Original subtitles

Last on roots.

I feel we have kept company long enough for me to propose to you that

we discuss the contract of marriage.

Sincerely, W.E. Palmer.

I will, with a suitable show of modesty, allow you...

Place my name and nomination on your slate.

Good. Against your own par.

I don't need you.

I can make my own contacts.

These are the newest things.

Thank you.

Papa?

We've got something we want to talk to you about.

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here tonight.

I'm going to make a success out of this business.

That's my way of winning this year's fight.

That means I'm making do.

And that means I'm going straight forward.

This here, our grandchild, this family going to go forward.

Good luck. Thank you, Miss Perry.

Well, you're going to meet the most important people in the world.

At length? Shakespeare, Plato, Carlisle. And I want you to be good friends with

all of them.

I'll try, Uncle Jim.

Oh, let me help you with that, Mr. Palmer.

Mm-hmm, go.

Miss Cynthia, you remember my boy Frank.

My Lance child, I wouldn't have knowed you.

How long you been gone? Almost five years, Miss Palmer. The last two years

of medical school, residence and internship.

Now he's ready to practice.

You're gonna be the first colored doctor in this county. Yes, ma'am. But I think

first I better set this trunk down somewhere.

Bertha, I am very proud of you. You are one of my very best pupils.

Miss Carey, my girl's got brains. Just look at this truck right here.

Call 22, your lumber number.

I see. That her idea.

That's like a little rhyme, see? First come lumber, then right after it come

the number. Oh, Papa, stop it.

Now, Bertha, you'll do very well at Lane.

I have something for you.

It's by a young man who I remember was just starting fist when I graduated.

Souls of black folks.

Oh, thanks so much, Miss Carey.

I'll read it as soon as I can.

You gonna give them hell in Washington?

Good to see you, Clyde.

Now, don't you worry, Congressman. I'm gonna put your bag on the train myself.

Thank you, Walker.

I tell you, Earl, this is the session.

The South is gonna rise again.

Think you're gonna have trouble with the new president?

I mean, he's a professor from New Jersey.

Virginia.

What did you say, Papa?

Virginia.

Starting Virginia, that's where Woodrow Wilson was born.

The old man's right.

Even if Wilson was president of Princeton College, he was born in the

South. That's right, isn't it, Pop?

Pardon?

Wilson.

Ah, I knew her.

Theodore Wilson.

Captain of 1st Louisiana Zoo on 63, I believe.

Sure, Papa.

You just stay there now. Listen to your arteries harden.

Let me tell you, Earl, half old Wilson's captain of the Southerners.

He's already put out an executive order to Jim Crow, the Post Office, the

Treasury, and even the Bureau of Printing and Engraving.

He's going to do business with us good old boys from the South.

It's the truth, Papa.

Y'all were pikers in the old days.

We Southerners are going to rule the nation.

Train coming.

Take it easy, Polly. You ain't going anywhere.

Where's Miss Satchelor?

She's got important papers in there, sir. Sure, Polly. You just stay right in

the car, yeah?

Don't let him wander off, Earl.

She hadn't looked well since your mother died.

I know.

He had another attack last Thursday. They took him to Dr. Kendall.

Who told you?

Not your brother.

Minnie. She heard it all from the kitchen.

Mama, please.

Why are you crying?

Oh, I just wish your grandpa Tom and your grandma Irene was here to see this

date. You going off to college? The first one in this family.

Now, you got your ticket? Yes, Papa. And you got your letter, credit? Mm-hmm.

It's the flattest bank.

Yes, Papa.

Now, you look here, girl.

If you have any kind of trouble, you write me. I won't have no trouble, Papa.

You listen to me.

I'll be up there so fast, your hair will spin, you hear?

Take care of yourself.

Be a good girl, all right?

I will, Papa. I promise.

Anything you need at all, you just write me, okay?

Papa!

We already got one.

Probably his heart. His heart?

I got to check his lungs. Colonel!

What you doing?

Get your filthy black hands off him!

It's all right. He's a doctor. Get the hell out of here!

Colonel, what's the matter? You all right? He can treat this man. It's all

right. He's a doctor. Frank! He's suffering from a heart failure. His

lungs are filling up. You need to get out of here. Don't you tell me what to

do, nigger!

Frank? Now get out of here. I'm a doctor. I can help him. Doctor!

Go get Doc Kendall.

Give me a hand and get him in the auto. No, don't let him take him, Frank.

Frank, don't let him take him, please.

Keep his head up.

You got to keep his head over his...

I used to watch him from across the street.

I never been this close to my grandpa before.

I know.

He missed a great deal.

So did you.

Get him in here.

He'll die before they get him to Dr. Kendall.

both sides of the equation by A.

Add the components of both sides of the equation, which makes the left-hand side

a perfect square.

Back to both sides of the equation.

Take the square root of both sides.

Now you take the square root of both... Miss Palmer.

Miss Bertha Palmer.

Would you favor us with the answer to the question just posed?

May I ask further?

Do you have the faintest idea of what the question was?

Uh... Uh... No.

When I was your age, young lady, I walked all the way from my home in

Georgia to Hampton Institute in Virginia, where I was enrolled by the

great Mr.

Booker T. Washington himself.

in the first night school class.

We labored in the fields all day and pursued knowledge by lamplight. Do you

know what Mr. Washington dubbed us?

Michelle?

He called you the plucky ones.

Indeed he did.

The plucky ones.

I submit to you, Miss Palmer, how will y'all go forth as leaders of the race if

you cannot pay attention to the general quadratic equation?

You may sit down.

Mr. Simon Haley.

Would you step to the board, please, and complete the derivation?

X equals minus...

Minus B plus or minus the square root of B squared minus 4AC.

You mean he hasn't asked you yet?

Well, no, not exactly.

I'm a net lead birthday.

