All language subtitles for Freedom.on.My.Mind.1994.1080p.HMAX.WEB-DL.DD2.0.x264.PLiSSKEN

♪♪

♪♪

Dorsey: You don't dream...

things that you can't imagine.

I dreamed about just growing up
and being married

and having a white house
with a white fence

and staying in it and cooking,

and I'm sure that came
from my "Dick and Jane" reader.

In high school,

I decided I really
wanted to be a secretary

because I'd seen one someplace,
maybe in a magazine,

and they they wore
church clothes every day

and they didn't
have to chop cotton,

they didn't have to pick cotton,

they didn't have to be
in the hot sun.

They set in a nice office

and I saw pictures of them
talking on telephones,

and I thought that was
an excellent job to have.

It would be an excellent way
to spend your life

if you didn't have the white
house and the picket fence

and all of that stuff.

Hayes: And I worked
for White folks every day.

We'd leave school,
come home, change clothes,

go to the White folks' place,
so we'd be around their kids.

We get to fighting with them,

get in arguments
about civil rights,

get in arguments about
Black and White issues.

And we would fight. I mean,
we'd literally bloody-up fight.

I mean, it was anger,
serious anger.

I don't remember fear,
but my family, I think,

was trying to express
fear to us about it.

You know, to be careful.

And I remember that my sister,
who was very fat at the time,

Mama had tried to get her

to sweep under the bed
with the broom,

and she always said, "Mama,
I cannot get down on my knees,

and get under that bed
because I'm too fat."

Well, one night, the police
came in front of our house.

They let the dog bark
all night long just about,

and Jean got down
and got under the bed.

And Mama said to me,

"Girl, hand that ol' girl
that broom

since she already
under the bed," you know.

So it wasn't all dark.
It was some light moments, too.

♪♪

♪ Woke up this morning
with my mind ♪

♪ Stayed on freedom, oh ♪

♪ Woke up this morning
with my mind ♪

♪ Stayed on freedom, oh ♪

♪ Woke up this morning
with my mind ♪

♪ Stayed on freedom ♪

♪ Hallelu ♪

♪ Hallelu ♪

♪ Hallelujah ♪

Narrator: A generation ago,

Mississippi was a state
like no other.

Its Blacks were free
in name only,

second-class citizens
in a system unchanged

since the turn of the century.

Most lived without hope,
but a few fought back

and others, Black and White,
joined with them.

They were young with no
political power or experience.

Within four short years,

they would lead
their ragtag political army

to the seat of national power.

In the end, Mississippi
and our country

would never be the same,
and neither would they.

♪ Oh, I'm singin' and prayin'
with my mind ♪

♪ Prayin' on ♪

♪ Stayed on freedom ♪

♪ Singin' and prayin'
with my mind ♪

♪ Stayed on freedom ♪

♪ Hallelu ♪

♪ Hallelu ♪

♪ Hallelujah ♪

♪♪

♪♪

Dorsey:
I started chopping cotton,

I think, when I was
about 6 or 7,

and basically I was very happy.

I mean, I didn't know
that we were poor

because everybody I knew
except the White folks,

which we all knew
lived differently,

lived the same way we did.

You know, I thought
we were fine.

My father was unable
to read and write.

He'd never gone to school.

He was convinced that education
was the only way Black people

had to get out
of anything they were in.

The straw boss, the agent,

the guy who was hired
to run the operation,

like a business manager, was
opposed to us going to school

when there was work
to be done.

And he had a rule.
He would go around and say,

"These kids are too big
to be in school anyway,

and they need to be
in the field."

And my father was so adamant
about going to school

until he would walk us
to the bus stop

with his gun every morning.

♪♪

Like it or not, this
is a European civilization,

a White man civilization,

and it --
it should remain that,

with the Negroes considered
to be, more or less, guests.

You knew you couldn't look
at White women,

look at them in the eye
without getting in trouble.

Because you could be
lynched for our rape,

which was really something
that people believed in,

that you were looking
at a woman

in a way that indicated you had
bad intentions toward her.

Man: We have --
we have in Greenwood,

I think we have
wonderful relations

with our colored people.

It has been demonstrated
through the years

in all of the businesses,
type of businesses.

The colored people
are very happy, extremely happy

in Mississippi.

And I think they feel
just as warmly toward us.

That's a fact.

Do you know anybody
that disagrees with that?

Holland: I went to babysit
for this White family,

and the White woman
called me upstairs.

I went on upstairs
in a hurry

so as not to keep
the White woman waiting.

She said, "Mr. Lars
wants to see you."

And I looked in the bed,
Mr. Lars was laying there

among the bedclothes.

They were so silky.

And I said, "Yessir, Mr. Lars,
what do you want with me?"

And he immediately pulled me
down into the bed

and had intercourse with me.

It was -- I was 11 years old.

That day was my birthday.

There was no reason
for us to run

and tell our mother
or our father

because they couldn't
do anything about it

but get killed if they said
something about it.

So many times, girls, we girls
would talk in the bathroom

about it, you know,
never telling our parents,

but it happened
very, very frequently.

♪♪

But after I was raped at 11,

I started having men
right and left, you know,

so I was -- I was easy..

and I walked sassy.

And I would cuss.

I could out-cuss a longshoremen.

And I hated it.

I hated it.

I had all kind of fantasies
about it.

I was fascinated by people
like David and Goliath stories

when I --

These were my favorite
biblical characters,

the cats who kicked folks' butt,
you know?

You know, and like Moses,

drowning everybody
in the Red Sea.

I used to go in the woods.

I used to go in the back woods

and preach and scream,
"Fight 'em!"

Run into bushes and kick trees

and pretend
they was White folks.

♪♪

Dorsey: So you learn how to --
how to negotiate your life

with White folks.

And I guess you also learn
the fear associated with them

of -- of how much power
they actually held over you,

how they could determine
whether you continue to live

or whether you die.

[ Indistinct yelling ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Two, four, six, eight,
we don't want to integrate.

Two, four, six, eight,
we don't want to integrate.

I'll say for the mothers to
keep their kids out of school.

Altogether, we --
We are White people.

We don't want them to go
to school with niggers.

Narrator: The civil rights
movement changed forever

the old relationship
between Blacks and Whites.

It started in the '50s and
gathered new momentum in 1960,

when Black college students

began staging sit-ins
and freedom rides.

Their dramatic confrontations
at segregated lunch counters

and bus stations
stunned the nation

and galvanized Blacks
across the South.

♪ Come all
of you freedom lovers ♪

-Yeah!
-Yeah!

♪ The news I have to tell ♪

-Yeah!
-Yeah!

♪ Of how
those freedom fighters ♪

♪ Came to Mississippi
to dwell ♪

♪ Oh, which side are you on,
boys ♪

♪ Which side are you on ♪

And I was really excited
about that.

I would run home
every -- every evening

and listen to it.

And every weekend
when the newspapers came,

we would read about it
in a newspaper.

And it was people saying,
"I'm taking this stuff anymore."

Who stood right up
and looked him in the eye

in a way that I had never seen
anybody do to White folk.

♪ Which side are you on ♪

Gray Adams: These young people
were willing to take risks.

They cared enough about

what they thought
was important,

what was necessary

to be willing
to do something about it.

And that is what attracted me.

That is what attracted me
because

I was always out there trying
to do something about something.

But the support system
was never there.

There was such an enormous
feeling of pride

that we all felt in that
activity and that action.

It just kind of radiated
all over.

It gave you almost chills
to see people

actually hitting away at --

at the system of segregation
that existed for so long

and it was young people
a lot like ourselves

and they looked so magnificent.

I mean, both the men
and the women,

and they were so nicely dressed

and -- and that was
a part of it.

I mean, they were all dressed up
and they just gave you

just an overwhelming sense
of pride and accomplishment.

Edwards: I became aware,
as we all were,

that the Freedom Rides started.

The busses were going South,

and they refused to segregate
at the southern borders

where the law would
kick in to police.

That is, if you went
from Tennessee to Mississippi,

you suddenly had to go
to the back of the bus.

Well, the freedom busses
were going down

to break the segregated South.

But I don't know
they're Freedom Riders

till the bus stopped in Jackson,
and they get off.

And they go in the White side
and I'm looking at...

Here, for once in my life,

my fantasies were being
played out in real life for me.

I had always wanted
to be in a position

where I could fight
the White man and win.

These people were winners.
I'm with them.

Ganz: This was young people
that were challenging all this,

and it was ordinary people
that were challenging all this,

and it was like --

[ Sighs ]
It was the call.

It was the first time
I really heard the call,

which is what it was.

Narrator: The students

formed their own integrated
organization called SNCC.

Their symbol -- Black
and White hands joined together.

The Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee

attracted young people
from around the country,

including a young math teacher
from New York City, Bob Moses.

Moses had grown up
in the Harlem projects,

then attended all-White
Hamilton College.

Moses: The sit-ins, when
they broke out, just grabbed me.

The pictures
of the Southern students

and what I became aware of
in looking at them

was that they looked
how I felt,

and I really responded
immediately to that.

Narrator:
On a tour through the South,

Moses met with leaders

of Mississippi's underground
civil rights network --

men like the NAACP's
Amzie Moore and Earl Steptoe.

Moore wanted to take advantage
of the new student energy,

and he persuaded Moses
to head up

SNCC's first voting rights
project in McComb, Mississippi.

There was a pull to go south,
and I discovered SNCC.

♪♪

♪♪

I was traveling by bus.

