Terrell County, GA meeting, speakers include Mr. Trim Porter December 18, 1962

Download
- Rights
- Limited Re-Use
  CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
- Files (2)
- MP3 Part 1
- MP3 Part 2
- Please be patient with media downloads. They are often large files.
Share

Embed Code
<iframe src='//idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r40g3kc5d?embed=true' height='125px' width='100%' frameborder='0' marginwidth='0' marginheight='0' scrolling='no' allowfullscreen></iframe>
Permalink

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r40g3kc5d
Skip to Item Info

Loading the media player...

Files for this Item

Transcript

Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.

	(group singing )	0:02
	♪ Ain't gonna let nobody turn me round ♪	0:06
	♪ Turn me round, turn me round ♪	0:09
	♪ Ain't gonna let nobody turn me round ♪	0:14
	♪ I'm gonna keep on walking, keep on talking ♪	0:17
	♪ Marching up to freedom land ♪	0:21
-	That song again?	0:27
	♪ We shall overcome ♪	0:28
	♪ We shall overcome ♪	0:34
	♪ We shall overcome some day ♪	0:41
	♪ Oh, deep in my heart ♪	0:53
	♪ I know that, I do be-- ♪	0:59
	(speaker's voice is muffled)	1:16
	(audio cuts out)	1:20
	♪ Oh, come by here ♪	1:30
	♪ Under thy Kingdom, Lord, come by here ♪	1:33
	♪ Oh Lord, come by here ♪	1:37
	♪ Come by here, my Lord, come by here ♪	1:42
	♪ Come by here, my Lord, come by here ♪	1:45
	♪ Come by here, my Lord, come by here ♪	1:50
	♪ Oh Lord, come by here ♪	1:54
	♪ Come by here, my Lord, come by here ♪	2:03
	♪ Come by here, my Lord, come by here ♪	2:05
	(man praying)	2:08
	♪ Come by here, my Lord, come by here ♪	2:10
	♪ Oh Lord, come by here ♪	2:13
	♪ Come by here, my Lord, come by here ♪	2:18
-	Give us this day our daily bread.	2:21
	(speaker's voice is muffled)	2:25
-	The second time for the same block.	2:29
-	He always thinks those same people.	2:32
-	Here, every time I read it gets all wet.	2:38
	But anyway, we here are	2:40
	allow me to say, the faithful few.	2:44
	And we're going straight into the same thing	2:49
	we're gonna do.	2:52
	Gonna ask our secretary to read the minutes.	2:54
	(female's voice is muffled)	3:08
	voter registration meeting (inaudible) as well	3:10
	(inaudible) sheriff in Terrell County	3:14
	After that we had two motions called	3:19
	(Inaudible)	3:23
	The second report was (inaudible) from Albany	3:25
	(inaudible)	3:28
	(inaudible)	3:33
	talked about when elected president of Terrell County	3:38
	(inaudible)	3:42
	(heavy audio static)	3:46
	(static)	3:51
	(audio static)	3:57
-	Second the motion	4:02
-	Second motion? Motion seconded has been received.	4:05
	(voice is muffled)	4:08
	I see a man come in.	4:17
	(voice is muffled)	4:22
	So I hope he will stay with us and he did come in.	4:25
	(voice is muffled)	4:31
	Well I know we have some strong help.	4:35
	I see some of our workers that have been with us	4:38
	and has been home.	4:43
	So I'm glad to see him back here.	4:44
	I guess the next thing now we go answer our report	4:48
	to Terrell County	4:51
	Well seeing as everybody was kind of out of town then,	5:03
	I always just kind of have to work on the side.	5:07
	Been so busy on other things.	5:13
	I had a new man that was supposed to come with me tonight.	5:15
	Something happened to his pump, it got out of shape	5:18
	so he couldn't have no water.	5:21
	He would have been one more new man had he been here.	5:23
	(woman's voice is muffled)	5:29
-	Okay alright, can we get a report from Lee County?	5:38
-	John O'Neil and I,	6:02
	went out to Lee County last night to start our work there.	6:08
	We're staying at Mama Dolly Raines out in Lee County.	6:14
	We started our first day of work today.	6:21
	It's right at Mama Dolly's place.	6:24
	She had a cane tractor, she makes syrup.	6:25
	Reverend Sneed from Lee County was there with his cane.	6:31
	And we went down and started talking to him.	6:39
	He's the kind of man - Mama Dolly wanted us to have	6:43
	some juice, some cane juice.	6:46
	She gave us a glass, and you know each glass holds	6:50
	maybe about this much juice.	6:54
	She said you go down there and you tell Sneed	6:55
	that I'll reduce it from his charge.	6:57
	He had all this cane.	7:03
	And she knew that he's the kind of man, that	7:05
	if this much is taken off he (voice is muffled).	7:08
	But we also talked to the son, Guthrie,	7:13
	who was registered to vote already.	7:16
	Just had a nice old chat about making syrup from sugar cane.	7:22
	He invited us to his house and we're gonna go.	7:27
	Of course the Reverend doesn't know it yet,	7:33
	but he's gonna let us use one of his churches	7:36
	in Lee County.	7:37
	I think it'll take some time, but he's gonna let us use it.	7:40
	We also today went to see Mr. Simmons.	7:45
	He's been with us a pretty long time, and Agnew James.	7:49
	Agnew wasn't there but we had a talk with his wife.	7:54
	We learned a lot of things about Lee County today,	8:00