The church picnic is this Saturday. I suppose that Eddie Franklin thinks he's

the cat's whiskers. He's always like that. My papa says that his papa is just

nouveau riche. Eddie Franklin is nothing in my young life.

Bertha, you just can't go with a boy if he asks you at the last minute.

I'd die first.

It's just like admitting you're not popular.

Or being taken for granted.

Uh-oh.

Don't look.

Don't look.

He's coming over.

Well, well.

Miss Bertha Paul.

As I live and breathe in the flesh.

Don't be vulgar, Mr. Franklin. You tell them, Goldfish.

You've been around the globe.

No, really, Bertha. I just came by to tell you I'd come around on Saturday at

11. Well, whatever for?

A church picnic.

While the wagon leaves in front of the chapel at 11.30.

Mr. Franklin, I do not remember that you invited me to company use anywhere.

Oh, come on, Bertha.

I just took it for granted. As a matter of fact, you're much too late.

I've already accepted another invitation to the picnic.

Well, you tell him, Corset. You've been around the girls.

Oh, he's awful.

He's just awful.

Bertha, you just told a big lie.

I should worry, I should care. I should marry a millionaire.

What are you going to do?

Nobody else really asked you to the picnic.

Oh, she's just stuck.

She'll go with Eddie or she'll stay home.

I'll go if I want to. And I'll go with anybody I choose.

Would you like to take me to the church picnic?

Why, yes, Miss Palmer.

I'd be right proud to escort you to the picnic.

Joke's on you.

You're gonna have to get down off your high horse and beg Eddie Franklin.

No, I won't.

I'll go with him.

Who? Waiter?

Simon Haley?

Bertha, that was just a joke.

No, it wasn't. I asked him and I'll go with him if I want to.

But you can't.

He's just an old country boy with patched bridges and everything.

I should worry, I should care.

I should marry a millionaire.

Now you be careful, Greg.

All right, boys and girls, get ready for the three-legged race.

Would you like the end of the race, Miss Palmer?

No, thank you, Mr. Heather.

I think races are childish.

She must be dying. No, she's not. His daddy is a sharecropper, you understand?

Sophia. It's my time. So wait a minute, I have to wipe off the floor.

You be nice too, Claire.

I suppose you all right.

Three-legged racist child.

Palmer, I don't think we... We're not supposed to... Where are we going?

I just couldn't breathe up there.

I don't think we're just supposed to go off alone.

That's the whole point of chaperone.

I just get so tired of all that old-fashioned rules.

Well, I suppose if you go to a Methodist college, you gotta spec some rules.

And that dumb Professor Loma.

Always going on.

Education is a privilege.

I'll just as soon never hear about that book of T. Washington again.

Oh, Miss Palmer.

You ought not talk like that.

I will if I want to.

Well, not if you read Mr.

Washington's book on his life.

Up from slavery.

There's no doubt in my mind he is the most important Negro in America.

He is?

His speech at the Cotton States Exposition. There he was, one colored

man on the platform with all those white men listening to him.

Them cheering him.

The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social

equality is the extremist father.

And that progress and the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us

must be the result of severe and constant struggle.

rather than artificial forcing.

In all things that are purely so social, we can be as separate as the fingers.

yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.

I'm sorry, but it is funny.

Are you all right?

What's the matter?

Are you hurt? What is it? Oh, no, it's nothing.

It's nothing. I'm all right.

You tore your trousers.

Oh, I'm sorry. It's not funny at all.

I know it is. It's very funny.

Maybe it didn't do bad. Is it a seam? Let me see. No.

It's a three-corner rip.

Here.

Here, let me pin it up for you.

Oh, Miss Palmer.

Shannon, Shannon Harper's moon, up in the sky.

Oh, I ain't had no lovin' since January, January,

June of July.

No, the truth is I noticed you.

I don't mean just in the dining room, but in math class and history and in

choir. No, you didn't.

You're just teasing me some more.

I am not. You sing tenor, you sing next to that boy who's always black.

Maybe I just didn't want to go with Eddie Franklin in the first place.

I appreciate your honesty.

I think you have a very open personality.

Well, I think I'll have to thank you.

I mean, for pointing out to me that I was wrong to make fun of Professor

Lohman and Mr. Washington.

Oh, you didn't mind?

Oh, no.

No, I think it's a mark of a particular dear friend to point out false in such a

sincere manner.

I would like very much to be your particular dear friend.

How do you do, sir?

Hey, uncle, hot enough for you?

Mm-hmm.

Say, I'd like a few words from Mr. Palmer on business.

Yes, sir.

What can I do for you?

Well, that's nice of you, uncle, but I expect I'd better speak to the boss.

You just tell him I'm the new salesman for the great southern lumber company of

Bogalusa, Louisiana.

So if you'd kindly just run and find the owner and give him this.

Mr. Davidson.

I told you, boy, run and get the owner.

I'm the owner.

You are the owner?

Yes, sir.

You're W.E. Palmer?

Yes, sir.

Well, they never told me that at the home office.

Naturally, I mean, you wouldn't expect to find a... Well, I mean... How the

hell was I supposed to know that?

You sure you're the owner?

Oh, yes, sir, I sure.

Um, Mr. Davidson, I suppose you was down here to discuss my lumber order.

Oh, uh, yes, yes, yes. Well, they told me at the home office you've always been

a fine customer.

Of course, they didn't tell me everything at the home office.

Leave me, missus. I knew it would look nifty.

I don't know.

I never bought nothing ready-made before.

Missus, your little girl is coming home on vacation from college.

She'll want her mama to look stylish.

Try it on.

Tasteful. Refined.

Beautiful. I don't think Mr. Palmer would understand. I don't think so, Mr.

Goldstein. Just the odd goods.

Thank you kindly.

Give my regards to the college girl.

Thanks again.