And a couple of youngsters
escorted me to the bus station

and they were looking to see,

"Now, where is this
representative of SNCC

going to sit on the bus,"
you know.

So I sat on the front.

It wasn't a long ride,

and there was no one else
on the bus, you know?

So there was never
any confrontation.

♪♪

♪ Beat down in ♪

The rumors were going around.

There were some
of these Freedom Riders

who were invading,
you know, the town.

Hayes: And these people
said they the same people

who done beat up the White
folks down in Nashville

and -- and made them submit

to an integrated lunch counter
setup.

And they the same folks

who have been working
on the Freedom Ride.

They're the same folks

who work with Martin
and the boycotts.

They're the same folks

who had the sit-ins
in Greensboro, North Carolina,

and we're here to make
a change in Mississippi.

So I said,
"Goddamn, this is it."

♪ Baby, honey ♪

My sister, at church,

said Martin Luther King's
brother was in McComb.

And so we hits the road.

And somewhere in that night,
we decide to go the next day

and look for
Martin Luther King's brother,

which turns out to be Bob Moses.

Narrator: Moore convinced Moses
that the only way

to crack Mississippi
was through the vote.

The state had half
a million Blacks

but would not allow them
to register.

A voting campaign

could turn the country's
attention to this injustice

and pull the federal government
into their fight.

Now, this strategy was explained
to the feds,

to the Kennedy boys.

They bought into that.

Because the Justice Department
believes

that if you could break
the caste system in voting

and that there was open
and free voting by all people,

that that was the quickest
and best way

to break
the entire caste system.

When these boys
were coming to town,

we'd sit and talk like
we sitting and talking here.

When John Doar
would come to town,

we'd sit and talk like this,
so...

As we would talk about
this stuff within our midst,

there was the understanding

that we were all working
on the same agenda.

We want you to come down
to the courthouse tomorrow.

Why?

We having a freedom day
for registration

and we want you to come down
tomorrow and register.

Now, y'all ain't gonna march.
I can't march.

No, ma'am,
we not gonna march.

We just gonna go down
to the courthouse.

Because I ain't.

Yes, ma'am, we understand.

See, the strategy was
you'd go out

and talk to people
about voter registration,

bring them to the class,

teach them how to interpret
the Constitution,

take them to the registrar's
office the next day.

And I really think
that this is something

that I can do
the rest of my life

and will still be something
here to be done in this area.

Bob's focus was to try to
just hit all these little towns

around McComb -- Tylertown,
Amite, Magnolia.

I think we ended up
in Brookhaven,

knocking on doors and trying to
get people to register to vote.

I don't remember
a break from that day.

For me, I think that was
the river of no return.

President Kennedy:
A great change is at hand,

and our task, our obligation
is to make that revolution,

that change peaceful
and constructive for all.

Those who do nothing
are inviting shame

as well as violence.

Those who act boldly

are recognizing right
as well as reality.

Friends, I'm a Mississippi
segregationist,

and I am proud of it.

[ Applause ]

Narrator: In 1960,

the Democratic Party
became a house divided.

John Kennedy occupied
the White House,

but Democrats called Dixiecrats
ruled the South

and resisted
any attempts at change.

Man #2: Our forefathers did
not intend to share this country

with the Japanese or the Eskimo
or the Negro as equals

because civilization
and savagery

can never be equal.

Narrator: In Mississippi,

segregation was written
into the bylaws

of the state's
Democratic Party,

and it was carried out by an
official alliance of lawmakers,

police forces,
and White citizens' councils.

The Magnolia state
would be the battleground

for the South's last stand.

[ "Dixie" playing ]

Moses: From the governor
through the legislature,

through the judiciary,
down through the sheriffs

and all the counties
and the highway patrolmen,

the whole state
was organized

to promote and enforce racism.

Right?

And it was a kind of little
South African enclave

within the United States.

We have had experience
in the past

with Negro political domination.

It was known
as the Reconstruction.

There are some who call
this present attempt

to build up political power

through the mass registration
of unqualified Negro voters

the Second Reconstruction.

They were very strict on that
voter registration question.

It was like, "Y'all ain't
gonna register to vote, period."

No, you didn't pass it.
You see there?

You didn't fill out --

You just filled out
that part.

You didn't write
anything in there.

You didn't pass it.

You have to fill it out
complete before you pass.

They failed me and told me

I was disqualified
to register.

My son -- four years
in college,

and he's the secretary
of the NAACP.

And he didn't pass.

Nobody asked me any question
except how old I was

and didn't ask any
interpretation of anything.

And I said,
"Well, I-I can't answer that."

And then he laughed,
and he says,

"Well, this is the question
that we give to some,"

meaning that this was
the question that they give

to many of the Negroes,

a question that they knew
that they couldn't answer.

Narrator: SNCC joined with other
civil rights groups like CORE

and the NAACP to form COFO,

the Council of
Federated Organizations.

Word of their efforts
spread quickly

through the surrounding counties
and local Whites responded,

Mississippi style.

♪ Well, you can count them
one by one ♪

♪ It could be your son ♪

♪ Count them two by two ♪

♪ It could be me or you ♪

♪ Count them three by three ♪

Doar: Southwest Mississippi
was peculiar even for that area

because it was like you
were back in the 17th century.

It was very rural.

It was isolated and it was.

It was mean country.

♪ Count them five by five ♪

Man #3: Several of us
were actually beaten,

and I was arrested also
in connection

with taking people
to the registrar's office.

♪ In Mississippi,
they got it fixed ♪

Narrator: Less than three months
after Moses' arrival,

a White state legislator
named E.H. Hurst

drew his revolver
on a Black man

involved in the voter
registration campaign.

Herbert Lee, a member
of the NAACP,

farmer and father of nine,

was killed by a bullet
to the head.

Hurst claimed self-defense
and was acquitted.

Herbert Lee was one of the first
people to go down

and register
to vote in Amite County

that Bob had taken down.

Moses:
Hurst and Lee knew each other,

played together
when they were young.

Even into their adult life
had helped each other,

but Hurst was deeply affected
by Lee's involvement

in this kind
of political activity.

And he felt that it was
within his purveyance

to actually --
to assassinate Lee.

♪ We have walked through ♪

♪ The shadows of death ♪

Moses: We took it upon ourselves
to go out nightly

searching for people who had
witnessed the killings.

It was really very scary.

You were afraid
of every headlight

that came up either behind you
or passed you.

♪ Turn back ♪

I mean, it was terrible,

but we -- we looked
to see what jurisdic--

We tried to have --
We had an FBI investigation.

We never were able to make
a criminal case out of that.

That was our first encounter
with this.

And in many ways,
I was directly involved

and took -- felt
personal responsibility.

Well...

well, a problem there
is that many --

I had to come to grips
with that problem

a long time ago

in terms in my own self.

And there's
a real moral question

in terms of involvement
of other people.

Um...

one way is that to --
to be very careful

about telling people
about the risks involved

so that there is no --

So that they have their own
decision to make

as to whether they're willing
to risk that --

that kind of danger.

And -- and the question
of personal fear

just has to be
constantly fraught.

I mean, it's just something
that's an inside question.

♪♪

Man #4: To which
there's no easy answer.

I-I don't know
if there's an answer at all.

♪ Turn back ♪

And I remember Bob just
devastated by what had happened.

By this time, Bob is my --

You know, he's my little Jesus,
you know what I'm saying?

And I'm angry.
I mean, to see him sad was like,

you know, that was enough for me
to go find the cat

that killed Herbert Lee myself,
you know.

That really sort of symbolized
signing over in blood,

right, to this struggle.

So that was clear now --

"Well, they will have to kill us
to get us out of here."

♪ Never turn back ♪

Narrator: COFO set out to
organize the rest of the state.

This was something
that we had not had,

we had not really thought
about it a lot.

Certainly I had not.

It was just something

you expected never
to participate in.

And all of a sudden,
whatever had been going on

in the rest of the world
was coming to Mississippi,

and we were gonna
be part of it.

We had heard about people
who have been beaten.

We've known about the folks
who had been killed

for trying to exercise
this privilege.

When they got to Shelby,
we were ready.

We were just, "Tell us what
to do and where to go."

♪ Get your rights, Jack ♪

♪ And don't be a 'Tom' no more,
no more, no more, no more ♪

♪ Get your rights, Jack ♪

♪ And don't be a 'Tom' no more ♪

We'd go and we'd go to the
church and make up the flyers

and pass them out

and people come to church.
and we'd talk.

And if somebody come tell us
we got to get out of town,

we get on out of town
and go to the next town.

♪ Oh, CORE, oh, CORE, don't
you treat me this way ♪

♪ I'll take my freedom ride
someday ♪

♪ Oh, no, you won't
'cause it's understood ♪

♪ You're an Uncle Tom
and you're just no good ♪

Dorsey: And we were eagerly
anticipating the folks

coming to bring freedom
to Mississippi.

♪ That's right ♪

Hayes:
We'd load up in the car

and we get over there
early in the morning.

We stop at this big,
fat preacher's house

and tell him
what we were there for.

And he's so excited.

And his wife starts
bringing out the sausage

and the biscuits
and the molasses and the milk.

And every time
we emptied the table,

she'd bring out some more

and we just eat ourselves
to death.

♪ Oh, no, you won't
'cause it's understood ♪

Holland: I heard there's some
outside agitators

had come to town
to stir up trouble

between the White
and the coloreds

and that they weren't gonna
have anything to do with them.

I immediately start
looking for them

because if they was
new men in town,

I wanted to turn
a trick with them.

