Example of the Evidence Sandwich Technique
Segregation in Charlottesville, Virginia, caused resentment on the part of
African Americans. Rebecca McGinness, a black public school teacher in the
city, reveals the indignation that she and others felt. Black public school
children did not get the same things supplied to their schools by white
authorities that white children got. McGinness mentions that white men, at
times, pushed her off her seat on city buses. She also tells of ordering a
beverage in a drugstore. The clerk handed her a drink in a paper cup.
McGinness then watched as the clerk handed a white customer a drink in big
glass. McGinness made her resentment clear to the clerk by remarking that
she had paid the same as the white patron. Segregation in the public schools,
on city buses, and at drugstore lunch counters naturally prompted African
Americans to resent the unfair treatment they got.
I
THE JACKSON SIT-IN
are endowed
by their Creator with certain inalienable rights and that among
theseareliG,liberryandthepursuitofhappiness],@"f
Nazareth who dreamed a dream of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood
coa gr"
"L.*
and change our world and our civilization.
*il
. go;il
U. iUG
And then we will be able to move
from the bleak and desolate midnight of man! inhumanity to man to the bright
and glittering daybreak of freedom and justice.
THE JACKSON SIT-IN
Anne Moody
four North Carolina A&T freshmen to sit in at the lunch counter of
the local Woolworth's initiated a new phase of civil rights activity. lt also drew
black college students from throughout the South into new actions. Among them
was Arine Moody. This account of her participation in a
Mississippi, sit-in
comes from her poignant and compelling memoir, Coming
The decision of
fhad become very friendly with my social science professor,John Salter, who
lwas in charge of NAACP activities on campus.All during the year, while the
NAACP conducted a boycott of the downtown stores inJackson, I had been one
of Salterh most faithful canvassers and church speakers. During the last week of
school, he told me that sit-in demonstrations were about to start inJackson and
that he wanted me to be the spokesman for a team that would sit-in at'Woolwortht lunch counter. The tr,vo other demonstrators would be classmates of
mine, Memphis a
ena. Pearlena was a dedicated NAACP worker, but
Memphis had not been very involved in the Movement on campus. It seemed
that the organization had had a rough time finding students who were in a position to go to jail. I had nothing to lose one way or the other.Around ten o'clock
the morning of the demonstrations, NAACP hcadqp4gs alerted thq- nelvs
services.As a result,the police
licemen
d.pr.t.n.
U"f-*-
nor the newsmen knew exactly where or when the demonstrations
would start.They stationed themselves along Capitol Street and waited.
To divert attention from the sit-in at Woolworth's, the picketing started at
lS p.""*t a good fifteen minutes before. The pickets were allowed to walk
up and down in front of the store three or four times before they were arrested.
the rear
At exactly 119., Pearlena,Memphis, rrd I
@m
entrance. We separated as soon as we stepped into the store, and made small
purchases from various counters. Pearlena had given Memphis her watch. He
Fron.Coming
oJ Age
in Missksippi by Anne Moody. Copyright @ 1968 by Anne Moody. Used by per-
mission of Doubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday Del1 Publishing Group, Inc.
I
18
"KEEP ON WALKIN', KEEP ON TALKIN"': CIVIL RIGHTS TO 1965
was to let us know when it was 11:14. At 1,1.:14 we were to join him near the
lunch counter and at exact\ 11:15 we were to take seats at it.
Seconds before 11:15 we were occupying three seats at the previously segregatedWoolworthk lunch counter. In the beginning the waitresses seemed to
ignore us, as if they really didn't know what was going on. Our waitress walked
past us a couple
of times before she noticed we had started to write our own
asEITs whaf *Ewanteil. WE
orders down and rcalized we wanted service. She
@atoherfromourorderslips'Shetoldusthatwewou1dbeserved
which was for Negroes.
"'We would like to be served here," I said.
The waitress started to
what she had said, then stopped in the middle ofthe sentence. She tu
the lights out behind the counter, and she and
the other waitresses
ran
store,
customers.I guess th.y
would rtart imm.diiEiy after the
whites at the counter realized what was going on.There were five or six other
people at the counter.A
and walked
A girl sitting next to me finished her banana split before leaving. A mi
white
woman who had not yet been served rose from her seat and came over to us.
"I d like to stay here with you," she said, "but my husband is waiting."
The newsmen came iajust as she was leaving. They must have discovered
r=
what was g"i"g on shortly after some olfuhg
to leave the store.
to
One of the newsmen ran behind thE woman
identify herself. She refused to give heriZfr?, but said she was a native of Vicksburg and a former resident of California. When asked why she had said what
she had said to us, she replied,"l am in sympathv with the Negro movement."
By this time a crowd of -cameramen and reporters had gathgred around us taking pictures and asking questions, such as Where were we fromTVEfdid we
sit-in?'W'hat organization sponsored it? Were we students? From what school?
at the back counter,
thofiIT1ffie
How were we classified?
I told them that
that we were
represented by no particular organization, and that we planned to stay there
e@"A11
we want is service," wam
them. After they had finished probing for about twenry minutes, they were almost ready to leave.