Goodbye. Bye-bye.

Mr. Crowther, now that's a suit.

You let that donkey try clothes on?

I beg your pardon?

Listen here, Goldstein, you're new around here.

You're a Yankee.

A Yankee?

Suppose a white lady came in here to put that thing on after a nigga woman tried

it on.

You have to let people try on.

Not in this town, Goldstein.

You could get yourself into trouble treating niggas like they was white.

Say you ain't gonna charge me extra for shortening.

For you, Mr. Crowther, not a penny extra.

Bertha, do you have any idea what you've done to me?

You're gonna help me, are you not?

Well, you must have known when you gave it to me. I don't know what you're

talking about. The book. The book. You gave it to me.

Souls of Black Folk by Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois.

Well, what you getting so upset about?

It's just some old book by some professor that Miss Kerry Warner gave

me. But you must have realized when you read it that you never read it.

You never read it.

Well, I certainly don't have time to be reading every old book. But he attacks

Booker T. Washington.

He says terrible things about him. You can't attack Booker T. Washington.

Listen.

Mr. Washington represents in Negro thought the old attitude of adjustment

and submission and asks that black people give up three things.

political power, insistence on civil rights, and higher education of Negro

youth. What has been the return?

One, the disenfranchisement of the Negro. Two, the legal creation of a

distinct status of civil inferiority for the Negro. And three, the steady

withdrawal of aid from institutions for the higher training of the Negro.

You acting like you lost your faith in Jesus.

Mr. Washington's coming here for dinner tonight.

He's going to be sitting in this very room.

I still don't see what you're getting so upset about.

Well, you don't understand.

I read up from slavery when I was in grammar school. I have formed my life in

his image.

I worked at the IC yards and house board for white folks and everything to get to

college so I could learn to follow in the steps of Booker T. Washington.

But now I have doubts.

Well, go ahead, laugh. But if this is right, if Mr. Washington is the great

leader of the race because he's saying what the white man wants to hear, to be

humble, don't make trouble,

Be a good nigga.

Ain't nothing left in this world you can believe in.

Phew. What a terrible fuss to make over some book.

Who cares what Professor W.E.B. Du Bois say anyway?

Besides, I love you.

Well, that's a surprise Vacation zone

a dear friend, that's all.

Papa, you've got to teach me to drive this here new car.

Y

'all

finished with school, Simon?

I graduated from Lane, Obie, but, well, there's a lot more I need to learn.

Much obliged, Zobie.

Thank you.

He look fine, Pa.

Real fine.

That's your boy, isn't it, Alec?

Yes, sir. That's my Simon. Yes, sir.

I hardly known him in his city-fied clothes.

Boy, I remember when you used to run around this fairyland naked as a

jaybird.

You've been away to college, ain't you?

Yes, sir.

Lane College.

Is that a fact?

Well, I told you at the time, Alec, there ain't nothing in one of them stuck

-up schools that'll do a colored boy any good but spoil him.

What they ought to do is kick their highfalutin butts back out the fields

where they can help their daddies make a bale of cotton like the good Lord

intended.

Isn't that right, Simon?

Well, there is a lot in what you say, Mr. Perry.

You don't have to worry, Alec. You got a good boy.

He'll soon forget all that stuff they stuffed into his head. Now he's back

home to settle down.

Bet you like to get rid of those shoes, boy, huh?

I swear I ain't ever seen anything as uncomfortable as a country boy with

shoes on.

Get out.

Pa, what did Mr. Perry mean about back home to settle down?

I saw the bank heads out on the road totin' everything they own. What's going

on around here?

Your mama gonna be waitin' supper.

Honey, I made you ball custard.

Like you cried for when you was little. Mama, mama, mama.

With a dab of berry preserves on top. That is nectar and ambrosia. Listen to

that child talk.

Nectar. A nectar, mama, nectar.

That just means it's good.

Mama, Pa said you having that dream again.

Oh, come on down again.

The same dream?

Mm-hmm.

Just the way it happened more than 40 years ago.

In the dry goods store.

This here, Miss Abby Braithwaite.

New in town.

She's thought to serve me first.

Because she got the cataract and don't hardly see it at all. She think I be

white. And I said, Miss Braithwaite.

You serve this other colored lady first, because I am colored too.

She got real pee.

And she tell her husband that I trick her, pass him, and that I sassed her.

And all these men come after me. It be night.

And the men be hollering, and the coonhounds baying for blood.

And I be running, running through the dark with the torches coming after.

And I know if I can run the 15 miles to Saltilla where they's all colored, I'd

be safe.

You got to Saltilla all right, Mama.

Yeah.

But in my dream, I never get there.

Better when Mule come down with Glander, I gonna bust a pickhandle over his head.

Pa, you never did answer me.

Why were the bankheads out on the road?

What did Mr. Perry mean about settling down?

Bo Weevil come two years running.

Mr. Perry, he planted 2,000 acres around here.

Ran most 500 plows.

He even took a loss, so he cut back.

John Bank had been turned out.

Twisted Weevils and the floods are so far behind him, Mr. Perry, for the seed

and the tools and the mule and all that, it about eat up the cash wages from the

fame.

What's that got to do with what Mr. Perry said?

I ain't gonna have no more $50 to give you for your school, like I said.

That's over with.

Darling, the boy work hard to keep himself in school.

I work for my room and board. All I need is the tuition. It's all foolishness

anyways. Because Mr. Perry said? Ain't only Mr. Perry.

All the colors around here say so, too.

They're laughing at me for sending a grown son off to school.

Now, we named this boy after Simon Brooke taught common school here in

Savannah. That was of a purpose.

He's the last of our boys. All others took to farming and cropping fire.

We can waste one out of seven for educating.

The important thing is training people to train others.

Pop, I figure I'm going on to agricultural college for four more

years. Four more years?