	lot of things about Dick Forrester, the sheriff over there.	8:02
	He's a fine man.	8:05
	He's the only one in the county that owns a machines gun.	8:07
	Seems as the houses that were shot into	8:12
	were shot into by a machine gun.	8:15
	I'm not making any implications, but he was messed up	8:18
	in the shootings.	8:21
	We learned a lot of things about Lee, though,	8:27
	which can help us.	8:30
	Bad day out, we didn't do as much as we had planned to.	8:32
	I had a pretty bad cough.	8:41
	After we did this we went back.	8:44
	John, you wanna add any profound thoughts?	8:47
	I told them about the events,	8:55
	you wanna tell them about (voice is muffled).	8:56
	(coughing)	9:00
-	I have nothing to say.	9:11
	(laughing)	9:13
	(applause)	9:15
-	Okay can we hear from Dougherty County?	9:19
-	Dirty County.	9:27
	(laughing)	9:29
-	What I really have to say isn't gonna be long	9:32
	about Dougherty County	9:34
	We haven't been there most of this week.	9:36
	One thing that did happen in Albany this week	9:40
	while we were gone on Saturday,	9:44
	a large group of young people plus some adults	9:47
	and older people with them this time went downtown	9:53
	in Albany and wore t-shirts and picketed on Saturday.	9:56
	Now I haven't gotten specific information yet on how many,	10:02
	but the most wonderful thing is this time	10:08
	many of the adults went, too.	10:10
	They went down with the kids and wore the t-shirts,	10:14
	and walked around downtown.	10:18
	That's a wonderful thing even in Albany	10:22
	where a lot of people have gone to jail.	10:24
	Last Wednesday night we left after the town meeting	10:30
	and went to Nashville, Tennessee to our conference.	10:38
	Many of you have been listening to part of the tapes from it	10:41
	To me, the most beautiful part of the conference	10:45
	was the chance that we had to meet many of the people,	10:47
	particularly those working in Mississippi.	10:53
	About 10 or 15 of the boys working with SNCC in Mississippi	10:56
	came to the conference.	11:02
	We had a chance to talk to them and share our ideas	11:04
	and feelings, and just get to know them as people.	11:08
	We heard the names, some of them we had read	11:12
	had been chases across a roof by a lynch mob	11:15
	at one point.	11:19
	They were just names, and now they're people.	11:21
	We learned about Mississippi and got even more of a feeling	11:26
	of the whole movement across the South.	11:29
	They learned about Southwest Georgia and all of you.	11:33
	Some time soon they hope to come here	11:37
	and be able to meet you all.	11:39
	Same as sometime we want to go to Mississippi	11:41
	and see first hand exactly what they're doing,	11:45
	where they're heading.	11:49
	We got ideas from them and they got ideas from us.	11:50
	They'll be sharing with the people there	11:55
	and we will share them with you	11:57
	and see what you feel about it.	11:59
	That's the best that I have to say about the conference.	12:03
	The rest of the people who went there will have	12:05
	something to say, too.	12:07
	To me, that was the most wonderful part of those four days.	12:09
	(applause)	12:14
-	Somebody else like to have something to say?	12:18
	(speaker's voice is muffled)	12:28
-	Oh Saturday night while many of us that are here	12:39
	were on the way to the car,	12:41
	the Ku Klux Klan held a meeting on private property	12:44
	and sitting in with Dougherty County.	12:47
	Across from the Klan's meeting a group of people from Albany	12:49
	(inaudible) target line to keep the Klan from crossing over	12:56
	(voice is muffled).	13:01
	The Klan has asked to parade, and Pritchett refused	13:05
	to give them permission to parade so they were calling him	13:09
	all kinds of names, saying that he was a nigger lover.	13:12
	But he stood beside the Negroes and told them	13:15
	not to fire at them.	13:17
	But if they were to cross lines (voice is muffled).	13:20
-	Yes, alright.	13:23
	(applause)	13:24
-	I see Miss Theresa.	13:30
	I'd like to hear something from her.	13:35
	(voice is muffled)	13:36
	(laughing)	13:40
	(applause)	13:47
-	There isn't very much that I can say	13:56
	except that it's very, very good to be back home.	13:59
	Even though I'm just here for a short time	14:04
	and have to go right back.	14:07
	But today I was able to spend some time	14:09
	in Terrell County and it is the most wonderful thing	14:15
	that has happened to me in two months.	14:18
	I came around to see some of you.	14:21
	It was really like a real homecoming.	14:24
	All I can say is that during the time that I've been away	14:30
	from you, I suppose I found out even more	14:34
	than I even understood when I was here	14:38
	just how much I really love you	14:40
	and how much I really care.	14:43
	I scan the newspapers everyday at work,	14:46
	just anything that will give me news of what you're doing	14:50
	and what you're doing because you are really my family.	14:53
	This is our struggle together.	14:58