At noon. students from a nearbv white hiEh school started oourins in ro
Woolworth's.'W'hen they first saw us they were-s--o?iaT$[?Eed. They didn't
know how to react.A few started to heckle and the ,.*ril.iJE;;ire interested again.Then the *r,ffiirr,i"g
ru r.irat rr,
g4L-We were called a little bit of everything. Th. r.-tt oflh. t*Sjxcept the
three we were occupying had been roped oft to priffilEE-from sitting
lt rnto a
4g1L.A couple of the boys took oG?
hangman's noose. Several attempts were made to out it around our necks.The
crowds grew as more students and adults came in for lunch.
THE JACKSON SIT-IN
we kept our eyes straight fo.ward and did not rook at the
occasional glances to see what was going on. All of a sudden
19
crowd except for
saw a face I remembered-the drunk44!.furn-ghg-lus station sitin. My eyes lingered on him
justlong gnough
,y h. *, diunk too, so I
dont think he remembered *hffiEEad-se." me before. He took our a
knife,
oq..n.d it, put it in his pocket, and then began to pace the floor. At this
point, I
told Memphis and Pearlena what was going on. Memphis su
that we
pjJaWe bowed
pg.we
Doweo our heacts,
heads, and
rrd a4
qllhg!_b.okq.loore.A
rn*
f"rward, threw
!et1 lfqkelooie.A rqAailrh.d
Memphis from his seat, and
.r'-thestore threwrne ag@
rtrp!'ffir
I
rrffi
Down'offiI6ees on tti.@s
lyrng near the lunch
blgod ."""ilg
of
As he tried to
tace, the ngn who d"",
him down tgtki.Ulg t t- against the
Iror:.,,.1"
thlown
head. lt he had worn hard-soled shoes instead of sneakeis,
th. fi.slkick proba_
bly would have killed Me-mphis. Finally a
iderrti_
counter
*t
@
@rrrdrl..rt.dlvl@
?e1dsuhad been thrgwl to the floor. She and I q.t ur.t
"" .* stools aG
ter Memphis was arresred. There *... ro-ffiil.-Toug;loo-1am1he
crowd.They askg Pea+na and
.They said that things
1gsilg'ffi
too rough.we didnt know what to do.while we were trying to
make up our minds, rye uzelg-igined
aq Trumpauer. Now there were three
of us and we were i"t.gr"t.d:h.
nt, "Communists, Communists, communists." some old man in the crowd ordered tt e ,trraert,
to take
us offthe stools.
"'Which one should I ger first?" a big husky boy said.
"That white nigger," the old man said.
The boy lifted Toan from the counrer
the store. Simultaneously, I
t'rvo
were getting
dffiffirr
draseed ahout
one made
..---Pearlena Loif
tne Center Ot tne Counter to
tO join
torn Pearlena.
I ors
back inside.]Ve
and
Ijust cli
across the rope at the
front end of the counter
,"t down.
".rd
*r*.r ,r
all women.The rnpb
]h]e,were ":yrro"t ?f T,r-,"
stu1ec[snnealggus
with ketchup, mgstarq, rrlg1., pr"i, *d everything o"ll?
counter. Soon joan and t w.ffii"eZ ullohftaiE but the
-o,,'..r, he sat
cown he was hit
down
htt on
onlffi
the..law with whatt appeared to be brass knuckles.
knrrckles Blood
Rlond
,,^
gtutied-fto:n-trLfase ana
Jo
Tougaloot chaplain, rushed
tiE6.
ffi
At the other end of the counter,Lois and pearlena were ioined bv Georse
*^-i^/-/\T)Ec^ll--rr-'-.?-....,...-----..-.
c.,9Tl
a student from J".k';;TftfuiiEfr
l.l1 "*o.k.'
:,nd
T'te-nTffi
sat down next to me.The
ryb_I99b_Ey_@j!t
from the .orrie. and rp.ry.d-i
sprayed it on the new demonstrat.,''.EETigh iih""l
Hg,
"KEEP ON WALKIN', KEEP ON TALKIN"': CIVIL RIGHTS TO 1965
student had on a white shirt; the word "nigger" was written on his back with
red spray paint.
We sat there for three hours
beatins when the manaser decided to
clpisjhe-stoqbecause t
had
run ro so wrcr wrrn sruil6ffiTiEcounters. He begged and begged everyone to Feave. But even after fifteen minutes of b e ggi"glre-"". -b1,1@. Thmia;6? leave until we did. Then D r.
president of Ti
He said he had just
,.@I.
PgjIIel, the
heard what i.fas happening.
About ninery policemen were standing outside the store; they had been
watchinathe whole thing through the windows, but had not come in to stop
the mob. or do anything. President Reittel went outside and asked Captain Ray.
to come and escort usout.The captain refused. statins the manaser had to in- him in before he could enter the premises, so Dr. Eeittel himself brought us
vite
g. H. had told the police that they had better protect us after we were outside
=the
store.When we got outside, the policemen formed a single line that blocked
the mob from us. However, they were allowed to throw at us everything they
had collected.Within tsggry,we were p@in
his
station waqon and ta.ken to the NAACP headquarters on Lvnch Street.
Afcer the sit-in. all I could think of was how sick Mississiooi whites were.