I figured maybe
they'd have some money.

I was trying to walk behind them
and talk.

"Hey, hey, there.
Hey, you." You know?

He wasn't excited about me
and all he was interested in

is getting me
into the office to work.

So when he opened
the door to go inside,

I looked inside
and I saw Emma Belle,

who's a legend
in the civil rights movement.

I saw her sitting
at a typewriter, typing,

and I had never seen
a Black woman

that could type
like this woman could type.

You know, she was typing.

She wasn't even looking down
at the paper.

So I said to myself,
"Oh, she's -- she's typing

a whole lot of P's and Q's.

She don't know
what's she doing."

And I went on
inside the office.

I was scared to death
because Mama had told me,

"Don't go down near there,
fooling with those folks"

because she had to live
in this town.

And I went on inside.

The first thing I did
once I got inside

was go look over
Emma Belle's shoulder

and see what
she really was typing.

She hadn't missed a word.

The people had read
in the state newspapers,

you know, the regular media
that these people are communist,

these people are, et cetera.

And the Black community
was about as afraid of them

as anybody else, you know?

My mother was dismayed.

She was scared.
She was disgusted.

She would always say to my other
sister and brothers,

"When this old girl,
this child that I've had,

she's the biggest fool
in the world.

She'll run out there
and get involved

against the White folk."

And she would always tell me,
"Girl, don't you bring

none of them Freedom Riders
here to my house."

Not a single church would --
would -- would receive them.

And so we opened St. John
to them in Palmers Crossing.

We have been thinking that
the White people kept us down,

but they didn't.
You know what did it?

Our fear...

of a jailhouse kept us down.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Hayes: We would quote
from the Bible sometimes.

We'd make a subject and a text

just like the preacher
would do it.

You know, I remember
my favorite sermon

was Moses and his stick
and the stick was the vote.

Gray Adams:
And then they completed that

by asking for a show of hands

of people
who would be willing to go down

to the courthouse tomorrow.

I expected to see
lots of hands go up.

They didn't,
so, you know, I...

raised mine
and, uh, three men --

bus drivers,
school-bus drivers,

We were the ones
who committed

to going to the courthouse.

We went down today
and by...tonight,

probably the bus drivers
didn't have a job,

certainly not later
than the next day.

All the bus drivers
had been fired.

One day I was up
in North Bolivar County,

someplace on a plantation,

and I went up to this White man
and told him who I was

and that I wanted to see
if he had any objection

to me talking to his people
about registered to vote.

And he was so nice.
He said, "No, I don't."

I was saying, "Gee, this is
gonna be a piece of cake."

And as I was walking away,
he called to me and said,

"Oh, by the way, when you finish
registering them to vote,

don't bring them back here.

Take them to your house."

And that just stopped me cold

because I was living
in this condemned house myself

that wasn't fit
for people to be living in.

I had no place, I had no job.

♪♪

You asking people to challenge
the system and traditions,

and you had to be prepared
for the responsibility

of what happened to those folks

when -- when they followed
your instructions

or listened to your pleadings

or decide to join a movement
with you on the spot

that you became responsible
for the folks

and their families
and their welfare.

♪♪

Hayes: The delta was
really a terrible sight

during this period.

I mean, you drive
through this plantation,

a plantation shack was really
a one-room house falling down.

That was the typical plantation
shack with pieces of lumber

and tin and stuff flying
different directions

and rotted porches
and hanging doors

and busted-out windows.

I mean, it was just
terrible conditions

that people would be living in.

♪♪

♪♪

Woman:
I've been tied a long time

in the state of Mississippi,

living in the county

where James O. Eastland,
the senator,

and Senator Stennis
can go to Washington

and tell the people
that the people of Mississippi,

the Negroes, are getting
along good and we are satisfied.

But I want him to know this --
both of them --

we are not satisfied,

and we haven't
been satisfied a long time.

♪ We're gonna walk, walk ♪

♪ We're gonna walk, walk ♪

♪ We're gonna walk, walk ♪

♪ With your mind on freedom ♪

There was this wonderful
woman on the bus there

who sang every church song
that you can imagine.

And she really sort of lit
up the bus with her spirit.

♪ Let my people go ♪

Moses: She was our mama
in the movement.

I mean, she was, like,

she represented
that spirit for us.

♪ Over the hills
and everywhere ♪

Moses: We were all children,

and she was one of those
who came forward

to tell us something.

♪ Let my people go ♪

Hamer:
You can pray until you faint.

But if you don't get up
and try to do something,

God is not gonna put it
in your lap.

Narrator: Fannie Lou Hamer had
been a plantation timekeeper

for 18 years.

The day she registered to vote,
she was fired and evicted.

She joined SNCC
as a full-time field secretary

and became a powerful voice
in the civil rights movement.

Hamer: We are not afraid.

♪ We are not afraid ♪

Moses: Mrs. Hamer was
an inspiration, I think,

to everyone.

She really represented
what everyone

was trying to organize for
and struggle for,

which was the transformation
from the bottom of the society,

the people who were
sharecroppers

living on those plantations,
the promise of their being able

to find their inner spirit
and energy

and put that to the service
of a great social movement.

And Mrs. Hamer,
more than anyone else,

came to symbolize
that transformation.

You see, we are human beings,
and we are not stopping now

till we get something
that's better.

We worked all these years
for nothing.

Women have gone to the field
and worked from 10 to 12 hours

for $3 a day.

And I know what it is to suffer.

And I know what
it is to be hungry,

and we are not going to stop

even if I have
to give up my life.

We'll make it better
for some child.

♪ Oh, I've got the light
of freedom ♪

♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪

♪ Oh, I've got the light
of freedom ♪

So the excitement was --

was -- was this feeling
of camaraderie,

just knowing that you had
somebody with you

that was putting their life
on the line

just like you and a belief
that you are invincible,

the belief
that your cause was right.

♪ In the streets, Lord ♪

♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪

♪ Oh, ho ho ♪

All of a sudden,
for the first time in my life,

I'm accepted.
I'm part of the family.

I'm part of the community.
I'm treated as an equal.

I'm treated as somebody
who can be listened to,

who have ideas,
who have something contribute.

♪ Let it shine, let it shine ♪

♪ Let it shine ♪

Alright.

♪ Well, I woke up this morning
with my mind ♪

Holland: The movement
was the beginning

of me finding myself.

I felt that the movement

is the greatest thing
I've ever seen,

and I had a respect for people
who started taken the stand

and made me feel good
and people start looking at me.

I would feel so proud
when I would go to Tougaloo

and I slept
in Anne Moody's room.

You know, I would feel like,

"Well, one day I'm going
to be this great.

I'm gonna be in college,
you know."

I wanted to be like them.
I wanted to sound like them.

I wanted to understand
what the movement was about.

Chief:
This is an announcement.

We will ask you first
what your intentions are.

Woman #2: We are going
to the courthouse

to register voters.

Holland: Chief LaRue
was looked on with awe

simply because he was
the chief of police

and he had the last word
on everything.

And as usual,
somebody pushed me forward.

We would like to go on
to the courthouse.

Because I saw the look
on his face.

"Here is Ida Mae's girl
up here."

He was just stunned.
He didn't know what to do.

And for the first time
in my life,

I saw indecision
in Chief LaRue's face

and that made me feel so proud.

People start looking up
into my face, into my eyes,

say, "That cat is sure enough
tough, isn't she?"

I wasn't so tough.
I was scared on every march.

But I knew that
I couldn't turn back.

Something just wouldn't
let me turn back.

♪♪

It was so beautiful
to see people

like Miss Lulabelle Johnson
and Miss McGee.

They would be walking
with pride.

And their titties would be
sticking out

a whole, long way
in front of them,

almost so you could see
their titties

a block before you see them,

but they'd be walking
with such pride

and they'd be marching.

And I remember myself
trying to walk

with that heavy step
that they used.

Looked like the earth
would catch their feet

and hold them.

♪ For the child ♪

♪ That I love ♪

♪ Lift me up ♪
-♪ Lift me up ♪

-♪ Lift me up ♪
-♪ Lift me up ♪

-♪ Lift me way up ♪
-♪ Lift me up ♪

♪ Lift me on up ♪

Holland: But these women would
walk their walk, you know,

and then when they --
when they get up

and they'd see the human
barricade of policing,

they start talking that talk
and singing them songs,

and saying,
"I ain't scared of your jail

'cause I want my freedom.

I ain't gonna let nobody
turn me around,

gonna keep on marching."

♪ ...turn me around ♪

♪ I'm gonna keep on a-walkin',
keep on a-talkin' ♪

♪ Marchin' up to freedom land ♪

♪ Ain't gonna let nobody
turn me around ♪

♪ Turn me around,
turn me around ♪

♪ Ain't gonna let nobody
turn me around ♪

♪ I'm gonna keep on a-walkin',
keep on a-talkin' ♪

Moses: Well, I found out
that I could do it.

I didn't think of it
so much about dying,

about how are you gonna die?

What the thing was, how are
you gonna live, right?

Holland:
Bob was so gentle and so kind.

You couldn't ask
for anybody better.

He'd plan strategy.

He got people out of jail.

He calmed nerves.
He soothed feelings.

He made everybody feel like
they had a part to play.

I remember one time,
he pointed to me, he said,

"Now, Ida, now, you've been
to jail before.

You know how to go to jail."

I was glad to say, "Yes, Bob.
I do know."

I was glad to be used
for something.