Mr. Perry sure got the right of it.

They done stuffed your head full of foolishness up there at that place.

Somebody has got to learn to do better. He's on a worm farm, and he don't need

no four years and no college.

Fact is, you can start tomorrow.

I done made arrangements, Mr. Perry, for you to take up 50 acres in your own

name, and you gonna make him a crop. No.

Pa, I start cropping for Mr. Perry, I ain't never get back to school.

Pa, I'm not gonna be like the ox in the Bible, blinded, gelded, going round and

round, grinding somebody else's corn.

And muzzle so you live and die hungry.

I is a dirt farmer, and that's what your brothers be.

That's what schooling teach you? To be high and proud for scorning your own

people? Think you better than your own kinfolk? That is the point. I tell you

the point.

Ain't no money to waste on a grown man going schooling.

Son, don't you fret yourself.

There will be somewhere you're going back to school.

Not if I'm tired of 50 acres for Mr. Perry.

Mama, I worked as hard as I could. Sometimes I couldn't stay awake in class

for working nights and all.

I got a job this summer for the Pullman Company, but that can't get me ahead

enough money to... Oh, I hate him.

I hate his ignorance and his mission. That's your father. Don't be too hard on

him.

I know there's a couple of men around these parts.

They all broke down from years of sharecropping.

They can't see no further than the crop on the same old bony mule plowing the

same old furrow.

And folks being what they is, they get boiling mad when anyone tries to pull

itself out the mud.

Mama, how am I going to get enough money? I got some washing and ironing

for the white folks. Four bits a week for their shirts and their sheets.

I've been keeping some of it in the snuff tin.

About five years.

$18.37.

Simon, honey.

I has my dream that comes from the trouble and the wickedness of the old

times.

And you got a dream about the times to come.

But your daddy ain't got no dream left at all.

He just go day to day back and forth like the ferry across the river.

A lot of hard work and tribulations.

He ain't going nowhere.

Mama.

That sound like the 938 Memphis train at the Ripley Crossing.

It is.

What they doing out there?

Well... Come away from that window.

She been out there with that young man since supper.

Well, why don't you read your paper?

There's all kind of things going on like that war in Europe.

Now, why don't you just sit down easy and you can tell me who's fighting who.

I already told you that the German cows are fighting with them.

I just don't like it.

I remember is what I had to go through to ask your papa permission to take up.

Ain't nobody asked me nothing.

Your daughter just took the bit in her teeth and took up on her own.

My daughter?

And what does she mean by particular, dear friend?

Probably just what it sound like.

Well, I'm going to go out there on that front porch and I was going to lay down

the law today. Well, that boy is taking out the early morning train.

Saying goodbye.

I says goodbye to you every morning when I goes off to the lumber yard.

And it don't take no hour and a half.

It's no use.

It was a fool idea anyway.

I managed to finish at Lane, but four more years at Agricultural College.

And you work so hard.

Oh, Simon. I shouldn't even have come, but I wanted to say goodbye.

Might as well face it, I haven't even got enough money to start next term.

Agriculturist.

Sharecropper, that's what I'm gonna be.

Yes, sir, Mr. Perry, sir. I sure gonna make you a fine bale of cotton.

Simon Haley.

I've always held a high regard for you.

And we've always said we were particular dear friends.

And... Well, I won't let you just say goodbye.

If you're going to be a sharecropper down in Savannah, I'm going with you.

I don't know.

I love you.

Simon?

I love you so much that...

I couldn't stand seeing you just fade into one of those women I've seen all my

life.

I won't let you go.

Simon, I'm not the same as I was.

I even read that book by Dr. Du Bois.

Souls of Black Folk.

You know you who he's talking about.

The talented tenth.

You've got to go on with your education so you can lead the people.

I ain't been leading nothing except an old mule down a red clay furrow.

Something's going to happen.

What about the job you got this summer with the Pullman Company?

Oh, can't you make enough money to go back to school? Reporters only make $27

a month.

But there are tips.

Oh, Simon, it'll be so exciting.

Porters go everywhere.

New Orleans, Chicago, St. Louis. I don't even know if I can say it enough. And

New York.

And I'll be stuck here in O'Han in Tennessee waiting for you.

Will you?

I mean, would you be waiting for me?

What's the matter?

Something.

Over there on Keller's Hill.

Fire.

It is fire.

Papa! Papa, there's a fire! Papa!

What is it?

There's a fire over on Keller's Hill.

Looked like a cross.

That's funny. There ain't no church over there.

I ain't seen that since I was three years old.

Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.

Kill them niggers.

What you gonna do, little girl?

Put that whoop across one of them back?

What is the insane idea of burning a cross?

Now, lookie here, Andy. Who told you you could start up the Ku Klux Klan in my

district without my permission?

Well, you was gone off in Washington, and I thought that... The hell you did!

It is one mighty fine idea, Andy. It's a business proposition.

Now, it ain't like the old Klan at all. There's these two fellas, insurance

salesmen. They started up on it a couple years ago.

Well, one of them coming to town two months ago.

He's going to let us in on the ground floor, Andy.

Every member pays $10 initiation fee.

I'm the local legal. I get to keep $4.

On top of that, there's the robes and the hoods. Everybody's got to buy them,

and I get 20% commission on that. There's real good money in this thing,

Andy. It's a two-bit proposition. I run this district, and I run it my way. I

say no.

Now, wait a minute.

It's not just the money alone.

This is a white man's country.

And white men gotta stick together against the niggers and the Catholics

and the Jews. I swear you ain't worth taking out of the house on a shovel and

dumping in the gutter. We don't need no fast-talking con men to teach us how to

deal with niggers or Jews.

Hell, all the Jews you've seen in your life, you wouldn't know one if he'd run

up and bit you on the ankle.

You just don't get the point, Andy.