They believed so much i, th. ,@,t!SIly9.l4@
to-pIglgrvE it.I sat there in the NAACP ofiice and thought of how many times
they had killed when this way of life was threatened.I knew that the killing had
just begun.
more will
it is over with," I thought. Before the
lmDossl- sit-in,
an
incurable
disease
in its
,
@.Thewhites
final stage.'W'hat were our chances against such a disease? I thought of the students, the young Negroes who had just begun to protest, as young interns.
When these young interns got older, I thought, they would be the best doctors
in the world for social problems.
SNCC: FOU NDI NG STATEMENT
The eruption of sit-ins throughout the South led to the calling of a general meet-
ing of black student leaders in the spring of 1960. Under the leadership of
SCLC's Ella Baker, these students formed their own organization, the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), with Baker as executive secretary.
\Y/.efuq the philosophical or religious ideal of:rqlslry] as the founVV dation of our purpose, the presupposition of our belief, and the manner
of our action.
28
"KEEP ON WALKIN', KEEP ON TALKtN"': CtVtL RtcHTS TO 196b
the Democrats and the Republicans have betrayed the basic principles of the
Declaration of Independence.
We all recognize the fact that if any social, political and economic changes
are to take place in our sociery the people, the masses, must bring them about.
In the struggle we must seek more than mere civil rights; we must work for the
community of love, peace and true brotherhood. Our minds, souls, and hearts
cannot rest until freedom and justice exist for all the people.
The revolution is a serious one. Mr. Kennedy is trying to take the revolution out of the street and put it in the courts. Listen, Mr. Kennedy, listen Mr.
congressman, listen fellow citizens, the black masses are on the march for jobs
and freedom, and we must say to the politicians that there wont be a "coolingoff" period.
A11 of us must get in the revolution. Get in and stay in the streets of every
ciry every village and every hamlet of this nation, until true Freedom comes,
until the revolution is complete. In the Delta of Mississippi, in Southwest Georgia, in Alabama, Harlem, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia and a]l over this nation-the black masses are on the march!
Wejvort stop now.All of the forces of Easdand, Barnett,'Wallace, andThurmond won't stop this revolution.The time will come when we will not confine
our marching-tolffashingto". W.:j@hrough
the
H.".t:. of-Dixie. tFe *av Sn.'-r" arll We shall pr]rsu:ourorvn "scorched
eerlhkJlr+r"db
rfr[..r.t
-.--r
the South
into a thousand pieces and put them back together in the image of
democracy. We will make the action of the past few months look petty. And I
say to
you,WAKE UP AMERICA!!
LETTERS FROM MISSISSIPPI
As part of its new grass-roots approach, SNCC proposed to send workers into
Mississippi in the summer of 1964. The intention was to create an alternative to
the all-white Mississippi Democratic Party and to challenge its delegation at the
national Democratic convention that summer in Atlantic city. Trained in nonviolence in Oxford, Ohio, these volunteers-men and women, black and white,
northern and southern-traveled to Mississippi to register voters, teach illiterate
adults and children to read, and establish the Mississippi Freedom Democratic
Party. The MFDP would conform to the party's national regulations regarding
openness to membership without racial and ethnic barriers. This would form the
basis of the challenge at the national convention. The volunteers faced constant
harassment, physical abuse, and, in the case of three, murder. These letters,
collected by Elizabeth Sutherland, represent only a handful of the many sent
back to families and friends that summer.
Reprinted by permission of McGraw-Hill, Inc. from
Copyright O 1965.
l,euers
from Mississippi by Elizabeth Sutherland.
LETTERS FROM MISSISSIPPI
DearForks,
29
W;4
oa
A great deal of tension and a great deal of camaraderie here at Oxford.
Workshops
and role-playing are constant.'We staged one situation, a screaming
rlining the sleps tolFlourthouse while a small band of registrants tried to
mob
get through.The inevitable happened-what will actually happen in Mississippi happened. Th. .h3girg--"b, (instructed to be as brutal as possible, and to
pull no punches) turned into a clawing, pounding mob, and we volunteer registrants were down in our crouched-up ball. Casualties? A couple of scratches, a
sprained ankle, and one cameraman who got swept up was a little bit shaken. It
seems like brutal play, and it is.We've got to be ready for anything, and we must
prepare for it ourselves. Once we get south w-re nonv:iglggt; we must get
whatever there is in our systems out noq and we must also learn to take the
worst. Some of the staffmembers walk around carrying sectiffi6ffi;ilTEistrangely terrible training in brutality may well save lives. (I must conGss, I have
not been able to take part in even the screaming of a mob scene, much less the
pr*.lirg.Wh.**. posibl..I r
.)