-	This is for the future, what I'm talking about	0:02
	is what's been happening the last 10 days this year.	0:04
	You may remember that we were all	0:11
	pretty exercised a while back,	0:13
	when seven people who had been picketing	0:16
	very peacefully in the middle of Albany,	0:18
	in connection with asking people not to buy	0:20
	downtown or midtown before Christmas.	0:25
	We were arrested and thrown and jail.	0:29
	After they were bonded out, they went to Washington	0:32
	and picketed the department of justice.	0:36
	The point is, that it's provided	0:41
	in the Constitution that the people	0:44
	have the right to peaceable protest,	0:45
	and petition for their rights and grievances,	0:48
	and all that sort of thing,	0:50
	and picketing is part of it if you don't	0:51
	obstruct the sidewalk, or disturb the peace,	0:53
	or anything like that.	0:55
	So that it is a breach of the Constitutional rights	0:56
	to arrest people who are picketing in small numbers	1:01
	on charges like disorderly conduct,	1:07
	breach of the peace, failure to obey an officer.	1:10
	All of the charges that are used	1:13
	now and again by police all over the country,	1:14
	but constantly by police in Albany	1:17
	to get rid of pickets.	1:21
	The city of Washington is very used to pickets.	1:22
	The city of Washington is very public relations conscious.	1:24
	I don't know, it must be 30 or 40 years	1:28
	since a peaceful picket has been arrested in Washington.	1:31
	So, they were picketing the justice department	1:34
	with signs which read, among other things,	1:37
	"We can picket here, why not in Albany Georgia?"	1:40
	Which was a very good question.	1:43
	Inside the justice department	1:47
	at the same time, or within a day or two,	1:49
	Attorny C.B. King, and Mr. Marion Page	1:53
	of the Albany mMvement were interviewing	1:56
	Derek Marshall, who was the assistant attorney general,	1:59
	that is the assistant to Robert Kennedy,	2:03
	directly in charge of civil rights matters,	2:05
	protesting not only this particular incident,	2:09
	but the pattern it shows of failure	2:11
	of the Federal Government to protect the rights	2:14
	of citizens of Albany when they	2:16
	are protesting and demonstrating.	2:18
	The Federal Government is perfectly okay	2:20
	when it's a matter of registering to vote in Albany.	2:22
	But this is another matter.	2:25
	This is not a totally satisfactory interview,	2:32
	but at least our feeling was registered.	2:34
	As you know, there are several cases in the	2:38
	Federal courts right now going on up	2:41
	from court to court to test the legality	2:44
	of what has been going on in Albany,	2:50
	in the way of segregation,	2:52
	and in the way of using other statutes	2:54
	and the segregation statutes to protect segregation.	2:56
	The justice department says once the courts	3:00
	have finally ruled as perfectly clear	3:02
	in the light of decisions the Federal Courts	3:04
	have been making over the last 10 years,	3:07
	they're gonna rule our way.	3:09
	Once the courts have finally ruled,	3:10
	we will step into this situation	3:12
	if they go on doing things like arresting	3:16
	your seven pickets last week.	3:17
	Some of our people feel that there are certain laws,	3:19
	which even without this last court decision coming along,	3:23
	could be used to bring the justice department	3:27
	into the situation right now,	3:31
	but the justice department doesn't see it that way	3:32
	and that's where it is.	3:34
	At least the protest has been registered.	3:36
	That's the single event that's been most interesting	3:39
	recently to the citizens of Albany	3:44
	in the Albany Movement.	3:46
	There is a continuing event which you've all heard about.	3:49
	There is a special drive on in Albany	3:52
	at the moment for voter registration.	3:55
	I'll remind those of you who've heard of it before,	3:58
	and tell those of you who weren't at the meeting	4:01
	where it was first talked about,	4:03
	that it is sponsored by a sorority called The Deltas,	4:04
	which is a sorority of school teachers,	4:10