Because, you see, I also figure it'd be powerfully useful against keeping the

darkies in line.

Now this war we got over there in Europe, suppose we was to get in.

They put them niggers in the army and give them all guns.

Well, you finally made a point, Earl.

I guess it can't hurt to have an ace

or two up your sleeve in case you get called.

All right, you go on with whatever it is you call it.

Claver.

With a K, everything starts with a K.

Like I'm the Cleagle. Yes, well, I don't want anything to do with it, you

understand? Any grubby little graft you can squeeze out of those fools is all

yours.

Sure. We won't do nothing without your say-so.

Except maybe a couple cross-burners and whooping some big mouth black.

Just to kind of stimulate interest and keep them ten dollars rolling in.

I don't want you doing anything in my district unless you clear it with me

first.

college boy, huh?

Yes, sir.

Bob and Haley.

Yeah.

I've seen a lot of them. Just like you.

Summers, they come.

Winter, they go.

Everybody, including the ladies, call me Dad.

Dad Jones.

Well, I am in the right place, then. Yeah.

That's your car.

Cayuga Falls.

That's mine.

Mount Washington.

Got your car ready?

Linen, ice, shoe polish, all that truck?

Yes, sir.

You like the job so far?

Well, I guess I do.

Every time I heard the hour strike, I said, there's a half a dollar for next

year's school.

Is that so?

Well, I hate to contradict a wise man when he's talking to himself, but hold

account.

You ain't made a plug nickel yet.

Well, I punched in at 7.30.

Punching in don't matter.

That's time you've given away.

Your pay time don't start till the train pulls out at noon.

And if there ain't sold no berth on your car, you don't get paid even then.

You could be running deadhead maybe 200 miles before you make one red penny.

Now, you're so good looking, you're bound to die rich, but not while you're

working on the railroad.

Well, here they come.

The gates are opening.

make George Pullman happy he hired you. We both need to practice.

Well, that's a shame.

George!

He's calling you.

He said George.

That's you.

You George, I'm George, all got children called George on the railroad.

Now open your face, loosen your jaw, and show that man how glad you is for the

great opportunity.

George! Watch.

Yes, sir!

Yes, sir!

Coming right up, sir.

Now, what we have here, 134. Yes, sir, that's Mount Washington, right over

there. Now, Mr. George Pullman gave me special instructions.

George, he said, now you make sure that that gentleman has a real nice trip. So

anything you want, anything you want at all, you just tell Bojo.

George. Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

Cuyahoga Falls?

Yes, sir. Right this way, sir.

Right this way.

Yes, sir. Welcome aboard, sir.

Anything I can do for you, just call on George.

Fire's up. Cover the fire. Cover the fire.

Here we go. Let's shoot me. Shoot me now. You know how I love the wind.

All right, all right. You can put me off, but I'm going to walk home a rich

man. One more time. You want to see it one more time again? I'm going to give

you one more time. Here she comes. Roll it right back at you.

I think I got the patent number on it. All right, here we go. One more time.

One more time now.

All right, pay me now. You might as well pay me in advance.

No question.

We just got to organize.

You haven't heard that before.

It's getting worse.

In the St. Louis division, they got them doubling out more often than not. Know

what that means?

Two, three weeks without no day off, and the second week at the low rate.

Same in the Chicago division.

Then what are we waiting on if we don't get us in a union? Which one?

Them railroad unions is just like the damn Knights of Labor.

No brotherhood in the Georgia chain gang.

What you gonna do?

Just shuffle around the rest of your life?

Master George Pullman's boy?

The last man called me boy died with the print of my size 12 shoes all over his

backside. And I'd hate to see that happen to a gingerhead fella like you.

The point is, we got to get us our own brotherhood just for us Pullman porters.

That's what I say.

If we get us a union... Watch your mouth.

You know what the company do? They catch us talking union.

I ain't scared of the Pullman Company.

And they ain't scared of you.

We got spies and finks, goons all over the place.

We gotta be careful if we want to talk union. Hey, come on, Phoebe. I bet you

I'm gonna make it. Little Phoebe coming right back. I'll get you. Boys, this

here is a hot hand. Come on. I'm gonna shoot a seven this time the hard way.

Two, three and a half.

Shoot the 60, boys. Shoot the 60.

Come on, fade me, boys. Fade me.

Five dollars open.

What? You heard what I said. I done bust the game.

Where is the new money? Where is the new money? Hey, college boy, I got five

dollars open.

Oh, come on, country boy, what you got? Mule flop in your blood?

I don't know.

Well, the truth is, I... Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, you too good to shoot craps with

us ignorant niggas. Is that it? No, no, I...

Well, actually, I just don't know how.

Oh, well, let me spoil you, college boy. Come on, I'm going to teach you. I've

seen your black hide. Now I want to see the color of your money.

Detroit, let that boy alone.

Who at you, old man?

He's saving his money for his schooling.

Now go on back there and play with yourself and your trick dice.

What do you mean, trick?

Some of them dice of yours are so crooked that when you throw them, they

don't stand straight. They leans.

Are you listening to me, old man?

Lead this fool not into temptation, Lord.

Else I may just have to cut him everywhere except under the bottom of

his feet.

Thank you.

Don't worry about Detroit, son.

It ain't nothing.

I'd be interested in any plans about the Union.

Yeah.

I thought you would be.

But, well, anybody can be a Pullman porter, hustling baggies, carrying

trays, grinning in the white man's face to make a dime.

I don't take no brains.

But you're a student.

That's something special.

So you stick to your books, save your money, keep your nose clean.

Finish writing your letter.

For the first time in months, my dearest, I will be able to get to

Henning to see you.

I finish a run in Memphis next week and will have four days off.

I will arrive on the night train and... Ooh, that is ridiculous. Look at that

girl.