We have registration workshops, too. And lecturers came from all over
the country to speak to us. And we singV/hat "'W.e Shall Overcome" is to
the national ,rorr.-.rrt, "We'll ,r.ffi-f,ack"
is to the Mississippi workers. It is a slow song, measured out in grief and determination. The final
verse goes,
We haue
hung our head and cried,
Cried
those like Lee*
for
who died
for you and died for me,
for the cause of equality,
But we will never turn back
Until we'ue all been free
And we haue equality, and we
Died
Died
haue equality,
Love,
te
Dear Dad,
The mood up here lin Oxford, Ohio] is, of course, very strained with those
JhreeguysG-hJsappearedSunday,dead,-fr-ostlikely.Srt*d"-Gfr atedinner
ling
me about all
ih. gr.rt tilings;f,;
her hus-Mftlle-?king on. She lopksgorugr-rr.han me.'What does she
do now? Give up the movement?'What a terrible rotten life this is! I feel that
th. only -.rri.rgfuI r.up. of *J
self or
anyone I ve met to have to die. I'm so shook up that death just doesnt seem so
aw{ul anymore, though.Ilil; different from anyone else and if they're risking
and
*
Herbert Lee, Negro voter registration worker killed in Liberry Miss., in 1961.
"KEEP ON WALKIN', KEEP ON TALKIN'": CIVIL RIGHTS TO 1965
their lives, then so must I. But I
achieve something so basic and si
-can't
comprehend why
AS
Dear Folks:
Yesterday was non-violence day here. In the morning we heardJim Lawson
of Nashville, who gave us the word on non-violence as a way of life. Lawson
speaks of a moral confrontation with one's enemies. ."t.L4gjb. other guy's
eye- speaking to him with love, if possible, and so
brings more harm to the people who use it; economic and political forces have
no place in the Movement . . .etc."
. . .l feel-veryslrongtv that he does NoT represent the Movemenl
Stokely C-gmichael of SNCC rebutted lumg th.-ffi66; session: |19\
violence used to
. . . There comes a point when you Eet tired of beq
going back the next day for your beating for 5 days in a row.You get
. tired of being aske4 whether you are a Negro or a nigger, and ending up on the
floor of the police station screaming at the top of your lungs that yes,you are a
nigger, boss.You get tired of seeing young women smashed in the face right in
front of your eyes. Stokely d..r
No SNCC workers are
""t "a"".r,. "i.l*e.
armed, nor are there guns in any SNCC ofiice. What he is saying is that love
and moral confront4q!4r4s have no place in front of a brute who beats you till
you cry nlgger.
\ay eSLUgt and I think these are common, is that pnviotence ls ajerd.Ift,but lnggesse5l lacllc and technique.It is @l to the hu-"!{99_*"y t"E6i tfrrtF.
who hai a foot i" f,t a*.ffr.@
-3g_pers-,fi
*Filh", I will not hit -"JJoGiman
then I;fr b. - qahrspital two
baE-ffi
*..t r i"rt.ra .f ";.
be useless to the -orr.ftil-ffiii[-iE?t .ffi
week when I can only read Gandhi's latest book on how to win friends and injueqce people.. . .
,
(w
Canton,
DearJohn and Cleo,
il ""*1@*-
O+:-nostesses are h&ye women.And thgtear is not at
sentment of us, but that makes it none the easier for them.The other morning
+/
a local newscaster said that so149g::.q was reported to have o.fferec|some.o*9-.1r.
$400 to bomb all the houses where volunteers are stavins. I'm not convinced
that that particular story has any basis, but it touched offthe terror that must lie
latent always in our sisters' hearts. I overheard one of them on the telephone:
"My guhls probly think I'm out of mah head;I been singjgl
knows-I just has to."And she had been, moanirlg "Lord have musee" in
between the songs. I talked with her a little bit. She told me she knows people
song I
LETTERS FROM MISSISSIPPI
31
nd that we rrlU;1.1qakili&now so it wont go-tfgA any less painful to bear. She sleeps
at
with a hatchet under
until one night when
he used to have a gun under her
r
.
W.hen w9
up and see
.
Holly Springs
Mom
Dear
oil-
@k-!p&3fuse
white
ry-lglhe
IhgE_,.;i-Ctffi
-.
there are always childreLsutfrontJhey look
r.ar, and fear
.ra irrffr,I[IilE.!*pressions.
never quite our of my
"tA;t
a.i".--. ,r"ri#;i;
could.The children run to their parenrs, hide behind them.we walk up.
smile.
.^,,L^---J-^--J l,-rj
uy howdy, and
hold our our hands. As we shake hands I ----+
teilTilElr'"Lr*.
their names and I say Mr.-, how do you do. It is likely the first
tgein the life of this farmer or housewife that . *i,it. man has lh-rfen ha"d,
They tell me
ygf.Tt,I.
th.LThis does not necessarily bode
@
.Many.are rhrjg.-pps, who musr turn over a third to a
half of the year's harvesito a mar, *1. a.* no work at
all, but who owns the
land they till.They may be evicted, and have often been for
far less serious ofMrSSrypi is at least a year in debt.The t!9a1
9!ac(l"
foreclosure is a tremendous
,g15*-
burden_
.
