behind their ears. Come from other
34:59parts of the world to tell a peaceful,
35:01god-fearing people of Mississippi how to
35:03live and try to force their failures in
35:06life upon a successful people. Again,
35:09again God said, "Know ye not that the
35:12unrighteous shall not inherit the
35:14kingdom of God? Be not deceived. Neither
35:16fornicators, nor idolattors, nor
35:18adulterers, nor feminine, nor abuses
35:21themselves with mankind, nor thieves,
35:24nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor
35:26revilers, nor extortioners shall."
35:28Oddly, people who say they believe the
35:30Bible is literally true do not take the
35:33words literally, but interpret certain
35:35words to mean negro and others to mean
35:37white. All right.
35:39Many of Brother Brown's listeners rub
35:40out an existence like the Negroes, set
35:43apart only by the accident of race.
35:47It's certainly true that the Negro's
35:50life in Mississippi is limited, terribly
35:53limited by poverty and particularly the
35:56rural Negro. But after all, in the
35:58South, white people are pretty poor,
36:00too.
36:02These are the whites who compete with
36:03the Negroes. They include more than 80%
36:06of the whites in Mississippi. Both
36:08groups are deprived. Both have little
36:11hope for the future. The one undeniable
36:14difference is the color of their skins.
36:16The whites can always fall back on this.
36:18The Negroes can never get beyond it. Any
36:22change must bring hope and opportunity
36:23to both groups. But these whites do not
36:26welcome change and are constantly made
36:28fearful of it.
36:31The communists are using the beatnics,
36:33the homosexuals, the harlots, the
36:35[ __ ] the whoreongers, the dope
36:37addicts, the drunkards, and the misfits
36:39in life as tools through which to stir
36:41up trouble among peaceful, god-fearing
36:44people of the south. God said, "There is
36:47no peace, saith my God, to the wicked."
36:50The only kind of peace they will accept
36:52is that like a cat and a mouse, the
36:55mouse inside the cat. The only [music]
36:58piece they will accept is that like a
37:00cat and mouse, the mouse inside the cat.
37:04People accustomed [music] to translating
37:06biblical words into negro and white can
37:08translate the words cat and mouse and
37:10find a place, one with an earthn dam for
37:13a farm pond where the mouse [music] can
37:15be placed inside the cat. And words sown
37:18upon the wind can return a harvest of
37:21shame.
37:23Here we go.
37:25High
37:27be a close one. Joe right.
37:32Oh,
37:34who you for?
37:35I'll swap, will you?
37:37No, swap.
37:39I believe I got lane.
37:42You won.
37:45I won.
37:47It's a Saturday afternoon. The living
37:49room of a home in Natchez, Mississippi.
37:51the home of Ed McDaniel, grand dragon of
37:54the Kulux Clan of Mississippi,
37:55affiliated with the United Clans of
37:57America. Well, I sincerely believe
38:01in the Bible, word for word.
38:05And in the Bible, it tells us that uh
38:09God will put hooks in the jaws of the
38:12enemy and turn them back. Now we do not
38:16know
38:18what course or who God will use to do
38:22this but it very it may be that God will
38:26use Clinton
38:30people that believe in calling a spade a
38:32spade and if our people believe that God
38:37was some uh little [ __ ] running walking
38:42around on this earth I disagree with and
38:45that that drives me to believe that the
38:48clan organization is the organization
38:51that will save this country in the
38:53future.
39:04[applause]
39:06Thank you [cheering] ladies and
39:07gentlemen.
39:10I have no desire to see any person
39:15white or black to meet death by acts of
39:17violence.
39:19But I would at the same time like to
39:21call the attention
39:24that I'm sure in many future cases
39:26things of this nature will happen again
39:30as long as the people of the south are
39:33provoked
39:35again. Despite evidence to the contrary,
39:38we are not the lawless people that we
39:40once were or that we have been pictured
39:42now. While some Mississippians burn
39:45churches, other Mississippians have
39:48raised money to rebuild those churches
39:50and even participated in the rebuilding.
39:54One such Mississippian is Dr. WP Davis,
39:57director of the committee of concern of
39:59Jackson. This is one of the 38
40:03churches burned
40:05during the long hot summer in 1964.
40:10The committee of concern was formed to
40:12help rebuild these churches. The
40:15committee of concern is composed of
40:17religious leaders of the Jewish faith,
40:20the Catholic faith, and the Protestant
40:22faith.
40:24We believe concerned people will help us
40:26complete the job. Some Mississippians
40:29rebuild churches. Others work to rebuild
40:32people.
40:38This is not an ordinary roller ring.