Where the whole town, to me,
was looking down its nose at me,

the movement said to me,
I was somebody.

I was somebody, they said.

♪ ...let it shine ♪

♪ Oh, light of freedom ♪

Dorsey: The movement
exposed you to people

who lived differently.

I expose you to ideas
and interests and concerns

and for the first time,

introduce the possibility
of a different life

than just picking
and chopping cotton.

It unleashed yearnings in me.

I felt like I had come home.

All of my life,
I had felt kind of odd --

the way I thought,
the way I felt,

the things that
I was willing to do.

And then here were some people
who talked my language,

who apparently thought
the way I did

and were really willing
to take risk.

And I just felt like, "Ha.
Finally."

I went looking
for Martin Luther King's brother

to find my heroes
in the movement.

And in addition to that,
I find also a family setting.

I mean, this was
a turning point in my life.

I was in heaven for a minute.

[ Indistinct yelling ]

Narrator: In June of 1963,

President Kennedy sent the civil
rights bill to Congress.

It banned discrimination
in public places.

The South rose up to oppose it.

...will give the niggers
special privilege

and more rights
than us White people

contrary to the United States
Constitution.

-Alright!
-Alright!

Narrator: Federal takeover
of civil rights enforcement

appeared imminent.

Local Whites,
afraid of losing control,

took matters into
their own hands.

♪ I've been in the storm ♪

I don't know --
I don't know who set the bomb,

but it was probably because

of my activities
in the movement.

You know, I don't know
who threw the fire,

but there were some people
who saw an explosion,

like somebody had thrown a bomb
into our house.

And my mama was in there,

and she was in a wheelchair,
you know, she couldn't walk.

My mama died.
Mama died.

I remember she died in the
Greenwood Leflore Hospital

a few days later.

And my -- my most vivid memory
of this time

is the nurses, who I heard
one of them say, uh,

"I don't want to take care of
that old, stinking Black woman."

♪ Ohhhh ♪

♪ Give me a little time ♪

♪ To pray ♪

I was trying to keep
as many licks

off of that side as I could.

Narrator: Returning from
a voter registration workshop,

Fannie Lou Hamer and five
other women were arrested

in the Whites-only section
of a Mississippi bus station.

And I was beat.

I was beat and I was screaming.

Then one of the White men
that was sitting down,

he got up and started
beating me in the head,

but I couldn't keep
from screaming

because it was horrible.

Narrator: Three days later,

the head of Mississippi's NAACP,
Medgar Evers,

was murdered in the driveway
of his home,

shot in the back
with a high-powered rifle.

♪ But they laid Medgar Evers ♪

♪ In his grave ♪

It was like living
in a foreign country

where you were challenging
the powers to be.

And it was with no protection.

There were no courts to concern
themselves about our lives.

The FBI was not down to protect
us from a crime or violence.

There were no law enforcement --

local and state
law-enforcement officers

that would protect us.

So it was a very scary period.

♪♪

Gray Adams: I understood clearly
that unless we found ways

to focus national attention

on what was happening
in Mississippi

that they were gonna
wear us down...

♪ Odinga ♪

...shoot us out
or whatever was necessary

to stop us.

♪ To see your kingdom ♪

Doar: They thought the Justice
Department should do more.

And specifically, I told them

that we could not
protect them...

in Mississippi.

♪ Oooohhh ♪

♪ Ha ♪

♪ Oooh oooh ooooohh ♪

♪ Ha ♪

♪ Freedom now ♪

♪ Ha ♪

♪ Freedom now ♪

♪ Ha ♪

Narrator: The voter
registration campaign

was stalled.

In the county where COFO

had concentrated
most of its efforts,

less than 100 Blacks could vote.

Although President
Lyndon Johnson

would sign the Civil Rights Act
into law,

it did not protect
Black voting rights,

but it did alienate
the Dixiecrats.

Time has come for
Mississippi congressmen

and senators
to disassociate themselves

from this party

and join the conservative
White voters of this state

in supporting Republican
electorate for Barry Goldwater.

Narrator: The upcoming
presidential election

gave COFO the chance
for a new strategy.

At the Democratic
National Convention,

scheduled for the end
of the summer,

they could force a showdown
with Mississippi's Dixiecrats

and expose the state's injustice
to the nation.

But what we were after
was how do you make

a real political change
in the state?

And our one chance of doing
that was attacking the state

where they were weak,

and their weakest point
politically

was at the National
Democratic Convention.

Narrator:
To correct Mississippi,

COFO needed to build
national support fast.

They decided to bring volunteers
from across America

into the state.

We hope to send
into Mississippi

this summer upwards of 1,000
teachers, ministers,

lawyers, and students
from all around the country

who will engage in what
we're calling freedom schools,

community-center programs,
voter-registration activity.

A program designed to open up
Mississippi to the country.

♪ Well, I read in the paper ♪

♪ Shoobe-doo-be-doo-be-doo ♪

♪ Just the other day ♪

♪ Shoobe-doo-be-doo-be-doo ♪

♪ That Freedom Fighters ♪

♪ Shoobe-doo-be-doo-be-doo ♪

♪ Were on their way ♪

Reporter:
Some 700 college students

from as far away as Boston
and Southern California

have come here to take part
in a program

called Freedom --
Freedom for Mississippi.

Marshall, what are
your motives

for going down
to Mississippi this summer?

Reading the papers
all last year,

talking with people,
and hearing

about what was happening
in Mississippi

and in the South,
shooting of Medgar Evers

and other events
like that

generates such a feeling
of outrage and injustice

that you feel
you must act.

Part of the whole idea
of the Summer Project

was -- was Bob's analysis

that the law only covers
certain people in America

and it doesn't cover
Southern Blacks.

It covers Northern
Blacks a little bit,

and it covers Northern Whites
a whole lot.

And so that if you want
to bring the law to the South,

you have to bring the people
who the law covers to the South.

The SNCC staff were smart
and a kind of smart

that wasn't just
from book learning,

but was from having lived
a certain kind of reality

and then interpreting it
and figuring out,

"Well, what can you do
about it?"

and really solving problems.

The people who organized
the Mississippi Summer Project

understood that if I went
to Mississippi,

my parents would care.

My brothers and my sister
would care

and my grandparents would care,
my aunts and uncles would care.

The people in
the community would care.

And people did things
because someone they knew

or at least someone from
their community was involved.

If a young Black
from Mississippi

were to get arrested,
put in jail,

that'd be that.

But if one of us got arrested
or put in jail,

well, there'd be senator
so-and-so on the phone

and Congressman
so-and-so on the phone.

"The New York Times" calling,
and that's what it meant

to really bring the law
to the South.

And so there was a concern
on the part of people

that what does that say
to people,

that you have to have
a White body

to protect a Black person?

I mean, aren't human lives
worth the same?

So you raise in your mind,

"Does America have any
obligation to protect me

like they protect
one of the senator's sons

who come down
from Harvard or Yale?"

And, you know, that's --
that's -- that's an irony.

But the reality was,
was that I would be a statistic.

Man #5: Some nigger lovers
coming from the North.

Go home, Yankees.

You know, go home,
you Yankees, nigger lovers.

You want your daughter
to marry a nigger?

[ Indistinct yelling ]

Moses: Could you actually
get Black people,

who were the SNCC,

working with
these young White volunteers

in a way in which
everyone could survive, right,

and could again --
could flourish?

Glasses.

That was very good because you
all got carried away, see?

I mean, you were just
supposed to yell

and you start hitting us,

so you got off
your frustrations, you know.

Half of what happened
at Oxford was the staff

trying to figure out
whether, in fact,

they wanted this group
of volunteers to go down.

They were ambivalent
about it,

and the volunteers
trying to size the staff up.

And there was a big dance
taking place

in which they were
trying to decide

whether this was gonna
work or not.

♪♪

Woman #3: Tuesday night,
we saw a movie describing

how the Negro was discriminated
against in Mississippi

with regard to voting.

CBS Reports. "Mississippi
and the 15th Amendment."

Woman #4: As I started up
the steps to the courthouse,

I was a little afraid.

A registrar, Mr. Lann,
was on his way out.

I'm small, and he's
an extra-large man.

Woman #3: A big, fat, White
county registrar

prevents Negroes from voting.

We laughed because it was
so completely foreign to us.

Six of the staff members got up
and walked out of the movie

because it was so real to them.

And some of the staff began
to -- to take offense to that

because they didn't find that
to be particularly funny.

It marked an explosion point.

It was a flash point
for the staff

finally to let out
with all of their frustrations

they've had and the hostilities
they had towards the volunteers

over the previous few days.

Moses: What happened was
quite profound

because what
we were dealing with

was trying to sharpen
the volunteers'

sense of reality.

Ganz: The day before
we were going to leave Oxford

and go to Mississippi,

the word came that three civil
rights workers had disappeared.

Reporter #2: James Chaney,
Andrew Goodman,

and Michael Schwerner
went to Mississippi

to help register Negroes
as voters.

It had been stressed
at the training school

they had just completed
that the federal government

could offer them
little protection.

Narrator: A manhunt began
for a summer volunteer

and two veteran
corps organizers,

last seen in
a rural Mississippi jail.

The FBI discovered
their empty car

but no sign of the men.

What do you think
of this?

I believe
them jokers planned

and sitting up there
in New York,

laughing at us
Mississippi folk.

You think it was a hoax?

I think so.

If they did,
I feel like they asked for it.

They came here
looking for trouble.

It was very clear to me
that they were gone,

that they were dead,

and I knew that in my bones.