22nd to 29th-the np4-of the ,"*rrrrr/lff
lr.ryiy
and pguEdlem.'.t At noon, about 7 or 8 women all gatherej atIG
rhe
withfriedchicken, fish, salad, gallons of Kooi]Eid:n-d apple rurnovers,
them to the me{Tve teEhers. and each other. tt is a ihing of beauto see us all work tog.th...TriE6!ffiM.dnesday was the laying
Jf th. rrrbTwo men cut the wood, f\,vo or three teenage boys and girls lay the wood
and hammered it in, a few more are bringing more wood.'we are a living
lration of the "too many cooks" theory. It should be up by Saturday, or at
Tuesday.The t@
for,.the sum of one jo[ar,,'
ldeeds were draw@g
refreshments to raise monfor the center, as well as membership cards for a dollar. It will hold the
li-
d served
L
a
sna&EIifiice
space
,rd ,"...rtior, ;r.;.
About 4 mep or teenagers armed
.t
..
.
August 5
with rifles and pistols
stand
ruqd.Every
do.,
ttiGi.
by has to honk--ffirfizffiber oififres..I
Lpt to bomb or burn the center, they havent got a chance. I
live
car thar goes
lily
about
"KEEP ON WALKIN', KEEP ON TALKIN"': CIVIL RIGHTS TO 1965
50 yards away so
guards and talk
I
take over coffee, cookies, cigarettes, tobacco, etc.,
to
the
with them. . . .
Greenwood,June 29
We have heard rumors twice to the effect that the three men were found
weighted down in that river. Both stories, though the ffi
in an hour oi so. How do you like that guy Ggf_bbon saying that they might be hiding in the North or maybe in Cuba for all he knew.
Tchula,July 16
Yesterday while the
Rlrr.. was being:dragged looking for the
three missing civil rights workers,
ofN
were found-one cut
in half and one without a head. Mississippi is the only state *here vou can dras
.a'i!,er anv time and find bqdies yor, *.r. not expecting.Things ,..-r--l]r.nbetter for rabbits-theret a closed season on rabbits.
On August 7, James Chaneyt funeral and memorial service took place in
Meridian.
Laurel,August
11
Dear Folks,
...The memorial service began around 7:30 with over 1,20 people filling
the small, wooden-pew lined church. David Dennis of CORE the Asristant Director tbr the Mirriisippi Su- e. PrGEEt. s-spok-rtor
ated organizations, a coalition of civil rights groups]. He talked to the Negro
people of Meridian-it was a speech to move people, to end the lethargy, to
make people stand up. It went something like this:
"I am not here to memorialize James Chaney, I am not here to pay trib,r,.-I am too sick and tired. DoYOU h.r. -., @
I have attended too many memorials, too many funerals. This has got to stop.
Mack Parker, Medgar Evers, Herbert Lee, Lewis Allen, Emmett Till, four little
girls in Birmingham,a l3-year-old boy in Birmingham, and the list goes on and
on. I have attended these funerals and memorials and I am SICK and TIRED.
But the trouble is thatYOU are NOT sick and tired and for that reasonYOu,
yesYOU, are to blame, Everyone of your damn souls. And if you are going to let
this continue r-ro* th.ffi@
pf ha-te-who pulled the trigger or brought down the club;just as much to-blapeas the sheriffIn-d-i6eE-iEfEFloligg as the governor inJackson who said that he
'dici nor have rime'rbffiE-chwernerffi-th6\,.n, ,o see him, and jusr as
c5ffiorrr.GT.EF
t
^
*gS
\)9'
TESTIMONY BEFORE THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION
33
to blame as the President and 1\tlgfngy Genefalin Washington who
wouldn't provide protection.for Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner when we
told them that protection was necessary in Neshoba Counry. . . .YjL! r-elgry,
lAM.And it's high tinT thrt yoJl_go!"-gII toq an&DL 999gg!r to gtup tp_tfit
courthouse trrto@ an'aglstefi-everry one ofyo"S.rgry."rugh to take five
,rd t.., oth., p.opi. lrifi6.r.Then and only then can these b.otd kilfrrgr b.stopped. Remember it is your sons and your daughters who have been killed all
these years and you have done nothing about it, and if you dont do nothing
NOW baby, I say God DamnYour Souls.. .
+
much
."
TESTIMONY BEFORE THE DEMOCRATIC
NATIONAL CONVENTION
Fannie Lou Hamer and Rita Schwerner
Despite the hardships and harassment, SNCC volunteers had registered enough
voters in 1964 to hold a state convention and select a delegation to the Democ-
-
ratic Convention in Atlantic City. Their intention was to challenge the all-white
regulars before the Credentials Committee, hoping to be seated in place of the
segregationists. Televised hearings on August 22,lhe Saturday before the convention opening, featured the compelling testimony of Fannie Lou Hamer, vice
chairman of the delegation, and Rita Schwerner, widow of slain civil rights worker Michael Schwerner. Lyndon Johnson, wishing to defuse any hostility at a convention sure to nominate him, interrupted the telecast of Hamer's testimony
with a presidential announcement. Further, he dispatched vice presidential
hopeful Hubert Humphrey, sponsor of the 1964 Civil Rights Bill, to negotiate a
settlement. Humphrey and his aide, Walter Mondale, brokered a compromise
that would have seated two members of the MFDP as "delegates-at)arge,"
with a promise of stricter qualifications for 1968 delegations. While both Martin
Luther King, Jr., and MFDP lawyer Joseph Rauh favored the compromise, the
delegation turned it down. "We didn't come here for no two seats, " Hamer proclaimed. They boarded a bus and returned home to Mississippi, disillusioned
with Washington's commitment to civil rights.