	and they are people we are terribly	4:14
	glad to see moving in this direction.	4:17
	The Albany workers of the	4:26
	Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee	4:29
	have been helping this drive as much as possible	4:31
	in particular Faith Holsaert's here,	4:33
	the rest of us went in as we could.	4:35
	Recently, we have recruited a lot of students	4:37
	from the high school to help with the canvassing.	4:40
	And quite recently, it has been decided	4:44
	that for the time being	4:47
	the efforts of SNCC, and the students	4:50
	who are working with SNCC,	4:53
	the local students working with SNCC	4:56
	will be concentrated in the East Albany area,	4:58
	where Reverend Wells ...	5:00
	Where'd he get to?	5:03
	Ah, well you know who I mean!	5:05
	Reverend Wells who was right there,	5:07
	who's always right there,	5:08
	have been in charge of more than one drive,	5:11
	and knows exactly how to go about it,	5:15
	and is perfectly magnificent at practically	5:18
	putting people into his car whether they want to or not,	5:20
	and getting them up there,	5:24
	and getting them registered.	5:25
	We are at the moment conducting a canvass,	5:26
	which is also a census,	5:29
	finding out who is, and who is not registered,	5:30
	and then we will be going back, and back, and back	5:33
	to the people who are not.	5:36
	Later, we hope to branch out, and help the other	5:41
	area captains doing the same sort of thing	5:46
	in other parts of town.	5:48
	I think that's all that's really important	5:49
	from Albany at the moment.	5:51
	Anything I should add?	5:53
	(applause)	5:57
	(laughter)	6:08
-	We're still in Bronwood.	6:10
	(laughter)	6:13
	Last Thursday or Friday, Jack and I walked	6:18
	into this Brown Elementary School.	6:21
	Well first of all, when we split to the school,	6:26
	we couldn't find the front door.	6:28
	We went all around the school, you know.	6:31
	All the kids saw us, pointing you know.	6:32
	And their eyes went ...	6:35
	And we finally found a door.	6:37
	And went into the building.	6:40
	We walked in, and there was a man in the hall	6:43
	dressed in a pair of slacks and one of these jackets	6:47
	little jackets	6:53
	whom - we didn't know who he was	6:55
	so we asked him, "Can we talk to the principle?"	6:58
	He said, "I'm the principle, I'm the principle."	7:00
	So we'd like to talk to you about voter registration.	7:03
	He said - well, you know that I grew this big -	7:06
	He said, go to the superintendent.	7:09
	See the superintendent.	7:10
	So, we'd like talk to you.	7:12
	Can't talk to me, see the superintendent.	7:14
	So he started to walk off,	7:17
	and we didn't know whether to follow him or not.	7:18
	So we stood there, we stood there for a moment,	7:20
	then decided.	7:23
	Well I said, "What's going on?"	7:24
	So we walked around,	7:25
	and he'd opened the door for us.	7:27
	So I said, "Are we meant to see the superintendent	7:28
	"before we can talk to you?"	7:32
	He said, "No, no, no."	7:33
	I might talk to you a little while.	7:34
	He said, "No, see the superintendent.	7:36
	So, we left.	7:37
	And we went over to see Mr. Holley	7:39
	Mr. Holley is the (inaudible) in Bronwood,	7:43
	I think most of you probably know him.	7:45
	Mr. Holley is a very interested person in the movement.	7:48
	He asked us a lot of questions,	7:54
	and the answers to the illiteracy test,	7:56
	and also a Georgia State Constitution.	7:59
	So we carried this material over to him,	8:02
	and we read the questions, and read the answers to him.	8:05
	He said he was going down there to register	8:11
	pretty soon, you know, pretty soon	8:14
	We're going back tonight,	8:20
	or this afternoon to see Mr. Holley,	8:22
	he said he would go to the meeting,	8:24
	but he had arthritis and could not use one of his arms.	8:26
	But we saw Mrs. and Mr. Henderson.	8:31
	Mr and Mrs. Henderson, and they said they would be here	8:34
	come hell or high water.	8:37
	I don't know what came.	8:38
	(laughter)	8:41
	But they didn't.	8:43
	Y'all work on them.	8:50