It's the latest thing from Delineator magazine.

Ooh, you wear that, you gonna be hobbled like a rambunctious mule.

Mama, that's the whole idea.

It's a hobble skirt.

You weren't to meet that boy at the depot tomorrow night. You gonna fall

down, Twix, one step and another.

Between, Mama, between. It's not betwixt.

You between.

All you wants to.

I'm betwixt.

You put that letter down. You'd have read the ink clean off of it.

Mama, I'd be so glad to see him.

Oh, oh, I think I'm thankful, baby.

I bet all them fashionable New York ladies fall down a lot.

Yes, ma'am. Here we are, Lucille. Oh,

you nearly crushed that valuable release.

Will you please try to be careful? I'm sorry, ma'am. I'm sorry about that. I'll

get you a red cap.

Why can't you carry my bags out to the car?

It's against regulations, ma'am.

Ridiculous.

Yeah, take this one first.

I want you to know that I spent a perfectly terrible night. I didn't sleep

a wink.

Yes, ma'am, I know.

I'm sorry about that.

Now, I had seven pieces. You sure they're all there?

Yes, ma'am.

Seven pieces.

Exactly seven pieces.

Yeah, that ought to do it.

Thank you very much.

One dime.

That's all. One dime. That lady rang that bell last night. Every hour on the

hour. Ice water, clean washcloths, open the window, close the window.

Yeah, you lucky.

Good drumming them down a whole pint of Irish whiskey.

Got sick all over the upper berth. Yeah, well, at least you get paid extra for

being acting conductor.

Sure I do.

Ten dollars if I do it for the whole month.

White conductor gets $120 for the same job.

Well, Dad, I will even forgive that lady her miserable dime.

Because after six days straight, I'm going to be on my way to Henning to see

my beautiful bertha.

What?

What's the matter?

I just got the schedule from the division super.

I think they got you doubling out on the next train.

What?

Well, I've been on six days straight, 24 hours a day. I know, I know, but there

it is.

Haley, 1019 double out.

Oh.

Well, I'm supposed to see my girl in Henning.

Well, my company ain't studying you or your girl.

And that's a small skimption compared to how they figure you pay.

Six days straight at the regular wage and then...

For the next six, instead of paying you more, they pay you less.

We got to get us a union. I guess I have to send a telegram.

I guess they delivered to her father at the lumberyard.

Son, let me give you a piece of advice.

I know H.L. Willett, conductor on that run, and he is one mean redneck.

So, you be careful, yeah?

10-19.

It goes right by, Henning.

It doesn't even stop unless they flag it down for a passenger.

Come on here.

No.

Son. Well, where's your passenger?

Least me.

Over here.

You did flag down the train, didn't you?

It ain't my fault.

Well, you ain't supposed to flag down the train unless you got a passenger.

Didn't you get my telegram?

I just had to see it. Yeah, but the train wouldn't have stopped if it hadn't

been flagged down for me.

Oh, we've got the angels on our side tonight.

If there hadn't been a passenger to flag the train down, we would have never...

You bought the ticket.

You're the passenger.

I'd give you help if I changed my mind about going home.

Honey,

I... I love you.

Porter, sir.

Can I help you, sir?

Yes. My wife is having a little trouble sleeping. I wondered if the dining car

was still open, if we could get a glass of hot milk. No, sir. Dining car won't

be open till breakfast.

But I've got a spirit lamp back in my locker. I could warm up some milk for

the lady.

Well, that's very kind of you. Thank you very much.

What's your name?

George. Just call me George. George Dufine.

No, I mean your own name Simon my name is Simon

Haley Thank You Simon Haley, thank you very much

I trust the milk was satisfactory.

Yes, my wife is sound asleep.

Unfortunately, I am not.

Oh, let me, sir.

Thank you very much.

I hope I'm not interrupting your work.

Oh, no, sir.

Porter's work is like rolling a rock uphill.

You think you got it all the way, innit?

Roll back down to the ground and start over.

Myth of Sisyphus?

Yes, sir.

You're not a regular porter, are you? I mean, all the time.

No, sir, just for summer.

I was going to college.

Very interesting.

Truth is, you can't really save that much money.

Not on $27 a month, even with tips.

And the uniforms come out of that, and meals, and supplies for the cars, even

the soap here.

And I have to send some money back home to my folks.

But you didn't tell that to your young lady when she flagged the train?

No, sir.

She was so happy.

I just didn't tell her.

How much have you saved?

About enough for half a term at A&M.

Or a down payment on a second-hand mule.

But you're not sure which?

I don't know.

Sometimes I just feel I'm sinking back.

And if I am, well, maybe I ought to get that mule while I've got the money.

It's better to be a sharecropper with a mule than without one.

And the alternative, the half a turn?

I don't think I have the confidence to just start without seeing any chance of

finishing.

Maybe I should just forget it, go back and raise cotton at Mr. Perry's 50

acres.

That's a very interesting dilemma, young man.

It would be gratifying to one's curiosity to know how you finally

decide.

Yes, sir, it would.

Well, if you'll excuse me, sir, we'll be getting into Cincinnati in half an hour.

Watch your step.

Thank you. Thank you. Watch your step. Watch your step getting off. Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Watch your step getting off. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Watch your step.

Watch your step getting off. Thank you, George. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Keep it on, sir. Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Thank you, George. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, George. Thank you, sir. Watch your step getting off. Watch your step

getting off. Watch your step. Thank you. Thank you, Simon.

This is my business card.

I'm with Curtis Publishing. We put out the Saturday evening post.

I mention that because it's a matter of professional habit. I hate to start a

serial and not find out how it comes out.

Yes, sir.

Be sure to write to me and tell me whether it's the half semester or the

new, will you?

Oh, uh, this is for you as well.

Thank you again.

Simon Hill.

All right, shoot the $5. Charlie, you're the bag man. How much you want? Uh, $4

.75.

Hey,

college boy, what you gonna do with all that cabbage?

Just count it.

Well, these two bits here ain't faded.

You wanna get in the game? Oh, let him be, Detroit.

Boy, pinch every nickel so tight the Indian end up riding a buffalo.

No trouble with you, college boys. You ain't got the guts to put your money in

the middle and let it ride.

Well, as a matter of fact, Detroit, that's exactly what I intend to do.

Gamble, shoot the road, but in my own game.

I've quit this job.

I'm going to take this money and let it ride.

Go to school for as long as it lasts.

It's how the seven come eleven. Take my chance.

Go on, boy, out of the way.

All right, professor.

All right, here she come. Here she come back again.

Whoa, 6-0-6.

Dad, I thought you went out on the 8-14 to Cleveland.

What happened?

You remember that ginger-headed fellow that was just itching to organize,

always talking about the union?

Yeah, what'd he do?

Turns out he was a Pullman Company spy.

Superintendent called 18 men into his office, including me.

Fired us all on the spot for talking union.

18? Just for talking union.

And that after 22 years in these cars.

Oh, Dad.

Look, um...

Look, if you're short, I mean, if you need anything, I've got this money. That

money is for your schooling. I just soon robbed a church collection plate.

But, Simon, Simon, you're going to be somebody.

That's important.

Me?

I've been a Pullman porter since the days of the wooden car and the wicker

lamps.

to get the 407 to Memphis.

Gonna see it, girl?

Gotta tell her I'm gonna let it ride.

Where you going, Dad?

You know, we ain't never been able to get us a brotherhood on account of every

time the Pullman come to just, here's one of us, breathe union, they fires us.

Well, I'm already fired.

That just may be the biggest mistake George Pullman ever made.

Ain't nothing they can do to me now.

And son, I'm bound to organize.

I know why you called me in, President Hopper.

I admit I registered for this term with only half enough money to pay for the

tuition, but... Now hold on. Well, I'm going to get a job.

For nights and Saturdays. That's all very well and good, but... Well, I know

the college can't keep anyone who doesn't pay on time, but I promise you,

sir, I will earn the money for the rest of the term.

Now, what makes you think you owe any money for tuition?

Well, I only... Your entire year has been paid for in advance.

There must be some mistake.

Oh, I have it right here.

The letter?

registering Simon Haley for a full year with tuition paid for in advance by

certified check, plus a stipend, room, board, books.

And the letter asks that the student not be notified unless he arrived to

register for the term.

Now, the letter is signed by Mr. R.S.M. Boyce, the Saturday Evening Post.

SM Boys.

What?

Well, he gave me five dollars once.

Gave you a lot more than that.

You have nothing to worry about, except your studies.

You mean, if I hadn't taken the chance to come and register for the term, I

never would have known about this?

That's right.

And we would have had to return Mr. Boyce's check.

I would have crapped out.

Well, I... I guess I made my point.

This is most stylish.

You got my word.

From New York City.

Direct. For a graduation, this is A number one.

I ain't never seen nobody make such a fuss over somebody else's graduation.

Now, Papa, I gotta look pretty for Simon, don't I? He works so hard all

these years.

Can I try it on, Mr. Goldstein?

Certainly.

What then?

In the back, behind the screen.

A nice girl.

She's going to look gorgeous in the dress.

Yeah, we're going all the way to Carolina for her young man's graduation

from our agriculture and Technical College College ain't that something

Listen Palmer, I want to ask you something.

I mean We did business together Ever since I opened the store. I

still owe for the new shelves and fitting Mr.

Goldstein you look here. I don't want you to worry about that because she pays

on time.

I'm not talking about that

I peddled off the wagon too many years.

I thought maybe finally I could settle in one place.

There's a widow in Chicago I would send for.

But recently I got this letter.

Leave town before it's too late.

Signed, KKK.

What do you think about that?

Truth is, I was surprised that the Klan would send something like this here to a

white man.

You're surprised? I'm not.

You look at me, you see a white man. They look at me, they see a Jew.

I don't understand what you want to ask me.

Who's the man?

Who do I talk to?

There's always one person you can talk to.

Ta-da!

What did I tell you?

Gorgeous. You like it, Papa?

Oh, that ain't bad.

I love it.

But Mr. Goldstein, it's a little tight here on the waist. Ah, we'll let out the

cummerbund.

And it'll fit like a glove.

We're leaving tomorrow for North Carolina.

You'll have it, you'll have it.

You'll knock the eye out from your college boy, and I give you my solemn

word of honor.

Looks so silly, that little dog.

It's not so funny.

Go change your dress, girl.

Go home.

Now that's what I mean.

I swear, I never do see a peepaw in Oklahoma that's worth the squeezing.

I told you, Liz, you want a fresh garden truck fit to eat, you got to come home

and visit us more often.

You know, I can remember what Grandpa George used to say about the old slavery

days. How his mama... Kizzy, always make sure the first spring greens from the

garden goes to her children's. That's right.

And old Mrs. Moe, she'd say, uh, Kizzy?

Why, my mouth's just set for some fresh garden peas.

How comes there ain't no peas?

And kids would say, Oh, Mrs.

DeFrost done got them. There ain't no peas.

All the time they're in the quarters eating fresh peas for a sass.

Now, you see, child, that's the way it was in the old slavery days when your

great-grandpa George... Mama, I don't want to hear about that old-time slavery

stuff.

Things are different now.

Don't matter anymore.

I want the both of y'all to hear this.

The Secretary of War, Baker, didn't promise the NAACP that the Army gonna be

free of his racial discrimination.

But at the same time, he say, there is no intention on the part of the War

Department to undertake at this time to settle the so-called race question.

So-called.

Long too short. That's Main Street.

I got to say one nice thing about this, you.

This store sure does burn good. It sure does.

Mr. Goldstein, you all right?

Personally, I'm fine.

My shop... Ten years peddling from the wagon it took me to

open my store, so finished.

Total loss.

I still can't figure out why the Klan would want to burn out a white man.

Listen, it's nothing new.

I lived through the pogrom of 1903 in Kishinev.

The Tsar's black hundreds massacred Jews everywhere.

Listen, your clan, they're pikers.

They should take lessons.

Call that a pogrom.

A little ready-to-wear business burnt to the ground.

Boy, I'm such a pogrom.

Is there anything I can do?

So I go back to Maxwell Street, Chicago.

Farmer, I still owe on the lumber.

I come to tell you I'll make good.

But you've got to wait.

You don't have to worry about that, Mr. Goldstein.

I'll trust you as long as you need.

Palmer, you're such a mensch.

What I mean, you're a... a gentleman.

Ah, look at that.

I forgot.

The dress for the little girl. It wasn't in the shop. I took it home to do the

alterations.

So, I promised.

Thank you, Mr. Goldstein.

I'll just get my pocketbook. How much?

What is one dress?

It's a present for the little lady.

She should wear it in good health.

Goodbye, Palmer.

Bye, Mr. Goldstein.

You can forget about that lumber bill.

We's even.

Goodbye, my friend.

Aunt Liz, will I look beautiful?

All girls in love are beautiful.

I just have to look beautiful for Simon's graduation.

I am beautiful.

Brother George Palmer, ain't never heard nothing so vain. Lord, keep it from the

devil's ear, that poor man.

Come over here, toting your dress in the midst of his trousers, and you prancing

your vanity.

Gavin's graduation is the most important day in my life.

In our lives.

I don't see him, Papa.

You're supposed to meet us here.

Probably couldn't get his tie tied.

On a big day like today, I'd be dogged if a tie let itself be tied.

Seems like bands don't ever come out even... Oh, hush about ties, Papa.

Now, remember, we just say hello to Simon now.

And then after the graduation, you say... Young man, got a small graduation

present for you. Ain't much, but... Girl, you're going away from here.

You have my consent to get married right away.

Time's popping.

Seven minutes to one.

Where is he?

The boy's got seven minutes now.

Miss Palmer? What?

Miss Bertha Palmer?

Yes? I'm Nate Atkins.

I'm a school fellow of Simon's. Well, where is he? We just got off the train.

Yes, I know.

Simon asked me to give you this letter.

If you'll excuse me, it's been a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss

Palmer.

Sir.

My dearest Bertha, you always laugh at me for trying to find the truth written

in books.

But I have found it this time in the NAACP paper, The Crisis, this month.

Dr. Du Bois writes that from a victory of the Allies in the war will emerge an

American Negro with the right to work and the right to live without insult.

So I know you will be proud to know I have enlisted in the United States Army,

and I will not be there for the graduation ceremony.

But I am glad you will be there to pick up my diploma, which means so much to

both of us.

Here at the Agriculture and Technical College, of North Carolina, we are

proud of the graduating class of 1918,

seven of whose sons have already marched away to heed their

country's call.

We feel the spirit of these brave young lads is with us now.

And now the granting of diplomas to the graduating class of 1918.

I declare by the power vested in me by the state of North Carolina that you all

have satisfactorily completed the course of study of this institution.

Nathaniel Thaddeus Atkins.

Congratulations, Nathaniel. Thank you, sir.

Randolph Lucius Jones.

Simon Alexander Haley.

Now listen up!

Y'all gonna stay in this one cotton pickin' place till this cotton pickin'

train pulls out of this here cotton pickin' station!

Y'all ain't in no college no more!

Honeycutt come, you gonna jump to Canton and holler out, yes sir!

Cause Captain Honeycutt, he eat nigger recruits alive before breakfast.

Where in the hell you think you going?

Corporal, that's my girl.

That's your trouble, not mine.

But sir,

I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to her.

She come all the way from Tennessee.

On over there behind them signs.

And you hear the brass. You look sharp, you hear?

Yes, sir.

Simon Alexander Haley, I am furious at you. You hear me? I am just furious.

Honey, honey. Running off to enlist without a single word. We came all the

way from Henning. We planned a surprise for you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

There wasn't any way I could tell you. The army man just told us Tuesday we had

to report before graduation.

Please, don't cry.

We're old, we're friends, huh?

I promise you, I won't let those Germans...

about Germans.

I've been reading Papa's newspaper about terrible things happening to the colored

in the army.

I know.

I know, but the important thing is the war to make the world safe for

democracy.

Honey, Dr. Du Bois... I don't care.

I don't care about Dr. Du Bois. But you've got to.

He says we've got to put aside the fight for rights for the duration of the war.

That's what he wrote.

We make no ordinary sacrifice, but we do it willingly and gladly.

With our eyes lifted to the heavens.

I love you so.

I love you.

Captain coming.

Ten, come!

Try to look like soldiers, will ya?

You and Ian tucked in your putties.

Detail our presence, sir.

Sergeant. Here.

Let's get these damn coons on the train.

Yes, sir.

You heard him.

you to get on that

Next on Roots.

If ye but believe in me, ye shall never die.

Comes a time when a papa got no more notion of what's going on in his child's

heart. So, Will, you want to keep the love of the child. You want to keep her

respect for your word. Then you got to beg.

You got to let go.

I wish you could stay with me now.

Come home to Henning.

We could get married in the North Church.

We will, honey, we will.

Simon, why you have to go?

Well, it's just my patriotic duty.

I'll tell you what I am. Same thing I was in the army.

A nigger.

Simon Alexander Haley, I don't ever want to hear you say anything like that

again.

You're colored, you're a negro, and so am I.

Don't you ever use their words to make yourself small.