REMARKS OF MRS. FANNIE LOU HAMER
MRS. HAMER: Mr. Chairman, and the Credentials Committee, my name is
Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, and I live at 626 East Lafayette Street, Ruleville,
Mississippi, Sunflower Counry the home of Senator James O. Easdand, and
Senator Stennis.
@
1964,The Democratic
National Committee
-rt
"KEEP ON WALKIN'. KEEP ON TALKIN"': CIVIL RIGHTS TO 1965
p-b"blv *"nt to *"rk fulLtg. on problems such as
thrt thgggrt.y_."n'!-facE, much less dea-l with,
the ouestions we're raisins means that the movement is one olace to look for
some relief. Real efforts at dialogue within iEe movement and with whatever
f6tr;I gr-ps, communify *orrr.rr, or students might listen are justified.That is,
all the problems between men and women a"d 41_the probleoos ofrvomen
filnctioning in sociery as equal human beings are among the most basic that
Therefore, ryostofus *i11,
war, poverry, race.The very fact
-L-J
pmemovemenirbo,rt@
rW
1p
would trv to shaoe institutions to meet human
needs rather than shaping people
ople to meet the needs of those with power. To
riffirre.itrgrs like those abovg
very directly thtljr.r.ry
S=&
with some of its deepest problr
and opens discussion of wEyThat is so. (In
that can take oeople bevond leealistic soble$
*ffiG.Gfmlt
second objective
reason we d like
to
see discussion begin is that we've learned a great deal
in the
movement and perhaps this is one area where a determined attempt to apply
ideas we've learned there can produce some new alternatives.
SELMA
Sheyann Webb
Selma, Alabama, had been the scene of SNCC activities since 1963. lt was only
with the 1965 decision of Martin Luther King, Jr., to make it SCLC's next point of
focus that events there took on major national proportions. The murder of civil
rights demonstrator Jimmie Lee Jackson during a rally in nearby Marion led to
the decision for a march from Selma to the state capitol in Montgomery. Led by
SCLC's Hosea Williams and SNCC's John Lewis, the six hundred marchers set
off on Sunday, March 7. At the Pettus Bridge in downtown Selma, the peaceful
marchers were confronted by state troopers and local police, who used tear gas
and billy clubs to break up the march brutally. Fifty marchers were injured.
Splits developed between King and SNCC over the next step. While King
waited for a federal court order sanctioning the march, SNCC leaders pushed for
a response regardless of court action. Televised pictures of the attack on the
marchers fixed national attention on Selma and prompted Lyndon Johnson's call
for a voting rights bill.
With federal court approval, the march to Montgomery began again on
March 21, arriving in the capital four days later. Returning by car to Selma only
Used by permission
of The Universiry ofAlabama
Press
from Selma, Lord, Selma: Cirlhood Memories of
told to Frank Sikora, @ 1980 The
the Ciuil-Rights Days, by Sheyann Webb and Rachei West Nelson, as
University of A1abama
Press.
.--SELMA
hours after the march, Viola Liuzzo, a
43
white Detroit housewife, was shot and
killed by Klansmen.
During the march, SNCC workers had left the highway to talk with black
residents. Along the route, SNCC leader Stockely Carmichael and others spoke
of the new focus the organization had chosen. By the time they reached Montgomery, the slogan "Black Power" had caught on like wildfire and would be a
rallying call for the remainder of the decade.
The account of the march reprinted here, comes from the recollections of
W"bb,11g|g9.*19-ggl involved in the Selma-campaign.
Sheyann
fi;.f
,r- r^J-r--_
fwas walking between some young white guy and a black woman; I think
hmrfmf-eenFom
lnJa
she r'
Perry Gtrn$B-effi we hadl6EE.e:-[Ech we had
Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round and several other songs, but as we
got to the downtown and started toward the bridge we got quiet. I think we
sung
stoppedforjustashortti-ffihtersomioftheleaders
talked about
14-to
going another route-back through town and out State Highway
who were across the bridge, on the side toward
ust a little while we
get around the troopers
Montg
started again.
Now the f4pgg"d !.ttu!. trridge srts above the a"*r"t"*'; you have to
it like itt a little hill.We couldn't see the other side.,we couldnt see the
troopers. So we started up and the first part of the line was over. I couldnt see
all that much because I was so little; the people in front blocked my view.
But when we got up there on that highjS4 and looked down we saw
them. I remember i-he#;n sayirrg rorn-thing-Llk ,o'Oh, my Lord" or something.And I stepped our to the side for a second and I sFiE?6.Th-ey were in
a line-they looked like a blue picket Gnce-stretched across the highway.
[Brild street
behind that first line and to the sides, along the little service road in front of the
stores and drive-ins, there was a group of white people. And further back were
some of SheriffJim clark's posffitatc
had been blocked.
At that point
il--to eet a little
about things. I think everyone
did. People quit talkinqi it was lo quiet then that all you could hear was the
inf and our footsteps on the concrete sidewalk.