	Oh! Jack and I walked into the registrar's office	8:53
	in Dawson last week to find out	9:00
	when the registrar's office was open.	9:04
	Was it only open on Mondays now?	9:06
	Was it open five days a week?	9:07
	and when did the board of registrar's meet?	9:09
	When we asked them this question,	9:15
	when was the office open he said,	9:17
	"I think you're asking is it open everyday?"	9:19
	And we said yeah.	9:21
	He said, "Yeah, it's open everyday."	9:22
	Jack says, "Does that mean five days a week,	9:26
	"Monday through Friday?"	9:29
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.	9:30
	He was nervous and twitchy.	9:31
	We didn't know what he was doing.	9:32
	And we asked him under the board of registrars meet	9:35
	and he said, as soon as they got enough people	9:37
	to turn their applications in, the board would meet.	9:39
	So we found that out.	9:44
	Alright, the day before that,	9:45
	Jack walked in there and asked, what'd you ask him Jack?	9:46
	I forgot.	9:49
-	Let me see the voting roles.	9:50
	Yeah, asked him to see the voting roles,	9:52
	to see how many Negroes are registered?	9:54
	And who was registered?	9:55
	He said, "No, no, 'cause they all mixed up?	9:56
	"They all mixed up!	9:57
	That's how you wanted it!"	9:58
	(laughter)	9:59
	So, we didn't get to see that.	10:04
	We didn't get to see that, so we don't know.	10:06
	But we've been trying to find out who are registered,	10:09
	and how many people have registered	10:12
	since the students have been here.	10:16
	We need this information, and we plan to get it.	10:18
	Yeah, we have Ms. Blooner.	10:27
	She has a list about this long of people	10:32
	in Sasser who registered to vote.	10:36
	(laughter)	10:40
	All right, this afternoon we came through Sasser	10:43
	the downtown area.	10:48
	(crosstalk)	10:51
	He said the downtown area! ... (laughs)	10:56
	Midtown, okay. (laughter)	11:02
	at any rate, we were on our way here	11:07
	to solve the file.	11:09
	I see you started a pretty good file	11:11
	stuff right off the top there, I don't know.	11:12
	At any rate, we got (laughs)	11:14
	We got up there - down there, and there were	11:19
	a group of young man singing out in front of a store	11:21
	that we decided to stop and hand out these leaflets.	11:24
	Well, you have a job to do, it's 1963	11:25
	and you're a free citizen, so forth.	11:29
	And, we met a few guys that we hadn't seen before.	11:32
	They lived right here in Sasser.	11:35
	They said they were coming to the meeting tonight.	11:37
	A few of them said they were coming.	11:39
	Well, I don't see any of 'em.	11:40
-	Do you remember the last names?	11:42
-	We didn't ask names. (crosstalk)	11:44
	I went to the store, and bought a cake and some ice cream.	11:51
	Jack comes in the store. (laughs)	11:57
	He gives this girl behind have the counter,	11:58
	one of these leaflets, you know, it's a Negro girl.	12:00
	He gives her ... he had it folded, of course.	12:04
	He gave it to her, and I seen the guy look at JacK.	12:06
	So we walked out	12:09
	and backed the car	12:13
	and saw this white man looking at	12:14
	"hey young lady" and he's scratching his head.	12:16
	(laughs)	12:17
	So I don't know what they did	12:20
	I don't know what he's gonna say about that.	12:22
	I hope the girl don't get fired.	12:24
-	I hope she does. It'd be good to have an incident.	12:28
-	Yeah, well the students at Carver High School ...	12:31
	Well we have a list of about half of the	12:37
	juniors and seniors who are 17 and a half and 18	12:40
	from various interested persons	12:47
	and students at Carver	12:52
	(laughs)	12:56
	There's a little joke about that, I won't tell you the joke.	12:59
	At any rate (laughter)	13:01
	I'll tell you this other half, see.	13:04
	There are about 75 students that are 17 and a half,	13:07
	and 18 years old going to Carver High School.	13:11
	If we can get these people registered this'll be a big thing	13:14
	It'll be a classic.	13:17
	Might start something in Terrell county.	13:20
	I'm still working on Mr. Henderson, Mr. Holley,	13:24