40:40It's the recreation room of the St.
40:42Francis mission center of the Catholic
40:44Church in Greenwood, Mississippi. 13
40:46years ago, this mission was begun by a
40:48white native Mississippian, a woman
40:50whose family has given two governors to
40:52the state of Mississippi.
40:57She knows both sides and she's gone to
40:59the Negroes, sought to know them and to
41:01help. Her name is Kate Jordan.
41:05Our work started out of a need, a need
41:08to show a suffering, neglected people
41:10that someone cared.
41:14We started in a very small place and a
41:16very small way in the heart of the Negro
41:19district of Greenwood, Mississippi.
41:23We were few in number and not accepted
41:27exceedingly well by the negro.
41:30But we waited patiently, work diligently
41:34and finally the people came to us. We
41:37have used various means to reach the
41:39people.
41:40Skating is a very wonderful thing for
41:42these children for we can take them
41:43teach them discipline. We can give them
41:46a dignity,
41:47an enthusiasm, a desire to keep on and
41:51to better themselves in this one scope
41:52and from there go on forward.
41:55We have a library
41:58for the children. We're hoping to
42:00improve this each day to give them
42:02better material to read, better books.
42:11We have a stamp room where we collect
42:14sort stamps and sell them.
42:17We have a clothing sale each day, a
42:19rumage sale where we take the clothing
42:22given to us and we sell them for a very
42:24low price. Sometimes we even have a big
42:27sale for a nickel. For every garment in
42:29the center is sold for a nickel.
42:32We have a certified nurse midwife who is
42:35well qualified to deliver.
42:38She takes the mother from the third
42:40month of pregnancy and can carry her
42:42right on through after [music] delivery
42:44to a postnatal class
42:46where she can teach the mother to care
42:48for her baby and to give it a better
42:50start in life. [music]
42:52In a very real sense, Moscada started a
42:55revolution in the south. And every day
42:58as we walk the streets of Greenwood, we
43:00see the effect of this powerful work,
43:02this living example of love. Always the
43:05emphasis [music] is on human dignity. If
43:08only we could see that these are people
43:11the way Miss [music] Kate sees them. If
43:13only we could realize that this is a
43:15human heart throbbing with love.
43:18Capable of hate, yes, but more anxious
43:21to love than to hate. If there were
43:23[music] more Miss Kates, perhaps this
43:26very revolution could sweep across our
43:28land and do so much good.
43:34You all haven't had your Bible lesson
43:35this morning, so I think we'll take this
43:38time now to have our Bible lesson and
43:41review a little bit of what we studied
43:43last week. Now, let's read it together.
43:46Blessed are the poor in spirit.
43:49We like to think of ourselves as a
43:51religious people in the south.
43:53We are churchgoers.
43:55And none of the rest is going to really
43:57matter unless we can have the spiritual
43:59value too recognize that we are God's
44:03children. We are brothers. We are
44:05members of the last great hope on earth,
44:08the United States. And unless we can
44:11preserve here in the south this
44:14spiritual quality in our relations with
44:17our fellow man, those smack of force are
44:20not going to really bring us together as
44:24fellow human beings, fellow Americans,
44:26fellow citizens.
44:29Blessed are the merciful, for they shall
44:32obtain mercy.
44:35I think it's good for us to wind up for
44:38us in the south to see what all of you
44:42have just seen.
44:45I think it's good for the
44:48north
44:50television viewer, the northern citizen
44:52to see this, too.
44:55If he known anything about the South of
44:56a generation ago, he would probably
44:59react more as I do to it than than as a
45:03stranger here for the first time.
45:06I am an optimist. I pretty well have to
45:10be, I guess, to keep on fighting for
45:12things that I believe in. But I have
45:15seen too much happen particularly in my
45:19own part of Mississippi the Yazu
45:22Mississippi Delta to be a pessimist
45:24[music] today. The steps have been too
45:28too broad that we have taken for there
45:30to be [music] any setting back. But it's
45:33not going to change for a long time. But
45:36I I wish
45:38anyone [music] who has seen this program
45:42could be alive 50 years from now and
45:45come back and see us again. [music]
45:46He'll see some profound and largely
45:49hopeful changes in our pattern. [music]
45:54I am more of an optimist than otherwise
45:56cuz I see what has happened and what can
45:59happen.
46:01[music]
46:02Heat.
46:07[music]
46:13[music]
46:18[music]
46:22Heat.
46:24[music]
46:42[music]
46:53[music]

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of Mississippi A Self Portrait (1966) by Real Black History, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 6,947 words across 1,103 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to choose a caption track available on the video.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, caption language selection, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.