And now the problem was, was how
to convey that to the volunteers

so that they could understand
so they could have a choice

about going in
or not going in,

trying to -- to know
really what the conditions were

that they had to face,

that before they got there,
right,

the die was cast,
the stone was thrown, right?

It was very clear
what the stakes were.

We were all gathered
in this big auditorium.

I mean, there must've been
about 300 of us there.

And Bob was up front
speaking to us.

Bob spoke looking
at his feet,

and this was just --
This was -- This is one

of my most profound experiences
of leadership.

You know, this man stood up,
who was the head

of the Mississippi Freedom
Project -- Summer Project.

And he looked at his feet
and kind of shuffled his feet

and talked to us
about how he felt.

That job fell to me, right,

of penetrating through

that the kids were dead.

Do whatever you want.

You can't bring them back.

Now you have a problem.

You have got to reevaluate.

You are going to Mississippi
in the light of the knowledge

that some of your crew
are already dead

before you even get there.

He said, "Well,
all of you in this room,

probably some of you aren't
gonna survive the summer.

And you shouldn't feel
like you have to go.

I mean, anybody should feel
like they can just get up

and walk out of here

and not be thought as a coward
or anything. It's just...

But you need to go, too."

And for him, it was like,

"I don't want to put you
at risk this way.

But I have to put you at risk."

Chude Allen:
And he ended that,

standing up there, you know,
in overalls and T-shirt

and just looking at the floor,
just saying,

"All I can say
is I'll be there with you."

And I would have gone
anywhere.

I would have done anything
he asked me to do,

I trusted him so much.

It was..incredibly powerful.

And I left that meeting

Knowing not only was I
going down to Mississippi,

but that this would be the
course for the rest of my life.

And then there was just silence.

And the whole place
must have been silent

for about, I don't know,
five minutes.

In the back of the room, a woman
named Jean Wheeler stood up,

and she just started singing.

"They say that freedom
is a constant struggle.

They say that freedom
is a constant struggle.

Oh, Lord, we struggled so long.

We must be free."

♪ They say that freedom ♪

Ganz: Pretty soon,
everybody stood up

and just marched out
of the room behind Jean.

♪ They say ♪

The next day
we all went to Mississippi.

♪ ...that freedom
is a constant struggle ♪

♪ They say that freedom
is a constant struggle ♪

♪ Oh, Lord, we've been
struggling so long ♪

♪ That we must be free ♪

♪ We must be free ♪

♪♪

Johnson: If we allow
these invaders to succeed

in their dastardly scheme,

we will be guilty
of a very costly error.

Red: The state will be invaded
by 50,000 people,

and they were always
referred to as invaders.

I'm totally convinced

that they would slant
the weather report

if it preserved
segregation

and Southern way
of life,

whatever that was.

Red used to say
the best way

to get me up
and going in the morning

was just to pitch me
the "Jackson Daily News."

I'd get so mad.

She'd be so mad
before she got...

They literally armed themselves

for the coming of the volunteers
into the state that summer.

That -- that really sums it up.

It was an army as though

you were going to be invaded
by the enemy.

♪♪

Ganz: We were housed right
in among the community,

and they had a welcome for us
and they put out a big spread

and they put us
in people's houses.

Oh, it was great.

I mean,
they were so welcoming to us,

and it made us feel secure,
you know,

until we sort of
eventually began

sort of poking our heads out
and beginning to do stuff.

♪♪

Booth: And the first night,

there had been chiggers
in the bed,

which are little mite-sized,
you-can't-even-see-'em bugs,

and they got into my legs

and I was just filled
with chigger bites.

The way you treat them
is you have to put your legs

in turpentine and --
or gasoline,

and then they'll --
they'll fall off.

But just everything
was a new experience.

Ganz:
Then there was dealing

with the whole
White/Black business,

about, you know,
people 40 years your senior

calling you mister
and giving you their seat.

I still wasn't used
to calling White people

by their first name
without saying "Miss."

I mean, there it was.

You know, there's like 400 years
of oppression right there.

I-I could never, uh, let
that go -- that "Miss."

It was too ingrained
in me because, remember,

we had to even call White
children "Miss" and "Mister."

I mean, talk about
grappling things

at a very personal level.

I mean, that was like
always the sort of thing.

I mean, the system had been
so institutionalized

down to every
personal encounter.

Don't you ever give up
that gun.

That's all you got left

to protect that little baby
in that crib

because these dirty devils
will be in your home.

That's what they want.
They do not want equality.

You know
they don't want equality.

They don't want
something like you got.

They want what you've got --
your women.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Ganz: The role of sex
in the community --

the weirdness was the White
community's weirdness about it.

I mean, it made them nutty.

People were obsessed
with this question

of Black male,
White female sex.

It pervaded the project.

It was -- it was as if
I wasn't a person.

It was as if I was
a White woman.

That was my identity,
and it was very oppressive.

♪♪

Hayes:
We're coming in an environment

where White women
are sitting down,

talking to you,
like an equal.

It was unheard of.

You know, and let alone
having sex with one.

Holland: Well, a lot of the
families were afraid to sit down

at the table with the people
that they were housing

because they were White.

We had never sat and eaten
with White folks before,

and we would --
They would fix all the pork

and all the pig feet
and all that, you know.

People -- And, you know,
and what was so funny

is the White students,
who had never eaten anything,

eating chitlings and all,

were just sitting there
eating like they were --

like they were very, very happy
to do so.

And the outhouses
that we had to use,

well, I was -- I was really
surprised because I said,

"Well, I know this White girl

ain't gonna go use
this outhouse,

you know,
like everybody else."

And the girl would use
the outhouse

like she was born to it,
you know,

and then that -- that made us

all sort of get gang around them
and gather around them.

♪♪

Narrator: In Mississippi,

Whites did not socialize
with Blacks.

They did not worship
in Black churches,

teach in Black schools,
or live in Black homes.

Northern Whites were breaking
all the rules

and Southern Whites retaliated.

Freedom Summer triggered
1,000 arrests,

35 shootings and church burnings
and 80 beatings.

And any Southern Whites who
sympathized with the volunteers

were singled out for
their own form of punishment.

And there was
a hardening

of the political
atmosphere.

It was -- There was
no soft edges at all.

It was just...

Absolutely segregation

and segregation
and segregation forever.

We decided on our own
that our White volunteers

would organize
in the White community.

It was just sort of like, "Well,
we should have a dialogue.

Can't we talk about
these things?

How can we avoid confrontation?"

It was a very, sort of
very moderate kind of exchange.

So we sat around and talked
about different things,

and the house was
surrounded by these cars

and the lights were focused
on the front door.

And we were just amazed.

And we just --
"What in the world?"

Even then,
I was so secure

in my position
in the community,

I walked out there.

I wanted the damn fools
to see

that it was all right.

They were there with me.

It just was
beyond my conception

that I could be in any danger
in my own house.

They were more shocked
than anybody.

They were totally shocked.

They had no notion
that that community

in which they lived in
and done business in

and worked in would turn
on them like that.

And, boy, it did.

People wouldn't even
speak to us on the street

and would never call us
on the phone anymore,

never come to the house,

and he lost
his business.

He was asked to --
to give up his office.

And these things
were hitting us

just one right
after the other.

Following this thing,

and we were really
sort of groggy.

It just reinforced about, like,
how closed the White community

was at that point to -- to --

It was so fearful
and so under siege

that, you know, it would just
expel its own like that.

It was...

I just don't know --
The hurt.

There's no way
to describe the hurt.

It really...

When a family splits,
it's history.

Not only that,
but just the fact

that you -- I had never
been put down in my life.

I've never been rejected

and over something
that I felt it

that was --
It just wasn't right.

And it was...
It was very painful.

♪♪

Ganz: But, I mean, you also knew

that you were tapping
at something

that was right
at the heart of the whole way

in which they thought about
their culture and the world

and we were threatening that.

♪♪

♪♪

Okay, now we're holding
our precinct meeting

for the Mississippi Freedom
Democratic Party.

Narrator:
COFO drafted the students

into its overall strategy
of challenging the Dixiecrats

at the Democratic
National Convention.

The base for that attack

was the Mississippi
Freedom Democratic Party,

an alternative to the state's
all-White Democrats.

By summer's end,

the MFDP hoped to send its own
delegation to Atlantic City

as a rival
to the state's regulars

and demand to be seated
in their place.

It would be up
to the national party

to choose between them.

The self-styled

Mississippi Freedom
Democratic Party delegation

represents no one but itself.

And that we have
no other way of doing it

except through the Freedom
Democratic Party

since the state
of Mississippi denied us

the right to participate
in the regular Democratic Party.

Rauh: I was the moderator
of a panel there

on civil liberties.

And from the audience,

after the panelists
had finished,

the first question was,

"What do you think if we bring
a delegation of loyal Democrats

from Mississippi
to the convention

and challenge the regulars
who will be all-White

and will be all anti-Johnson?"

So I didn't have to hesitate.

I said, "I think
it's a wonderful idea.

I urge you to do it."

Joe was particularly placed
to be a pivotal person in this

because he was general counsel
for the United Auto Workers,

Walter Reuther's organization.

And then he was also heading up
the delegation from D.C.

So a few days later,

Bob comes into my office
and says,

"You thought that was such
a hell of a good idea,

will you be the lawyer for us?"

I said, "Yes,"
And that's how I got there.

It was people
taking on a system

at the highest level.

People taking on the folks

who allowed people
to be beaten to death

and shot to death and lynched
and work without pay

and living in ragged houses

at the point
where it could be dealt with.

♪ Which side are you on, boy ♪

♪ Which side are you on ♪

♪ Which side are you on ♪

Moses: What we needed was
some force within that party

to galvanize it and say,

"Look, don't go this way,
go this way.

What you need is not to pamper

to the White, Southern, racist
political power base

within the Democratic Party.

What you need is
to lay the foundation

for building another base."

The regular Democrats
had caucuses,

and so we had caucuses --
precinct caucuses

to elect delegates
to the convention

who would elect the delegates
to go to Atlantic City.

Gray Adams: It was heartwarming
to see these people

who had not
the slightest notion,

including myself,
of what the political arena

was like really out there
taking hold,

setting up
the precinct meetings,

setting up the county meeting,

setting up
the district meetings.

They, like us,
knew that every step

was taking us another step.

♪ You'll either be
a Freedom Fighter ♪

Holland:
So what Miss Hamer have me do

when I would go
from door to door

is to tell people that
if we stick together,

then we can take the seats
up there in Washington,

at the convention
in Atlantic City.

We can become great.
So this -- What this --

This is exactly what I would
tell the people

when I went to try to get them
to come to the meeting.

And I remember telling
Miss Hamer,

"They gonna seat you all,
Miss Hamer."

And she said,
"Oh, you think so, Ida?"

I said, "Yes, ma'am,
they gonna seat y'all."

♪ Oh, freedom ♪

Sellars:
They had an objective in mind

to throw out the Dixiecrats
and throw out those people

who are not loyal
to the Democratic Party

and to put themselves
into those positions.

I said if they told the story,
which I knew, they would appeal

to the consciousness
of almost everybody

who was a straight-thinking
American citizen.

What people were
really waiting for

is "What is gonna happen, right,
at the end of this summer?

What is the response
of the National Democratic Party

going to be?

Is there going
to be some attack

on the power base of racism?"

♪♪

And, of course, what the
students brought with them

was the attention
and the pressure of the country.

Alright.
You -- Can you tell us

exactly what have you
learned here?

Ganz: The press was a critical
part of this struggle,

and they knew it.

And they knew that
their telling the story

was a big part of making
the whole thing happen.

The Mississippi summer
was a media summer,

and I recognized that,

and I also recognized
that I was a media person.

That is to say,
many of them sought me out.

I think partly because
my father was in politics

and we recognized that we were
powerful people in the sense

that we'd come from families

and just being there
brought our families with us.

Just our appearance in the state
with a declared social agenda

was going to be
a major step all by itself.

And the media circus
that followed us

was probably going to have
the most major impact.

Our first step would be
to sign people up

to the Freedom Democratic Party.

Just that put them
at a certain level of risk.

Then there was getting people
to talk to you.

Holland: So then they started
using teams, Whites and Blacks,

because I think that the reason
they used the Whites

because Blacks had a hard time
saying no to White folk.

You don't care
what they were saying.

So they used the White women,
and we would go in teams

and we would try
to get people to go vote.

They would say,
"Yes, ma'am, I'm going.

Yes, ma'am, I'm going.
I'll be there tomorrow."

And by the time they left,
they go inside,

shut the door,
pull the curtains down,

and say,
"I ain't going nowhere."

And a little White girl --

"I can't understand
what happened."

All along, we'd be giggling
behind our hands, us Blacks,

'cause we understood
what had happened.

♪♪

Dorsey: What I remember
about meeting White kids

the first time
who were movement kids --

young people in the movement --
was their demeanor,

how they --
how they treated us,

um, how they approached you,

how they were courteous
and polite,

and how they didn't
talk down to you.

And there was no fear
associated in talking to them.

There was no consciousness
of your place with them.

♪ Kumbaya ♪

Holland: These students
were all from colleges,

you know, major colleges
across the United States,

and they would help me
get my language together,

help me get my speech together.

Books was brought in
by the truckload

from various points
by people who understood

that there were still homes
in the Mississippi Delta

where there were no books

and there were people
eager to learn,

I mean, who just soaked up stuff
like sponges, you know?

♪ Ohhh, Lord ♪

Chude Allen:
I taught what we called
Negro history in the morning.

That was my core class,

and I didn't know
this information myself.

I went to one of the best
liberal arts colleges

in the country,

and I did not know
this information.

And so there was this feeling --

a great feeling
of responsibility to go home,

go back to the dormitory
every night and to prepare,

because here were people
that -- that wanted it all.

♪ Ahhhhh ♪

Holland: People had sent
lots of books down

and the movement
had started a library.

And then I got
my first introduction

to a Black person who was
writing -- Richard Wright.

And as I read Richard Wright's
book, I kept thinking,

"Well, do you mean Black folk
can actually write books?"

Because I'd always been told
Blacks had done no great things.

They hadn't done anything.

We had nothing
that we could be proud of.

♪♪

Dorsey: We all looked
into the things

because it was part
of the overcoming

the low self-esteem

that we'd been made
to feel about ourselves

and sort of reexamine
our practices

and our behavior
from positions of strength.

Hayes: I always felt inferior
to the northern students.

Personally, I thought
they were smarter than we were.

I thought -- And they thought
they were smarter than we were.

I knew we knew more about
Mississippi than they did,

but they had the ability
to carry out these long analyses

and intellectual discussions
about our environment,

and that seemed like
a foreign language to us.

Ganz:
There were cultural tensions

and leadership tensions,

and I mean, just all the things
that kind of go

with this encounter
of these very different,

very different cultures
and very different people.

I grew up believing that
the police were your friends.

They were the crossing guards
who helped you cross the street

and the place to call
if you ran into trouble.

And I said, "Well, dear,

I never, ever at any time
thought the police was my friend

because anytime the police
showed up in my community,

it meant trouble."

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Ganz: The experience
of arbitrary power

being used against you

was something
that made me crazy.

The feeling of being able
to depend on only yourself

and those most immediately
close to you,

that the courts, the law,
the whole system

was not there to defend you,

but it was in fact
there to oppress you.

I mean, to do you in.

And there's no appeal
to rule of reason

or law or anything like that.

It's just, "Hey, that's --
He's got the power."

Whew! That's a real powerful,
emotional exp--

You grew up in a safe,
middle-class community,

you don't experience that.

And there was a combination
of a feeling of powerlessness

and rage together
that really, um...

makes you want to consider
almost any means

of dealing with that
because it totally takes away

your -- your humanity
and your dignity.

You know, I mean, for me,
I could get on a plane

and go back to Bakersfield.

And so, I mean,
I can never know

what it is to live with that
all my life.

For me, it was just a taste,

but that taste
was one that, uh...

Well, it changed my life.

♪♪

♪♪

There was a time when
many people in Mississippi

thought that the disappearance

of the three civil-rights
workers was a hoax.

But now that their murdered
bodies have been discovered,

confirming what many refuse
to believe,

the voices of doubt are still.

Narrator: On August 12, 1964,
the bodies of Goodman,

Schwerner, and Chaney
were found.

♪ We are not afraid ♪

♪ We are not afraid ♪

♪ Today ♪

♪ Oh, deep in my heart ♪

♪ I do believe ♪

♪ Oh, we shall overcome ♪

♪ Someday ♪

Narrator: Two days later,

the Freedom Party
began its convention.

The state convention
for the Freedom Democratic Party

is now in session.

[ Cheers and applause ]

I consider this
an assemblage of people

who, yes, have come through
the wilderness of tears,

who, yes, have come
through the beatings,

the harassment,
the brutalization,

and I consider this a convention
that speaks to the nation

and speaks to the world

and its voice is saying
that the day has come

when racism must be banished

from the political-body politic
of our country and people.

[ Cheers and applause ]

♪ Go tell it on the mountain ♪

I said,
"Politics is a tough game.

The president has more strength
than everybody else

put together at
his renomination convention.

But we've got such a wonderful
case against the other side."

I told them
they were gonna win.

♪ Let me people go ♪

Walking in to the hall
that Sunday morning

and -- and seeing
all of these people here

and how pleased they were

and how proud they were
with themselves and each other

was just one fantastic reward

for all of the risk that had
been taken up until that time.

They knew that we're
going to Atlantic City.

You know, the sharecroppers,
the maids,

the, you know, the people,

those who always looked
elsewhere for their leadership,

always looked to other people
for their leadership.

Narrator: The MFDP was
winning allies in the North.

9 Democratic delegations
and 25 congressmen

had decided
to back its challenge.

♪ Go tell it on the mountain ♪

♪ To let my people go ♪

And then you can begin to see

that maybe you are
stepping onto the --

onto the stage of history

because you could begin
to see this --

this mammoth thing unfold.

And it was much bigger
than life.

It was much bigger
than any one of us.

And it was through the efforts
of all that it came together.

♪ Nothing but freedom ♪

♪ Over me, over me ♪

We knew that we were,
you know,

the true representatives
of the people going,

so I think everybody was up.

♪ And go home to my Lord ♪

♪ And be free ♪

I felt that our argument
was strong enough

and certainly valid.

I had expectations that
they were gonna go up there

and really give
the Democratic Party fits.

♪ Oh, I'll be a slave ♪

♪ I'll be buried in my grave ♪

I think we thought
anything could happen,

that they might could
go up in and unseat people.

We had the kind of confidence
that the righteous have.

Nothing could happen
except success.

♪ No more moanin' ♪

Sellars:
We took up a number of people

who had never been
out of the state of Mississippi

in their lives.

Some had never been out of
the county that they grew up in.