	Mrs. Silas in Bronwood, Mrs. Collier, Mrs. Wigfall.	13:29
	Oh, I'll tell you why we were late.	13:38
	Man why were we late (laughs)	13:41
	Oh. We... the block in Mrs. Daniels' car	13:49
	froze and cracked last week.	13:56
	And we've been in Albany quite a bit getting it repaired.	14:02
	Today we were in Albany almost all day seeing about the car.	14:07
	And when we got back it was fairly late.	14:11
	And we went to Bronwood to see these people	14:13
	to see about getting somebody to come to the meeting,	14:16
	but nobody showed up from Bronwood yet.	14:19
	And we came back to Dawson to check with	14:21
	Clovis Jones, see what he's doing,	14:25
	and a few more of the guys that were helping Jones,	14:29
	to give us information parts and start the school movement.	14:35
	Yeah, we heard about a senior club,	14:42
	Senior club is sponsoring a trip	14:46
	somewhere after school, you see, when school is out.	14:49
	Seems back in '59, the superintendent	14:53
	cut out all senior trips.	14:58
	You can't have anymore Senior trips.	14:59
	You know how seniors in high school go on trips	15:01
	I don't know why (laughs).	15:04
	Washington, somewhere, you know, or some historical place	15:06
-	They don't dare to go to the courthouse.	15:11
-	Yeah. But, seeing the superintendent	15:13
	of school cut this out.	15:17
	So we was, students come together	15:19
	to sponsor a trip of their own.	15:21
	See, this hasn't to do with the school whatsoever.	15:23
	These students are doing this for themselves.	15:26
	So the superintendent can't say anything about this.	15:28
	At any rate they're supposed to have a meeting tonight	15:34
	in Dawson and Jack and I heard about it,	15:38
	we decided we were gonna walk in on this meeting	15:41
	and preach a little while.	15:43
	The meeting started at 7:30.	15:48
	We were supposed to get there about a quarter of eight.	15:50
	This is really why we were late.	15:53
	See, we went to see this meeting.	15:54
	At a quarter of eight, we got there.	15:57
	We walked in and nobody was there.	15:59
	(laughs)	16:04
	There was one person there (inaudible)	16:07
	She said, "Didn't nobody show up!"	16:10
	So (laughs) so that was a blind alley.	16:14
	But, this girl said	16:22
	(crosstalk)	16:24
-	No it's just that nobody showed up	16:29
-	They were all down at The Palace.	16:31
	So I decided to go through The Palace (laughing)	16:34
	Yeah, te preacher was at The Palace,	16:39
	with a dark beer bottle.	16:42
	So, we left there.	16:45
	We stayed there for a few minutes	16:47
	talking to this young lady,	16:49
	and the president of the club came in	16:51
	and we talked to him for a while.	16:53
-	James Holloway.	16:55
-	James Holloway, he's Lucius Holloway's cousin.	16:56
	Talked to him for a while.	17:02
	He said he's coming to a meeting next week.	17:03
	Then Jack and I went to The Palace to find these guys	17:07
	to come with us to the meeting, you know, before	17:11
	Bobby Joe, Melvin, um, Clovis...	17:13
	But they, huh? (inaudible)	17:18
	Yeah, I couldn't find any of the guys there.	17:23
	Jack talked to some guys there, I don't know who they were	17:30
	I went to see Clovis at his house.	17:33
	Clovis tells me he's afraid that Sykes	17:36
	will send a bad recommendation	17:39
	to the colleges he plans to go to	17:42
	which is Wilberforce, it's in Ohio.	17:45
	I told him, I have a connection at Wilberforce.	17:51
	Matter of fact, my high school basketball coach	17:55
	was a graduate of Wilberforce,	17:57
	and his wife was on the board of trustees at Wilberforce.	17:58
	So I told him about this.	18:03
	Not to worry about anything.	18:04
	Had me kicked out of school,	18:06
	get a bad recommendation.	18:07
	I would talk to Mr. Cross, his name is Cross	18:10
	on the board of the trustees.	18:13
	I talked to him.	18:15
	I know him personally.	18:17
	We can work out something.	18:19
	But he says, he'll have those names to us by Friday,	18:21
	we looking forward to that. (crosstalk)	18:27
	No, he had his ...	18:30
	I don't know a little boy there.	18:33
	His mother wasn't home.	18:35