Well, we kept moving down the bridqe. I remember glancing at the water
in the Alabama River, and it was yellow and looked cold. I was told later that
HoseaWilliams said toJohn Lewis,"See that water down there? I hope you can
swim,'cause we're fixin'to end up in it."
The troopers could be seen more clearly now. I guess I was fifty to sevenfywalk up
be.o-.ffi
five yards
fr
ried clubs in their
shoulders.The
For a
8o@ed
,blr. jr.Lg,
and they
lthey had those
gasmask pouches slung across their
of the march line reached them and we all came to a stoD.
few seconds we just kept standing, and then
--------J_
I heard this voice speaking
"KEEP ON WALKIN', KEEP ON TALKIN"': CIVIL RIGHTS TO 1965
over the S,rllho,u saying that this was an u4a!\trul issembly and for us to dis-_
to the church.
..-Jfun's
hand who was next to me and had it
-t
gripped hard. I wasn't really scared at that point.Then I stepped out a way and
looked again and saw the troooers putting on their masks.l@3gs. I had
never faced the troopers before, and nobody had ever put on gas masks during
one was different; we were out of the city
ffiis
limits and on a highway.'W"illiams said something to the troopers askins if we
could prav-I didnt hear if6ffi-a's told later he lsked if
heard the voice again come over the bullhorn and tell us we had rwo minutes
oerse and so back
*. .orld-Iitilill-
to disperse.
Some of the oeople arour.d me began to talk then, saying something about,
to iail," words to that e{fect.
But I didnt know aboFthat; the masks scared me. So the next thing I
know-it didn't seem like two minutes had gone by-the voice was saying,
and see.that they are dispersed."Just rll of a sudden it was
beginning to happen. I codlilnT see for sure how it began, but just before it did
I took another look and saw the line of trse?prtgoyinglora@Id us; the wind
was whipping at their pants legs.
.'E"p..r "ayr*
All I knew is I heard {_trr r.*r-rqg and the
p-sgPle were
turning and I.
stumbliffi
this first Dart m
came
point,I was iust o{f the bridgg and on the side of the highway.And
running and some of them were crying out and somebody yelled, "Oh, God.
t!gl?r}J[ug]Dl'I think I just frozq then.There were p@
ming against me, pushing against me. Then, all of a sudden, it stopped and
t did to?la"d sot reb"ayEilffi fot
prax
us to
But there was so much excitement i!+ref-Sglslarlgd, because
everyhgl \ el@ing and they were scared and we didnt know what was happening or was going to happen. I remember looking toward the troopers.and
they were br.kirggp, but some of them were standing n,e" seme ef cl'r Fe^It seemed like just a few seceverybody started screaming
onds went by and I h"rtd ,
again.And I looked and I saw the troopers charging us again and some of them
ing canisters of tear gas. And beyond them
were swi4ging thsir arms-and
I saw the horsemen starting theiicharge to-ioiIETrnas terrified.What happened then is something I'll never forget as long as I live. Never. In fact, I still
.
dream about
I
onithey
cattle.
it sometimes.
saw those horsemen comin
the
and thev had those awful masks
Some of them had clubs, oth-
6[r*o19 ,iort th.-
tu
like they
*.rGirrirrg
T-
SELMA
45
Frank M. fohnson. Ir.t qller permitting the Selma-to-Mpelgomery
marcElEI6[f a frantic chain of events not only in Selma but, indeed, across
'i6?Gation.
Hundreds of people-the fbmgus-,and the ?amelesE-hgrr:igl
t9 J{13il" take part,in the historic fifty-mile walk across part of theAlabama Black Belt. In Washington, President Lyrdon Johns'on ordered the
Alabama Natio44lGuard federalized ,o pro@_e-t."tiglr; he also ordered
:
plfrtroopers to be prepared to join in the march, should trouble occur. In
Tudge
Selma, prgparations were being made to ensure the availabiliry
food supplies, tepgrypn d b.ddifg, portable s4glf-fagilitie$ and campSiiF.SS5turday morning, March 20, the George Washington Carver
Homes were awash with people. The march was to begin the following
day,just rwo weeks after the rout at the bridge.
n the living
Our house was fuIl of people. Th.y d tl..p i, tl..ping b.
in the upstairs hallway, anywhere there was space. It was that way
everywhere.You had to stand in line to g.t i
What I remember most about those dgp-irst b.fore th. march, was the
lrsg-gqpt "f p*plgalwavs out blz the church singing freedom sonps.Thevd
go on all through the night.I'd-fall asleep listening to them.
in America; people from all
over had come to join us because we were successful in dramatizing that there
to cnange rnem. rr was more
were wrongs rn Ene )oq!! anq tne rrme nao-come
tfi-an the right to vote; it was also the way we had been treated.
Until Dr. Kins came to Selma. we had been too afraid even to ask if we
could be free; folks were too timid to ask to vote.
t. Not since AbraButJud
ham Lincoln had a white man done so much to help us.And PresidentJohnson
room floor,
was
helping.
the church on that Sunday [March 211, it was more
to -6Fmeant that we woulcffi
" -rffiesirel.t .*wor. kro* th"t * *.r. A*.
cjdi'ifl-IEe sunshine
;"rrd
"rrd
that we were southerners, too; and that we were Alabamians and citizens of SelSo as we gathered at
than just
ma, too.
So all this was coming about-this righfto be free from
it was coming about becairse of the .orrr@k
knew the time was here.
fear-in
Selma and
people who
I remember on that Sunday that there were thousands of people gathered
the church. But from all those people I@
Rfifffia we sang'a song while some p."pi. recorded it for a record company [Folkways].And later, before we started, a photographer took a picture of me *
around
46
"KEEP ON WALKIN', KEEP ON TALKIN"': CIVIL RIGHTS TO 1965
yelljg the bridge and there were sqk!&$-rvilhlifleqwe crossed that bridge and
and bayonets everywhere,F@il/e[when
the psgplg j"rt gntg5!-]ikesg-*
started on down@ry,
come,
we stgted oft and
thine had been lifted from their shoulders. They were so proud, but it was a
tained that digniry.
was such , b."@1,t*rthiry-4$nd I walked along with Rachel for
there was a sign that somebody
awhile and we @nd
was carrying-a placard or banner, I mean-which said the whole thing that
It
was on my mind.
It
said that we weren't marching
fifry miles; instead, we were marching to
cover three hundred vears.
-
My amily anm;E;mamily were all with us that day and we went about
ten miles down the road. We were singing Ain't Gonna kt Nobody Turn Me
'Round as we came up to some buses fuleiloft alongside the road.We stopped
there, and that's when Dr. King saw us.
lng all the way?" he asked, and the way he said it and the
way he was smiling told me he Fquite proud.
And I told him, "I don't know'cause my morilna said I had to come back
hpge,She did"t g,.r.
"Aren't you tired?" he says.
fud:g. *dBr.ft..l shrugged and grinned, and I said,"My Get and legs be
tired, buf my soul still feels liEharchin'Iand he wanted us
FwdTxl-walked far enough for little
we said *iU a" that and he touched
to rytsilhe bus,
""Iggbr.@SslnoqSo
us on the head and went on down the road.
those oeoole
I remembered standiqathere a long time and watchinE
€
marching along. I would never
And I said to Rachel,"It seem like we marchin'to Heaven today''
And she says, "Ain't we?"
'We
Thursday for the.big r4lly
all drove over to
in front
tol. We had parked on-hE?@ of the ciry and
jffied in the march for the last few miles, and it was just an endless stream of
people moving through a light rain. I remember the huge throng of peoplesome said there were twenty-five thousand, some said as many as fifty thousandiust massed there in front, and.Dr. King speakine to us, telling us that we
had been on a l,ong iourney for freedom. He ended with the words,"Glory, glory hallelujah," and repeated it several times, and each time everyone would
cheer and it ended with a deafening roar.
As I look back on j*tJ think the {Eb&!ory wasn't the fact that we went to
to
rally. Th e
al vic to ry Is- j us t Ylnnlngh e
M
o,rE6a.-Tf,;A;tat
4o-thel.That
@The
i
real triumph had
J4l
bed-on
SELMA
March the seventh at the bridge and
a'biu-tafbeating into a nonviolent victorv.
@,
47
when we tglgg!_
'
ontgomery, we had stayed for part of the
entertainment in which some singers such as Peter. Paul. and Mary and Harry
ffi66tr1teTil-i,erformed;but it was raining so hard that we finally drove back
It
-
night that we went to the church [Brown Chapel]
in with the news that a woman had been shot to death^ra7?
in{
was later that
someone came
Lowndes
Countv.
V-tSb
qgC&!ig1>, thirty-eight, of Detroit, Michigan,
had transported a
car full of marchers back to Selma that night and, accompanied by a young
black man, I,eroy Moton, was making the return trip to Montgomery. A
car car.ying-ililffiilnsmen had followed her, pursuing at speeds up to
eighty miles per hour. Overtaking her in Lowndes Counry they had sped
around and fired several shots into her car; one bullet struck her in the
head, killing her almost instandy. L@rrd
managed to brins the car to a halt alongside Highway 80.
-v+
I didnt know Mrs. \yt12119;she was one of the hundreds ofpeople who had
come to Selma for the big march. I remember whgn the), told us. the news that
'We were all tired and drained of emonight, everyone seemed so+ of
hrd
o Montgomerythis pilgrimage
right to be fully free, and we Glt we had finally won it.The killing
it did make @
might
'1,orld-not51ap-e4g.But
"r
still he e fart nf orrr liveq and [that] the rssrstance mrghln9!
The bullets
that had been fired at her car could have been aimed at any
of
cars making the trip that night. It had been a senseless crime, a cowardly action,
The church was quiet.A1l we could do was shake our heads.
I think it was the next day. that there was a ryIid!-gryice for this
woman who had come to help us. It was also reported that day thatlg1K11_
I@Iry
had been Arresterl for the mur&r.And we also learned tfrrt tt.y
nia-bgsa-iu :slr"a that-night, driving right by Brown Chapel, looEin!%rblacks to attack. O4k the preience of
".-.d t-opr p-b"bh k
trom attacklng some of us.
tion.We
to seek the
a
n
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