And here they were, going north
to represent their families

and their friends
and their party

and their county
and their precinct.

And it was just a good
feeling that here we are.

We on the threshold
of bringing about change.

♪ Oh, freedom ♪

♪ Oh, freedom ♪

♪ Oh, freedom ♪♪

♪ Miss Dolly ♪

♪ It's so nice to have
you back where you belong ♪

♪ You're lookin' swell, Dolly ♪

♪ I can tell, Dolly ♪

♪ You're still glowin',
you're still crowin' ♪

♪ You're still goin' strong ♪

♪ I feel the room swayin' ♪

♪ While the band is playin' ♪

Rauh: I was certain that
the Democratic Party

would cast out the Dixiecrats
from Mississippi.

I had real hopes that we were
on the verge of a breakthrough.

♪ Dolly must never go away
again ♪

♪♪

Narrator: To gain seats

as Mississippi delegates
to the convention,

the MFDP would first
need to testify

before the credentials
committee.

The delegates carried
with them evidence

they had been shut out
of the political system.

As challengers, they set out

to win the hearts
and minds of the nation.

Ganz: On the boardwalk across
from the convention center,

there was the picture of
Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner.

And that was sort of our
encampment over there

and our vigil
that we were holding.

Sellars: We brought
the Freedom Singers out

and we sung freedom songs,
and we had the delegates out,

lobbying people on the boardwalk

and lobbying other delegates
and telling the story.

We did everything
that we could possibly do

to make the case

for the Mississippi
Freedom Democratic Party.

Go tell it on the mountain

♪ Over the hills... ♪

We had the burnt-out
Ford station wagon

that Goodman, Chaney,
and Schwerner were in.

We got the bell
from the church that burned.

We had anticipated
just appealing

to the consciousness
of America,

and America would stand up
and say, "No more, Mississippi."

♪ ...go ♪

♪ Children of the Israelites ♪

♪ Oh, let my people go ♪

Reporter #3:
With its special coverage

of the activities leading
to the opening

of the Democratic
National Convention.

The Credentials Committee
of the Democratic Convention

has now begun to deal
with the case

of the Mississippi
rival delegation...

Narrator:
As Mississippi's Dixiecrats

fought against seating
the Freedom delegates,

the MFDP brought its story
to national television.

And what I want the credentials
committee to hear

is the terror
which the regular party uses

on the people of Mississippi,

which is what the next witness
will explain.

Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer.

Moses: I remember being in back
of the Credentials Committee

when Mrs. Hamer was testifying.

It was the 31st of August
in 1962

that 18 of us traveled
26 miles

to the county courthouse
in Indianola

to try to register to become
first-class citizens.

Moses: And that was a wonderful
charging experience,

right, to hear her deliver
that testimony

in front of all those people
and to the whole country.

...Indianola,
where the bus driver

was charged that day

with driving a bus
the wrong color.

Reporter #4: We will return to
this scene in Atlantic City,

but now we switch
to the White House

and NBC's Robert Goralski.

Rauh: Johnson saw her
and blew his stack,

and he called a press conference
to get her off the air.

On this day nine months ago...

Moses: Here you had a story

that the country
really needed to hear,

and what you have is the
president of the United States

thwarting
the democratic process.

That night, the networks really
fixed Johnson's wagon.

They replayed
Fannie Lou Hamer in full.

If the Freedom Democratic
Party is not seated now,

I question America.

Is this America,

the land of the free
and the home of the brave,

where we have to sleep
with our telephones off the hook

because our lives
are being threatened daily

because we want to live

as decent human beings
in America?

Thank you.

[ Applause ]

Boy, after that,
it was just like we had it made.

Man #6: I am proud to report
to you as chairman

of the Oregon delegation
to this convention

that in a meeting
of the delegation this morning,

we voted 20 to nothing

to take this Mississippi issue
to the floor

of this convention.

[ Cheers and applause ]

♪♪

♪ Let my people go ♪

♪ Look like the children
by Moses' land ♪

♪ Let my people go ♪

Dorsey:
I mean, we were charged up,

and we were right that
what these folk were doing

were wrong and immoral

and that they were not
playing by the rules,

which, in fact,
we've been taught

that the country
was supposed to go by.

And I don't think
that if this issue

gets to the floor
of that convention,

that they can
possibly turn them down.

I don't see how they
possibly can do it

if they really understand
what's at stake.

Dorsey: And we thought
that once we presented ourselves

in an organized fashion

where you would actually
confront people

with what they were doing
that was wrong

and remind them of what
they were supposed to be doing

and they would simply stop doing
what was wrong.

This is America.

I believe any man
should be able to rise.

Narrator: Although
Mississippi's Dixiecrats

threatened to campaign
for the Republican candidate,

they held one advantage
over the MFDP.

President Johnson feared
that seating a Black delegation

would lose him
the entire Southern vote.

Reporter #5: Delegates of
the Freedom Democratic Party.

These people who have,
in their convention in Jackson,

Mississippi,
turned themselves delegates.

Narrator:
Johnson gave Hubert Humphrey

the job of stopping
the MFDP's bid.

[ Chuckles ] Well, so then
Hubert Humphrey came to town

and, you know, Mr. Liberal.

And it turned out that
he'd been sent in by Johnson

as a hatchet man.

My only interest in this

is that it was an attempt
to try to bring about

a reconciliation of views
and the hopes

to keep our convention united.

Sellars:
If Humphrey wanted to be

the Democratic vice
president nominee,

then he would have to assist
in bringing about a compromise

because Lyndon did not
want to alienate

the Southern constituency,
the Southern Dixiecrats.

Johnson puts pressure
on everybody.

His pressure on me
was very simple.

He took the two people
who probably would have

had the most important part
in my life at that moment.

Hubert Humphrey,
my close political associate.

And Walter Reuther,
the head of UAW,

the autoworkers of which
I was the general counsel.

That was my best client.
So he's a genius at that.

I think he must have studied
at the foot

of a famous British politician

who said, "Every man
has his price."

All of a sudden, we started
getting all these reports back

that people
were having to change.

And I remember
very specifically a woman

from the California
delegation here

who -- who -- a Black woman
who broke down crying

after she'd been visited

by one of the Democratic
powers-that-be

told that, well, her husband
was up for a judgeship

and he could just forget it
if she voted

for the Freedom Delegation.

Well, welcome to the real world
of Democratic politics.

Tuesday afternoon
was the real crux of the fight.

Mondale:
It may not satisfy everybody...

Narrator: At the Credentials
Committee meeting,

Humphrey's protégé,
Walter Mondale,

offered a compromise solution
approved by Johnson.

At the same moment, away
from the committee hearing,

Humphrey requested a separate
meeting with MFDP leaders.

They wanted to meet with
a few of us over at the hotel,

and they began a discussion
of what the administration

was willing to propose
to the delegation,

which was essentially an offer
for a symbolic power.

That wasn't what -- was anything
that we could accept.

Mondale: We recommend that
the convention adopt

the following resolution.

Rauh: Walter Mondale kept saying
it was now a fair compromise.

When I finally got the floor,
I said, "Look,

we have made progress,
but you've got to ask

Aaron Henry, the head
of the delegation,

what he thinks."

At that moment,

Aaron Henry and Bob
and all the others

were with Reuther and Humphrey.

I begged for an adjournment
for a couple of hours.

"Vote, vote, vote!"

You could hear it
like a legal lynching.

I did everything I could
at the time.

I tried to filibuster.

"Vote, vote, vote!"

I made a motion that we have
a roll call.

"Vote, vote, vote!"

Hopeless.

It was just decided to go ahead.

Reporter #6: If you've been out
to the movies

hear in a few seconds

what has happened so far
in the convention this evening.

The Credentials Committee,
after laborious work,

came up with a compromise

to accept the Mississippi
delegation from the one

that is mainly Negro

into the convention hall
as honored guests

and to let two of its members
cast votes

as delegates at large,
which is something

that has never been heard of
in a convention before.

Moses:
When we left the meeting,

we found a phalanx
of media people

with cameras out in the hallway,
and they were asking us,

What did we feel
about the compromise?

And it gradually dawned on us
that a decision had been reached

while we were
actually discussing

what the proposal would be.

It was just complete,
you know,

manipulation and cynicism.

You feel the acceptance
of a compromise,

whether it was a victory
at this point?

Yes, I do.

I think it was a victory
for the forces of reason,

and I think it was a victory
for the Democrats.

I think it was a victory
for our country.

Moses: The next day,
then we had the big meeting

to discuss whether or not
the delegation wanted

to accept these
two symbolic seats.

They didn't just offer the
delegation two seats at large.

They offered the delegation
two seats

at large to be occupied
by Aaron Henry and Ed King,

the chairman of the delegation
and the national committeeman.

And we spent I don't know
how long there.

I know it was a long time

and people debated why we should
and why we shouldn't.

Sellars: Many of the people
who were coming in,

we thought were people
who were gonna be supportive

and encourage us to fight,
not to accept the compromise.

And what was happening
is that these people

were turning almost
in your -- in your face.

Almost every liberal
spokesperson of the time came.

I sat in the church. There was
the Freedom Delegation.

Edith Green, Wayne Morris,
Dr. King, Walter Reuther.

Everybody came through
that afternoon and made speeches

recommending
to the Freedom Delegation

that they accept
the compromise.

They thought, you know,

"Hey, this is something.
It's better than nothing."

But the fact of the matter
was it was nothing.

Sellars: And I think
it was Miss Hamer who said

that we have come too far.
We worked too hard.

We've suffered too much
to come up here

and not get anything
but a crumb of bread.

Moses:
It was very clear to them

that they were not being asked
to share power.

The question was called for,
the vote was taken.

And the answer was no,
we won't accept it.

And, uh, that was a pretty
sobering moment.

Narrator: The regular
Mississippi Democrats

also rejected the compromise.

They refused to honor its call
for a loyalty oath

to the Democratic ticket and
walked out of the convention.

In a last attempt
at symbolic recognition,

MFDP members tried to fill
the empty Mississippi seats.

Chancellor:
I'm now in the middle

of the Mississippi Freedom
Democratic Party

or what's left of it.

They say all 68
or 69 delegates are here.

They are starting
their march in the hall now.

Ganz: We decided, "Well, we're
gonna just take this thing

the next step and get seated
on the floor anyway

in protest against
what was going on."

Reporter #7: One by one,

the members
of the Freedom Delegation

from Mississippi
are getting into the hall,

and they are doing it
by sending one in at a time

to borrow credentials
from those who are already in,

carry them out
of their pockets

and give it to somebody else.

This process is being repeated

and presumably soon
they will all be inside.

Reporter #8:
Could you tell us, sir,

did you walk in
with a ticket?

Man #7: Yes, I have a ticket.
I walked in.

Moses: What that convention was,
it was a huge classroom.

People were actually learning
the democratic process,

right, in the convention.

It was a great sort of theater
for empowerment.

Woman #5:
Before the eyes of the world,

they are peaceful and loving.

And when they get back
to Mississippi,

"Nigger, you can't come in here.
Nigger, you can't come in there.

Nigger, you get out!"

All we want is a chance
to be a part of America.

Ganz: The last night, Johnson
came out on the balcony,

across from our vigil

of Goodman, Chaney,
and Schwerner

and tried to speak,
and we tried to do everything

we can to let him know
that his actions spoke louder

than any words
he could possibly say.

And, uh...

we left Atlantic City with this
profound sense of betrayal.

♪♪

♪♪

It undermined for me
any faith in what --

what is called
the democratic process

in this country.

I mean, angry, wondering,
where do you go from here?

What is the next step
if you've done everything?

If the official
electoral process doesn't work

because Blacks were excluded

and you've done everything
you could with nonviolence,

then with organizing

and with talking with people
and being reasonable,

and if that doesn't work,
where do you go next?

My hopes and dreams
about being part

of the National
Democratic Party was dead.

♪ Beep beep, bang bang,
ungawa, black power ♪

♪ Beep beep, bang bang,
ungawa, black power ♪

Moses: You lost a group
of young Black people

who were looking to
that political process

as a legitimate process

for entering
into real power sharing.

And then you also
began to disillusion

a whole generation
of young White people.

[ Indistinct yelling ]

The Democratic Party
missed the chance

to capture the attention and
energy of the generation

that really set the tone
for the '60s.

♪♪

Ganz: They were afraid
of young people,

they were afraid of change,

they were afraid of opening
the doors to all the new ideas

and fresh blood that wanted in.

And it's like
they had erected barriers

and wanted to keep us out.

And to their own ultimate,
um, uh...

Not just to their shame,
but to their --

to their undoing.

♪♪

Moses: What happened there
in '64 symbolized

the situation
that we're in now,

that is the National
Democratic Party

and the political leadership
of that time said,

"Okay, there's room
for these kind of people."

Right?

And it was the professional
people within our group, right,

who were asked to become part

and actually did become part
of the Democratic Party.

But on the other hand,
they said,

"There isn't room
for these people."

Right? The grassroots people,
the sharecroppers,

the common workers,
the day workers, right?

There's room for them
as recipients of largesse.

Right?
Poverty programs and the like.

There isn't room for them as
participants in power sharing.

A different scenario that could
have worked its way out

would have been for empowering
the Freedom Democratic Party.

There would have been
a struggle,

right, and vicious struggle,
but not armed struggle.

At once it got
into armed struggle

and rioting and shooting and
calling in the National Guard,

then you got
into a polarization,

which we are not out of yet.

It's one of the great tragedies
of this country.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Dorsey:
Economically, I think things
are worse in many ways.

I can take you to places
where people still live

under very oppressive poverty.

There are places like this
still in this state.

But the most significant thing
I think

that the movement gave to us

was it removed people
from fear.

The freedom from fear of being
dragged out of your house

in the middle of the night
for daring

to want to be
a part of the mainstream,

a want to dream,
a want to participate,

a want to have
that equal justice

and equal pay for equal work

that my father
used to talk about.

The generations since the
movement have not been taught

to stay in their place
or to understand

that there's a certain way
to walk and stand

and look at
and relate to White people.

And I think that is --
For Whites and Black,

I think that is the most
significant contribution

that it made to the people.

♪♪

Narrator: SNCC won a major
battle in Mississippi.

One year after Atlantic City,

Congress passed
the Voting Rights Act,

guaranteeing for the first time
since Reconstruction,

federal supervision
of elections.

Hayes: And so we walk in
in 1961

with everything segregated,
no voters.

The first voter we take
to register to vote

is shot down and killed
by no less than a representative

of the state of Mississippi.

But by 1965, 4 years later,

the books were open for these
people to be registered to vote.

When I came back and we went
to a fast-food restaurant

and somebody said,
"Let's go on in here and order,"

I said, "Child, we can't go
in here, can we?"

They said, "Yeah,"
and we went to the counter

and a White man was behind
the counter and he said,

"May I help you, ma'am?"

And that's when I said --

And, girl, I bought
the hamburger,

the coffee, the French fries,

because every time he had
to say, "Ma'am" and "thank you."

And never before had
I heard a White man,

you know, a local White man
saying that kind of thing.

♪♪

Hayes:
And I wish it were possible.

I wish it were possible
for young people now to --

Even if it was just for a day --

to experience
the kind of camaraderie

and the kind of commitment
that we were a part of.

I mean, to hear of someone
in danger

and see people run
to that danger as hunger --

As a hungry man would run
to food

to give a hand, to give help.

Um...

There are not words
truly to explain it. I mean...

♪♪

I still struggle to have
that experience.

I still look for that commitment
to ideals

greater than the individual.

It speaks to the needs of
the whole community of humanity.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪ Woke up this morning
with my mind ♪

♪ Stayed on freedom ♪

♪ Oh, woke up this morning
with my mind ♪

♪ Stayed on freedom ♪

♪ Oh, woke up this morning
with my mind ♪

"August 7, 1964,
Ruleville, Mississippi.

Dear Ollie.

Ollie, this is the greatest
experience of my life.

I wonder what in the hell
I have been doing

for the last 22 years

before I came down here
and really lived."

♪ Stayed on freedom ♪

♪ Oh, walking and talking
with my mind ♪

Because the core values that
were behind Mississippi Summer

actually still believe
are broader than just 1964,

broader than civil rights,

but about remaking society.

♪ Hallelu ♪

♪ Hallelujah ♪

It was an incredible high

to all of a sudden
be with women

and to hear women
talk about experiences

that were similar to your own.

And that's when it dawned on us
that it was not private.

It was not personal.
It was political.

And, you know, that was it.

I started organizing women.

♪ Hallelu ♪

♪ Hallelu ♪

♪ Hallelujah ♪

♪ Let's walk!
Come on and walk ♪

Sellars: You think about
all the creative kinds of things

that we did.

When you look at
all the new organizations,

you began to see
that things have changed.

They're not what they --
what they used to be

and they're certainly not
the best that they could be.

But they have changed.

♪ Walk, walk,
we're gonna walk ♪

Malva: To know that
we were not alone,

that we were free,
you might say,

we almost felt like
we could just...

And we quite literally
didn't have to avoid

certain subjects anymore

There we stood,
and to hell with you.

♪ Ahhh ♪

♪ Stayed on freedom ♪

I think one reason
why a lot of us

who went through that experience
are still at it

in one way or another
is because it gave us hope.

In other words, we didn't
experience being defeated.

Yes, we had reverses.

Yeah, the Democratic convention,
this, that and the other.

But we -- we kept
moving forward.

And that's what
keeps people hanging in there,

is hope.

♪♪

Holland: I'm -- First of all,
I'm Dr. Endesha Ida Mae Holland,

and nobody forget that.

[ Laughing ]

That's the funniest thing
and it's the grandest

and the glorious thing
I've ever heard of.

Just think --
little cat from Greenwood

could achieve that.

So that's who I am,
and I'm also a writer.

I write plays.

I write plays that deals

with the history of people
here in Mississippi.

♪♪

We now have more
elected officials in the state

of Mississippi than we have
in any other state in the Union,

who are Black
or African-Americans.

♪♪

Dorsey: If you go look
at the registration book

and you'll find that it's signed
Lula Clara Warren Dorsey,

and maybe even with a Mrs.

because part of
the registration thing,

it also gave us
our courtesy titles.

We were no longer girl and boy.

We were real people.

♪♪

Wherever you find one picture
of one individual

who was associated with
this movement in Mississippi,

you find somebody
doing something different

all the way down
to little people like me

buying a sewing machine
for a group of five ladies

to make African clothes.

That one sewing machine
will employ 20 people in Africa.

And that, to me,
is still SNCC in Africa.

♪♪

Moses: How is a country

which is increasingly
pluralistic

with a lot of nationalities,
cultures, right,

languages, right,
which must all work together,

how does it find something
which can drive everybody

towards the common good
for everyone?

♪♪

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