	He had to stay there with his little brother.	18:37
	He said he'll be here next week	18:40
	We'll make a report on what's the best school,	18:43
	and what he plans to do et cetera.	18:46
	Well, that's about it I guess, yeah.	18:50
	(crosstalk)	18:56
	No, I heard something about that sometime today.	19:03
	Somebody from here, I think Mrs. Daniels told me,	19:07
	somebody from Sasser here was supposed to go down	19:10
	and meet the board of registrars on Friday.	19:12
	Did he get a notice, did he get a letter?	19:17
	Well, I guess that verifies it.	19:19
	(inaudible)	19:22
-	Why don't you include that in your report	19:34
	on these registration drives?	19:36
-	mhmm	19:39
	(inaudible)	19:42
-	(inaudible) is a man who (inaudible)?	19:53
-	No. (inaudible)	19:56
-	Well, anyways the guy said the board of registrars	20:02
	would meet when there were enough applicants	20:05
	to be worthwhile, I guess.	20:08
	(inaudible)	20:13
-	These people that's going before the board,	20:21
	whether or not it's clear that they know ...	20:25
	That they're taking an illiteracy test,	20:32
	whether they can read and write,	20:37
	and avoid this meeting the board.	20:40
	I'm thinking that it's not too clear	20:45
	to your people as to ...(crosstalk)	20:50
	Well, just how legal this is?	20:56
	Well, I ... This writing you and you come back later,	21:00
	and everybody got to go before the board.	21:07
	I question that.	21:14
	Maybe ... (crosstalk)	21:20
	(laughs)	21:34
	(crosstalk)	21:40
	I went down to the, um, Methodist Church on Sunday	21:41
	at their regular service for the day	21:46
	and I went to the service - nice service	21:51
	preacher preached so good	21:54
	His text was the handwriting on the wall.	22:00
	I don't think (inaudible)	22:02
	As his text was the handwriting on the wall.	22:07
	He told me his name, but I forgot his name	22:13
	that's what the preacher's text was	22:16
	No, I said his text was the handwriting on the wall.	22:22
-	Who was the preacher?	22:27
-	Oh you forgot his name	22:28
-	I forgot his name. (laughs)
	So I enjoyed the service.	22:38
	And after he opened the chest	22:44
	he asked me up to lift the offering.	22:48
	so I got up and I lifted the collection	22:53
	And I told him right after this collection	22:57
	I want to make a little statement	22:59
	At least I want to ask you all something.	23:01
	If you're in too big of a hurry with this collection stuff	23:05
	I got through the collection, then I began to go	23:09
	talking about voter registration.	23:14
	I told him that... about our church	23:18
	Concerning church we always either had it in our church	23:23
	Before it got burned down we had it there a time or two.	23:26
	And so since our church had got burned down,	23:32
	we was still holding it in this tent,	23:35
	I said it got kind of cold	23:39
	and of course we have heat in there.	23:43
	But I think a building would be a little bit better, so	23:46
	I came over to ask you all today could we	23:50
	Use this church to hold our voter registration	23:54
	while it was cold, and 'til it probably get a little warmer	24:00
	If the preacher didn't have any objection	24:04
	And so, they said, well, we'll see about it after	24:09
	we get through doing some other kind of collection.	24:16
	Methodists, you know, take up two or three	24:21
	different kind of collections.	24:23
	And so he said, you just wait now don't go nowhere.	24:25
	I said, "I ain't going nowhere,	24:27
	"you ain't got to worry bout that."	24:29
	Cause this is what I come for and so	24:31
	I waited around there, probably stayed an hour and a half.	24:33
	And so the members and the stewards got together.	24:39
	And so some said yes and some said no	24:43
	But I was standing off in another corner	24:48
	when they was getting together.	24:50
	After they got through they passed the word to the pastor	24:54
	So, I had most of them say that they was willing.	25:02
	Cause they was 100% with, but	25:07
	I don't see none of 'em out here	25:11
	And I haven't seen them out here since we've been having it.	25:15
	And so, then the pastor said, "Well,"	25:18
	He got up and said, "Well, brothers I tell you,	25:20
	"that voter registration what the people have been"	25:25
	"the movement" - different things like that he was saying.	25:29
	He was saying, "And that done caused so much trouble	25:33
	"around through the country," he said, "I tell you what,	25:36
	"you better, since I'm your pastor, you better ..."	25:39
	Respect me, or something like that he said,	25:47
	But anyways, "I think you need to let me see	25:52
	"desire in the bishop before	25:56
	"you let them have that meeting here."	25:58
	"Now if it's just a regular service it's all right,	26:03
	I want to know what the difference in it believe."	26:06
	We ain't had a party no time since I been to one.	26:09
	We don't do anything but sing praise,	26:13
	and talk about voter registration.	26:16
	I speak good of the register.	26:18
	Thomas said, "Well, I ain't seen nothing."	26:21
	I ain't get what he was talking about.	26:25
	Instead of just having a regular service,	26:29
	I thought that's all we were having at the beginning.	26:31
	Pray and give God thanks for the things given to us.	26:34
	So, (mumbles) he said, "Don't think hard of me,	26:39
	"cause I've done all I've can so y'all can have it in here,	26:48
	"'cause I know it's cold in that tent."	26:52
	He said, "Coach, we don't have any insurance,	26:55
	"we can't get none."	26:57
	Just to bone up my artists so he can't get none,	26:59
	so I said, well have you tried canyon, canyon?	27:01
	He said, "No."	27:04
	I said, "If you just got to have insurance with it,	27:05
	try canyon canyon with it.	27:09
	Another thing, we ain't gonna	27:11
	have nothing to deed in this church.	27:12
	I said, "Well, I can't tell you about all of that,	27:14
	"But you just have to have insurance."	27:18
	(mumbles)	27:22
	Yeah, I think that's what you gotta do,	27:37
	because church get burned down,	27:50
	then you won't have nowhere to have service.	27:52
	I think we just waiting to sing to have somewhere.	27:54
	(mumbles)	27:58
	Methodist church right over here.	28:10
	Well, that Wednesday night they come here.	28:14
	So, next Wednesday.	28:17
	(inaudible)	28:20
	I remember a long time ago when the	28:26
	church was down the street.	28:38
	Down for sometime now. (mumbles)	28:39
	These people 'round here trying to help build it back.	28:40
	And I just wanted to know why we couldn't build it back.	28:48
	Wednesday night, just gone over there in house (laughs).	28:51
	I think she's an outstanding member there.	28:56
	(inaudible)	29:01
	Calvin's sister, Viola.	29:10
	She told me to go ahead on Wednesday night.	29:16
	She asked me to honor that much.	29:33
	Just waiting.	29:37
	So, I've been after (inaudible)	29:38
	After he said wait, and all of them was trying	29:45
	to talk to me, I didn't think to ask the man's permission.	29:51
	(mumbles) Still asking him to come out (inaudible)	30:03
	Still their friends (inaudible)	30:09
	Didn't know exactly how to do it.	30:12
	If they see me, I'm gonna send 'em to somebody else.	30:16
	That's what they left me with.	30:30
	Wait to see the bishop.	30:33
	(inaudible)	30:34
	No, I gotta see him again.	30:43
	Thinking of looking at his tags.	30:52
	(inaudible)	30:54
	♪ This little light of mine ♪	31:08
	♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪	31:11
	♪ This little light of mine ♪	31:13
	♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪	31:16
	♪ This little light of mine ♪	31:19
	♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪	31:22
	♪ Let it shine let it shine let it shine ♪	31:25
	♪ Everywhere I go I'm gonna let it shine ♪	31:31

Item Info

Title:

Terrell County, GA meeting, speakers include Mr. Trim Porter December 18, 1962

Date:

December 18, 1962

Creator:

Rubin, Larry, 1942-

Description:

The audio in this recording has been digitally processed to reduce noise and enhance clarity. The unprocessed preservation file can be requested by contacting the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/franklin.

Subject:

Format: