00:00:04.513 --> 00:00:05.725
(bell ringing)

00:00:05.725 --> 00:00:06.813
(upbeat music)

00:00:06.813 --> 00:00:09.360
[Radio Reporter] WPGC area
salute to Washington, D.C.

00:00:09.360 --> 00:00:11.433
I got 13 minutes before nine o'clock.

00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:14.280
Everybody in the Washington area.

00:00:14.280 --> 00:00:15.360
How about taking a spin

00:00:15.360 --> 00:00:17.970
toward fabulous Glen Echo Amusement Park?"

00:00:17.970 --> 00:00:20.792
Swim in the cool Crystal
Pool anytime between 10 a.m.

00:00:20.792 --> 00:00:21.625
eight and p.m.

00:00:21.625 --> 00:00:24.260
Save the Pepsi caps for free rides

00:00:24.260 --> 00:00:27.033
at Glen Echo every Monday in August.

00:00:27.033 --> 00:00:30.533
(upbeat orchestral music)

00:00:36.968 --> 00:00:38.800
You are now trespassing.

00:00:38.800 --> 00:00:39.963
Can I ask your race?

00:00:41.100 --> 00:00:41.933
My race?

00:00:41.933 --> 00:00:43.200
I belong to the human race.

00:00:43.200 --> 00:00:44.033
Alright.

00:00:44.033 --> 00:00:45.360
This park is segregated.

00:00:45.360 --> 00:00:47.220
You're telling me that I
cannot come into the park?

00:00:47.220 --> 00:00:48.150
That's right.
And you don't know

00:00:48.150 --> 00:00:49.333
what nationality I am?

00:00:49.333 --> 00:00:50.700
You don't know who I am?
I just asked you.

00:00:50.700 --> 00:00:52.317
I don't know who you are.
It doesn't matter.

00:00:52.317 --> 00:00:54.090
But you're telling me
because my skin is black,

00:00:54.090 --> 00:00:55.350
I can't come into your park?

00:00:55.350 --> 00:00:56.929
For what reason?

00:00:56.929 --> 00:00:58.470
I asked you what your race was.

00:00:58.470 --> 00:01:01.427
What class of persons do
you allow to come in here?

00:01:01.427 --> 00:01:02.677
White People.

00:01:03.876 --> 00:01:05.397
(upbeat music)

00:01:05.397 --> 00:01:06.539
♪ Fun is where you find it ♪

00:01:06.539 --> 00:01:08.772
♪ Where do you find it ♪

00:01:08.772 --> 00:01:10.906
♪ Glen Echo Amusement Park ♪

00:01:10.906 --> 00:01:14.292
♪ The coaster dip is cool,
so's the Crystal Pool ♪

00:01:14.292 --> 00:01:17.935
♪ For excitement and fun
in the sun or after dark ♪

00:01:17.935 --> 00:01:20.332
♪ Glen Echo Amusement Park! ♪

00:01:20.332 --> 00:01:23.381
♪ Glen Echo, Amusement Park ♪

00:01:23.381 --> 00:01:25.964
(upbeat music)

00:01:27.765 --> 00:01:29.670
It was so much fun.

00:01:29.670 --> 00:01:32.250
I love the dodgem cars.

00:01:32.250 --> 00:01:33.630
These airplanes

00:01:33.630 --> 00:01:35.793
that would whip around in a circle.

00:01:38.340 --> 00:01:39.683
The tilt-a-whirl.

00:01:40.890 --> 00:01:42.090
The roller coaster.

00:01:42.090 --> 00:01:43.695
The sound was it.

00:01:43.695 --> 00:01:44.880
It went click click
click clack clack clack.

00:01:44.880 --> 00:01:46.530
The cars went to the top.

00:01:46.530 --> 00:01:49.653
You could see people waving
up their hands and screaming.

00:01:51.752 --> 00:01:55.169
(upbeat music continues)

00:01:57.035 --> 00:01:59.220
And they had a Fun House

00:01:59.220 --> 00:02:01.733
with a fortune teller
who laughed. (laughing)

00:02:01.733 --> 00:02:03.630
And of course, the swimming pool

00:02:03.630 --> 00:02:05.850
for that huge swimming pool.

00:02:05.850 --> 00:02:07.920
And there were lights splashing,

00:02:07.920 --> 00:02:10.920
shooting stalls and candy floss.

00:02:10.920 --> 00:02:13.170
It had a famous merry-go-round.

00:02:14.580 --> 00:02:16.893
It was just so much fun
on the merry-go-round.

00:02:20.745 --> 00:02:24.245
(gentle orchestral music)

00:02:47.520 --> 00:02:49.350
Where is the Jim Crow section

00:02:49.350 --> 00:02:53.553
on this merry-go-round,
mister, because I want to ride?

00:02:56.400 --> 00:02:58.590
Down south where I come from,

00:02:58.590 --> 00:03:01.353
white and colored can't sit side by side.

00:03:03.840 --> 00:03:08.430
Down south on the train,
there's a Jim Crow car.

00:03:08.430 --> 00:03:10.743
On the bus, we're put in the back.

00:03:13.530 --> 00:03:16.323
But there ain't no back
to a merry-go-round.

00:03:18.870 --> 00:03:22.893
Where is a horse for a kid that's Black?

00:03:25.601 --> 00:03:29.934
(gentle orchestral music continues)

00:03:46.320 --> 00:03:48.843
Oh, we-we were dying to get in there.

00:03:51.960 --> 00:03:55.380
We saw them going in,
so we would be drooling

00:03:55.380 --> 00:03:56.793
to go into Glen Echo.

00:04:01.980 --> 00:04:04.173
I really wanted to ride on the carousel.

00:04:06.630 --> 00:04:07.620
I loved the music.

00:04:07.620 --> 00:04:09.820
I loved the way the
horses went up and down.

00:04:12.746 --> 00:04:15.603
Why couldn't we go and have
fun like everybody else?

00:04:17.866 --> 00:04:21.533
(dramatic orchestral music)

00:04:28.436 --> 00:04:31.170
(upbeat jazz music)

00:04:31.170 --> 00:04:33.186
[Radio Reporter] WPGC Good guys radio.

00:04:33.186 --> 00:04:36.423
93 degrees in our town,
downtown Washington town.

00:04:37.834 --> 00:04:39.600
(upbeat jazz music)

00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:40.680
Washington, D.C.

00:04:40.680 --> 00:04:42.273
The capital of America.

00:04:44.700 --> 00:04:49.700
America, the country that
stands for justice, equality,

00:04:49.800 --> 00:04:53.866
and here it is right
outside of this capital,

00:04:53.866 --> 00:04:56.823
you've got this great hypocrisy.

00:04:57.761 --> 00:05:01.230
(engine rumbling)

00:05:01.230 --> 00:05:03.618
This was a deeply segregated
town in every sense

00:05:03.618 --> 00:05:04.623
of the word.

00:05:05.850 --> 00:05:09.783
The races were as segregated
here, as in the South.

00:05:11.610 --> 00:05:13.977
I never knew a white child at all

00:05:13.977 --> 00:05:15.873
when I lived in the District.

00:05:17.640 --> 00:05:19.050
Growing up in the District,

00:05:19.050 --> 00:05:21.180
there was a great
consciousness among Blacks

00:05:21.180 --> 00:05:23.253
about how wrong segregation was.

00:05:24.270 --> 00:05:27.003
Young people were extremely restless.

00:05:28.380 --> 00:05:31.233
1960 was the birth of true activism.

00:05:32.700 --> 00:05:35.763
That's when the student movement was born.

00:05:38.040 --> 00:05:40.320
The student movement in D.C.

00:05:40.320 --> 00:05:42.338
grew exactly where
you'd expect it to grow,

00:05:42.338 --> 00:05:43.923
out of Howard University.

00:05:44.994 --> 00:05:47.994
(upbeat jazz music)

00:05:52.380 --> 00:05:55.503
Growing up in the South,
I heard about Howard.

00:05:56.820 --> 00:06:01.653
I knew it was the top tier
of the Black universities.

00:06:03.690 --> 00:06:06.333
And lo and behold, Howard accepted me.

00:06:07.920 --> 00:06:11.340
I had $57 in my pocket

00:06:11.340 --> 00:06:14.253
and a laminated cardboard suitcase.

00:06:16.102 --> 00:06:18.360
(gentle orchestral music)

00:06:18.360 --> 00:06:21.477
Everybody is outside
the admissions office,

00:06:21.477 --> 00:06:23.583
ready to pay their fees.

00:06:25.920 --> 00:06:29.280
The young lady at the desk
told me what my fees were.

00:06:29.280 --> 00:06:32.580
I said "I'd like to talk to the head man."

00:06:32.580 --> 00:06:35.010
She sort of looks up at
me, "I beg your pardon?"

00:06:35.010 --> 00:06:37.010
I said "I want to talk to the head man."

00:06:37.980 --> 00:06:40.477
Without being told, I sat down.

00:06:40.477 --> 00:06:41.547
"How you doing?"

00:06:42.603 --> 00:06:46.620
(laughing) I said, "How's
your family doing?"

00:06:46.620 --> 00:06:50.100
I said "You let me in class,
and let me stay on the campus.

00:06:50.100 --> 00:06:54.537
And in exchange for that,
I'll do some work for you."

00:06:56.490 --> 00:07:00.393
They gave me a job as a janitor
in the School of Dentistry.

00:07:02.940 --> 00:07:04.653
I knew that I was a poor boy.

00:07:06.240 --> 00:07:08.733
When everyone was going to the cafeteria,

00:07:09.870 --> 00:07:11.760
I'd be in my room eating my peanut butter

00:07:11.760 --> 00:07:13.113
and jelly sandwiches.

00:07:16.200 --> 00:07:17.733
I'm from Wadely, Georgia.

00:07:18.915 --> 00:07:21.915
(light piano music)

00:07:25.650 --> 00:07:28.713
I was a novelty to these people at Howard.

00:07:30.600 --> 00:07:33.213
They were the sons of
doctors and dentists.

00:07:35.880 --> 00:07:38.463
You know, I'd say things like
"This dog ain't gonna hunt"

00:07:38.463 --> 00:07:42.652
(chuckling) and they would-they
thought that was hilarious.

00:07:42.652 --> 00:07:45.510
(upbeat jazz music)

00:07:45.510 --> 00:07:48.480
I've always been, I won't say gifted,

00:07:48.480 --> 00:07:52.010
but I have always had good grades.

00:07:52.010 --> 00:07:55.843
(upbeat jazz music continues)

00:08:15.600 --> 00:08:18.270
I knew there was something better for me.

00:08:18.270 --> 00:08:21.420
That's why I wanted to go to Howard.

00:08:21.420 --> 00:08:23.763
My father was a mail carrier,

00:08:24.600 --> 00:08:27.003
my mother got a nursing degree.

00:08:28.620 --> 00:08:32.643
They moved from lower class
to the Black bourgeoisie.

00:08:33.990 --> 00:08:37.323
In 1947, we got a television set.

00:08:38.160 --> 00:08:39.600
My house all of a sudden

00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:43.927
became the most wonderful
house to visit on the block.

00:08:43.927 --> 00:08:45.457
"Hey Diamond, how ya doing?"

00:08:45.457 --> 00:08:46.797
"Hey, man, hi!"

00:08:50.040 --> 00:08:51.960
Petersburg, Virginia, where I'm from,

00:08:51.960 --> 00:08:54.663
was truly a segregated small town.

00:08:55.632 --> 00:08:58.203
We had one library in the city.

00:08:59.160 --> 00:09:01.410
There was a colored
entrance around the side.

00:09:02.250 --> 00:09:04.740
Which was nothing but one
room, and we were forbidden

00:09:04.740 --> 00:09:06.063
to go into the stacks.

00:09:08.730 --> 00:09:11.100
I would purposefully go
into the white entrance

00:09:11.100 --> 00:09:12.603
to utilize the stacks.

00:09:14.572 --> 00:09:18.769
(upbeat jazz music continues)

00:09:18.769 --> 00:09:21.570
By the time they started
calling the police,

00:09:21.570 --> 00:09:24.430
I would just run out of there. (chuckling)

00:09:24.430 --> 00:09:28.263
(upbeat jazz music continues)

00:09:31.698 --> 00:09:33.900
So that was my personal sit-in,

00:09:33.900 --> 00:09:38.357
and that was before, quote, "the sit-ins".

00:09:38.357 --> 00:09:40.442
(gentle orchestral music)

00:09:40.442 --> 00:09:41.367
When I got to Howard,
Howard was not involved

00:09:43.320 --> 00:09:45.543
in anything at that particular point.

00:09:47.250 --> 00:09:50.310
In those days, the Howard students,

00:09:50.310 --> 00:09:53.250
being, shall we say, to the manor born,

00:09:53.250 --> 00:09:57.360
pretended like segregation
did not bother them

00:09:57.360 --> 00:09:59.463
because they didn't have to deal with it.

00:10:02.538 --> 00:10:04.500
And I remember some of the conversations

00:10:04.500 --> 00:10:05.497
I would have with them.

00:10:05.497 --> 00:10:09.390
"What do you mean you
don't have to deal with it?

00:10:09.390 --> 00:10:12.870
When you leave Howard's
campus, and you go back home,

00:10:12.870 --> 00:10:16.047
do you sit in front of the
bus or the back of the bus?"

00:10:20.480 --> 00:10:24.147
(dramatic orchestral music)

00:10:27.540 --> 00:10:32.100
Then come February 1, and the
news is about the students

00:10:32.100 --> 00:10:34.011
from Greensboro.

00:10:34.011 --> 00:10:35.640
(dramatic orchestral music)

00:10:35.640 --> 00:10:38.850
[Newsreel] A group of Negro
students from A&T College

00:10:38.850 --> 00:10:42.390
occupied luncheon counter
seats, without being served,

00:10:42.390 --> 00:10:45.810
at the downtown F.W.
Woolworth Company store

00:10:45.810 --> 00:10:47.400
late this morning,

00:10:47.400 --> 00:10:51.630
starting what they declared
would be a growing movement.

00:10:51.630 --> 00:10:56.190
Greensboro initiated the
sit-ins all over the South,

00:10:56.190 --> 00:10:57.303
at Black schools.

00:11:00.480 --> 00:11:02.883
That's when we got started at Howard.

00:11:04.350 --> 00:11:05.970
We went down to the Capitol,

00:11:05.970 --> 00:11:08.986
and my first time seeing the capital.

00:11:08.986 --> 00:11:11.986
(upbeat jazz music)

00:11:37.381 --> 00:11:39.720
(upbeat jazz music)

00:11:39.720 --> 00:11:42.810
That was the start of our movement.

00:11:42.810 --> 00:11:44.430
We formed the organization

00:11:44.430 --> 00:11:47.949
called the Non-violent
Action Group: N.A.G, nag,

00:11:47.949 --> 00:11:51.510
and we said we're going
to nag the establishment.

00:11:51.510 --> 00:11:55.260
We thought it was catchy
because we knew we had

00:11:55.260 --> 00:11:56.403
to be nonviolent.

00:11:57.272 --> 00:12:00.060
I was glad to find NAG.

00:12:00.060 --> 00:12:03.243
I was home from college,
on my way to law school,

00:12:04.140 --> 00:12:05.811
and looking for where the action was.

00:12:05.811 --> 00:12:07.950
And that's where it was.

00:12:07.950 --> 00:12:09.870
Fellow persons you have done a great,

00:12:09.870 --> 00:12:11.013
great work here today.

00:12:12.210 --> 00:12:16.530
Laurence Henry was a
Divinity student at Howard.

00:12:16.530 --> 00:12:17.793
Older than we were.

00:12:19.343 --> 00:12:23.327
And he kind of became
our spiritual leader.

00:12:26.370 --> 00:12:28.110
Every time he spoke,

00:12:28.110 --> 00:12:30.603
it sounded like he was preaching a sermon.

00:12:32.160 --> 00:12:33.610
He knew how to get attention.

00:12:34.860 --> 00:12:37.556
Your parents shall be proud
of you and God Almighty

00:12:37.556 --> 00:12:39.807
will be proud of you also.

00:12:39.807 --> 00:12:40.807
I thank you.

00:12:44.010 --> 00:12:47.313
As I think about NAG, we
were some bold people.

00:12:48.960 --> 00:12:53.413
We wanted you to get out
of the way of blocking us

00:12:53.413 --> 00:12:56.318
because if we were gonna' advance

00:12:56.318 --> 00:12:58.533
we needed to knock the barriers down.

00:12:59.998 --> 00:13:02.998
(upbeat jazz music)

00:13:07.828 --> 00:13:11.328
(upbeat orchestral music)

00:13:14.010 --> 00:13:14.850
[David Susskind] In your view,

00:13:14.850 --> 00:13:19.020
is this a spontaneous
combustion situation of a group

00:13:19.020 --> 00:13:22.323
of students whose patience
with second class citizenship

00:13:22.323 --> 00:13:25.500
has taken this kind of active form?

00:13:25.500 --> 00:13:27.570
[Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.]
This whole movement is one

00:13:27.570 --> 00:13:30.000
of the most significant developments

00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:32.430
in the whole civil rights struggle,

00:13:32.430 --> 00:13:36.659
and it's on a scale
we've never seen before.

00:13:36.659 --> 00:13:41.659
♪ Just like a tree that's
standing by the water ♪

00:13:41.836 --> 00:13:45.360
♪ Oh we shall not be moved ♪

00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:48.180
We have had a whole section

00:13:48.180 --> 00:13:50.073
of the country protesting.

00:13:51.833 --> 00:13:56.833
(all chanting indistinctly)
(gentle orchestral music)

00:14:12.780 --> 00:14:14.500
I joined NAG in 1960.

00:14:23.790 --> 00:14:28.173
My husband became an organizer
for a white collar union,

00:14:29.130 --> 00:14:31.653
and we moved to Washington.

00:14:34.080 --> 00:14:36.990
It was important that
NAG had white members,

00:14:36.990 --> 00:14:40.563
because had NAG been completely all Black,

00:14:41.460 --> 00:14:43.383
we wouldn't have gotten the publicity.

00:14:50.520 --> 00:14:52.170
I grew up in Buffalo, New York,

00:14:55.199 --> 00:14:59.450
and I went to a school that was all white.

00:14:59.450 --> 00:15:04.263
In our sixth grade, a Black
girl came into the school.

00:15:06.270 --> 00:15:08.763
Shortly after that, a
second Black girl came.

00:15:10.410 --> 00:15:12.810
And I could see that
nobody was talking to them.

00:15:15.870 --> 00:15:19.473
And I remember going out of my
way to make friends with her.

00:15:24.930 --> 00:15:26.430
I knew how I would have felt

00:15:26.430 --> 00:15:28.290
if I was in a school where everybody

00:15:28.290 --> 00:15:30.243
was different from where I was.

00:15:38.700 --> 00:15:41.823
Maybe because I heard stories
about what happened in Europe.

00:15:43.204 --> 00:15:45.420
(dramatic orchestral music)

00:15:45.420 --> 00:15:50.250
How Jewish children were
shunned, weren't allowed

00:15:50.250 --> 00:15:52.293
to go to regular schools.

00:15:53.964 --> 00:15:58.964
(dramatic orchestral music continues)

00:15:59.220 --> 00:16:04.220
The second World War
radicalized me and what happened

00:16:04.680 --> 00:16:06.573
to people who did not have power.

00:16:11.640 --> 00:16:12.933
I think I gotta stretch.

00:16:19.076 --> 00:16:19.909
Okay.

00:16:22.333 --> 00:16:24.810
A number of my friends joined a lot

00:16:24.810 --> 00:16:27.960
of Jewish organizations like Hadassah.

00:16:27.960 --> 00:16:30.063
I was not interested in that.

00:16:30.930 --> 00:16:33.480
But I was so interested in
the Civil Rights Movement

00:16:33.480 --> 00:16:35.643
and what was happening there.

00:16:36.930 --> 00:16:40.470
I very strongly feel the Southern movement

00:16:40.470 --> 00:16:43.740
should not feel that
they were the only people

00:16:43.740 --> 00:16:47.883
who are responsible for
the fight for civil rights.

00:16:48.760 --> 00:16:52.270
So this is very directly my
fight, as a white person.

00:16:52.270 --> 00:16:55.503
It is as much my fight as it is theirs.

00:16:57.853 --> 00:16:58.686
(dramatic orchestral music)

00:16:58.686 --> 00:17:01.260
[Newsreel] Negroes made new
inroads towards integration

00:17:01.260 --> 00:17:02.880
in the Southern United States.

00:17:02.880 --> 00:17:04.320
They brought pressure with a device

00:17:04.320 --> 00:17:06.810
called "the lunch counter sit-in."

00:17:06.810 --> 00:17:09.780
They used it mainly in 5 and
10's and department stores

00:17:09.780 --> 00:17:12.120
where they could buy
clothes and other items

00:17:12.120 --> 00:17:14.070
but could not sit at the lunch counter.

00:17:16.410 --> 00:17:21.360
NAG's first organized sit-in
was the drugstore over

00:17:21.360 --> 00:17:22.743
in Arlington, Virginia.

00:17:24.201 --> 00:17:27.240
(dramatic orchestral music)

00:17:27.240 --> 00:17:29.490
[Reporter] Seven Negroes
and six white persons

00:17:29.490 --> 00:17:34.410
staged sit-in demonstrations
at lunch counters on Thursday.

00:17:34.410 --> 00:17:37.260
Seats were removed as
fast as they were vacated

00:17:37.260 --> 00:17:39.090
by customers.

00:17:39.090 --> 00:17:42.000
The manager at Peoples
barricaded the counter

00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:45.213
with lawn chairs and bags of fertilizer.

00:17:46.850 --> 00:17:50.517
(dramatic orchestral music)

00:18:05.460 --> 00:18:06.510
[Laurence] Crowding in on us,

00:18:06.510 --> 00:18:09.240
they bombarded us dropping
lighted cigarettes

00:18:09.240 --> 00:18:12.243
into our jacket pockets
and burning our seat pants.

00:18:17.101 --> 00:18:19.747
They'd surround us and say,

00:18:19.747 --> 00:18:21.597
"What are you doing here, you nigger?

00:18:22.710 --> 00:18:23.997
You want to die?"

00:18:27.441 --> 00:18:30.150
(dramatic orchestral music continues)

00:18:30.150 --> 00:18:32.133
It was very scary.

00:18:33.600 --> 00:18:37.707
But there were newspaper
reporters at the sit-in,

00:18:37.707 --> 00:18:40.440
and when somebody started
to raise their arm

00:18:40.440 --> 00:18:43.050
to throw something,
they raised their camera

00:18:43.050 --> 00:18:44.918
to take a picture.

00:18:44.918 --> 00:18:47.463
And that arm came down right away.

00:18:48.698 --> 00:18:51.780
A few instances of that
and the whole group started

00:18:51.780 --> 00:18:52.833
to disappear.

00:18:53.855 --> 00:18:57.355
(gentle orchestral music)

00:18:59.340 --> 00:19:00.870
[Reporter] Collapse of segregation

00:19:00.870 --> 00:19:02.550
at many Arlington lunch counters

00:19:02.550 --> 00:19:04.980
yesterday came with the suddenness

00:19:04.980 --> 00:19:05.813
and quietude of a falling house of cards.

00:19:05.813 --> 00:19:06.646
[Reporter] Woolworth's
capitulated last Wednesday,

00:19:13.380 --> 00:19:16.320
initiating a snowballing
of decisions to desegregate

00:19:16.320 --> 00:19:20.793
by stores in Arlington,
Alexandria, and Fairfax Counties.

00:19:22.751 --> 00:19:24.750
(gentle orchestral music)

00:19:24.750 --> 00:19:28.170
[Young Helene] I was amazed
at the extraordinary effects

00:19:28.170 --> 00:19:31.293
just merely sitting in
at a drugstore produced.

00:19:33.240 --> 00:19:35.790
I can place my body at the disposal

00:19:35.790 --> 00:19:39.000
of the Civil Rights
Movement and achieve some

00:19:39.000 --> 00:19:41.403
of the ideals that we are striving for.

00:19:48.540 --> 00:19:52.380
We said, well, wow, I mean,
we were just feeling great.

00:19:52.380 --> 00:19:54.332
What can we do next?

00:19:54.332 --> 00:19:57.332
(upbeat jazz music)

00:20:07.945 --> 00:20:09.420
[Milt Grant] Say I want to remind you

00:20:09.420 --> 00:20:10.770
about Glen Echo because we're going

00:20:10.770 --> 00:20:13.020
to have one swinging time, at Glen Echo,

00:20:13.020 --> 00:20:14.850
the amusement park in Washington.

00:20:14.850 --> 00:20:17.640
You be sure to come on out 8:30 to 11:30,

00:20:17.640 --> 00:20:18.870
Saturday nights at Glen Echo.

00:20:18.870 --> 00:20:20.940
And will you all turn
to your best girl now,

00:20:20.940 --> 00:20:23.186
fellas and ask her to
come out to Glen Echo?

00:20:23.186 --> 00:20:24.598
(all chattering)

00:20:24.598 --> 00:20:26.104
♪ Fun is where you find it ♪

00:20:26.104 --> 00:20:28.013
♪ Where do you find it ♪

00:20:28.013 --> 00:20:30.896
♪ Glen Echo Amusement Park ♪

00:20:30.896 --> 00:20:34.943
♪ Glen Echo Amusement Park ♪

00:20:34.943 --> 00:20:37.943
(light piano music)

00:20:43.290 --> 00:20:45.490
We wouldn't let our kids come to Glen Echo

00:20:46.680 --> 00:20:48.933
because not everyone could come.

00:20:52.020 --> 00:20:55.350
And our children wanted to come
because other children came,

00:20:55.350 --> 00:20:58.820
because other children
had birthday parties here.

00:20:58.820 --> 00:21:02.320
(upbeat orchestral music)

00:21:10.828 --> 00:21:15.480
We lived a third of a
mile away, in Bannockburn,

00:21:15.480 --> 00:21:18.060
and I somehow remember close by

00:21:18.060 --> 00:21:19.938
that one could smell the popcorn.

00:21:19.938 --> 00:21:24.938
(people laughing)
(gentle orchestral music)

00:21:39.180 --> 00:21:41.490
Bannockburn had been
planned during the war

00:21:41.490 --> 00:21:44.250
because a lot of the
real estate in Washington

00:21:44.250 --> 00:21:47.163
couldn't be sold to Catholics or Jews.

00:21:50.007 --> 00:21:53.613
There was restrictive
covenants all over the place.

00:21:57.960 --> 00:22:00.510
So Bannockburn really was a haven for many

00:22:00.510 --> 00:22:01.653
of these families.

00:22:05.189 --> 00:22:08.940
(upbeat jazz music)

00:22:08.940 --> 00:22:12.102
We were responding to the terrible events

00:22:12.102 --> 00:22:16.880
of WWII and trying to make
a community that worked.

00:22:21.660 --> 00:22:25.563
The name Bannockburn suggested
radical people lived there.

00:22:26.419 --> 00:22:29.109
(all chattering)

00:22:29.109 --> 00:22:32.040
There were people who worked
for unions, and co-op,

00:22:32.040 --> 00:22:36.513
co-op in those days even
had an aspect of lefties.

00:22:38.122 --> 00:22:39.390
(light piano music)

00:22:39.390 --> 00:22:40.790
Three, two, one.

00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:47.000
(upbeat jazz music)

00:22:55.500 --> 00:22:58.684
Our father was a lobbyist for the UAW.

00:22:58.684 --> 00:23:01.463
That was his job when we moved there.

00:23:03.248 --> 00:23:05.670
We can do a rendition of
"There once was a union maid.

00:23:05.670 --> 00:23:06.995
♪ She never was afraid ♪

00:23:06.995 --> 00:23:09.088
♪ Of the goons and the
geeks and the deputy finks ♪

00:23:09.088 --> 00:23:11.237
♪ And the company sheriffs
who made the raid ♪

00:23:11.237 --> 00:23:14.372
♪ Oh you can't scare me
I'm sticking to the union ♪

00:23:14.372 --> 00:23:19.372
♪ I'm sticking to the
union, until the day I die ♪

00:23:20.267 --> 00:23:21.731
(all laughing)

00:23:21.731 --> 00:23:24.150
(upbeat jazz music)

00:23:24.150 --> 00:23:27.990
Bannockburn was founded
on utopian principles

00:23:27.990 --> 00:23:32.467
and therefore it attracted
people who were idealists,

00:23:32.467 --> 00:23:37.467
government workers, union
people, liberal, also Jewish.

00:23:42.090 --> 00:23:45.990
When we moved in, we were
Quakers, they told us,

00:23:45.990 --> 00:23:47.760
well, do you really want
to live in Bannockburn?

00:23:47.760 --> 00:23:49.560
You know, it's mostly Jewish.

00:23:49.560 --> 00:23:53.103
And our response was, their
values are our values.

00:23:55.500 --> 00:23:58.250
The only way I can analogize
it to is like a kibbutz.

00:23:59.640 --> 00:24:03.990
They had one tool shed,
four houses on the circle.

00:24:03.990 --> 00:24:07.410
It had one lawn mower and they took turns

00:24:07.410 --> 00:24:08.943
using the lawn mower.

00:24:10.142 --> 00:24:13.142
(upbeat jazz music)

00:24:14.430 --> 00:24:18.330
I knew every member in every house,

00:24:18.330 --> 00:24:20.373
what ages their kids were.

00:24:21.930 --> 00:24:24.393
We would sort of live
at each other's houses.

00:24:25.613 --> 00:24:29.113
(gentle orchestral music)

00:24:31.795 --> 00:24:33.878
It was the co-op ideal.

00:24:37.623 --> 00:24:40.290
What I want for my family
you want for yours,

00:24:40.290 --> 00:24:44.553
so together we build it. And
then politically we do things.

00:24:47.070 --> 00:24:50.373
I found the whole neighborhood
culture from Esther.

00:24:51.300 --> 00:24:55.860
She believed in activism,
and that was a new idea

00:24:55.860 --> 00:24:58.920
to me that you could think
ahead about how society ought

00:24:58.920 --> 00:25:02.568
to be and then you could
try to act to get it there.

00:25:02.568 --> 00:25:06.068
(gentle orchestral music)

00:25:07.230 --> 00:25:10.230
Mrs. John Delaplaine,
a Bannockburn housewife

00:25:10.230 --> 00:25:14.280
who heads the Citizens' Committee
for Glen Echo Desegration,

00:25:14.280 --> 00:25:16.560
presented a petition urging the county

00:25:16.560 --> 00:25:20.403
to request admission for all
children to the Glen Echo pool.

00:25:21.655 --> 00:25:24.322
(keys clacking)

00:25:26.572 --> 00:25:29.572
(people chattering)

00:25:33.390 --> 00:25:36.900
We went up to the head of the
county recreation department

00:25:36.900 --> 00:25:39.060
and we said they were busing

00:25:39.060 --> 00:25:41.334
only white kids into Glen Echo.

00:25:41.334 --> 00:25:43.440
"Oh, not to worry", he said.

00:25:43.440 --> 00:25:45.529
I take the Black kids to a pool in D.C.

00:25:45.529 --> 00:25:46.953
There on P Street.

00:25:49.170 --> 00:25:54.170
We said "uh uh, that's
separate, not equal."

00:25:54.367 --> 00:25:57.367
(light piano music)

00:26:01.470 --> 00:26:02.910
The night the students arrived,

00:26:02.910 --> 00:26:05.444
I was raring to go.

00:26:05.444 --> 00:26:08.430
(light piano music)

00:26:08.430 --> 00:26:10.863
In various unions,
there was word to people

00:26:10.863 --> 00:26:13.560
that the Howard students were coming

00:26:13.560 --> 00:26:15.153
to set up a picket line.

00:26:16.560 --> 00:26:19.713
We had one day to alert
one another as neighbors.

00:26:20.730 --> 00:26:23.790
The union network sprang into action

00:26:23.790 --> 00:26:28.258
because they were used
to staging a protest.

00:26:28.258 --> 00:26:31.293
That was natural to a union
organizer like our father.

00:26:32.850 --> 00:26:36.052
Our father instantly knew
what to do, which is,

00:26:36.052 --> 00:26:37.092
make picket signs.

00:26:37.092 --> 00:26:38.623
Go down to the basement, make some signs.

00:26:38.623 --> 00:26:39.847
Construct, y'know.

00:26:39.847 --> 00:26:43.200
(gentle orchestral music)

00:26:43.200 --> 00:26:46.020
We were down here with
our lemonade and cookies

00:26:46.020 --> 00:26:49.410
to meet these Howard students,

00:26:49.410 --> 00:26:50.670
and it was a shock to them.

00:26:50.670 --> 00:26:54.397
You know, we were 35 and 40
and they were 18-year-olds.

00:26:57.570 --> 00:27:00.157
I was quite surprised
because the vast majority

00:27:00.157 --> 00:27:02.073
of the people picketing were white.

00:27:03.840 --> 00:27:06.930
I'd never been in a
situation like that before

00:27:06.930 --> 00:27:10.967
or worked that closely with Whites before.

00:27:10.967 --> 00:27:14.280
(gentle orchestral music)

00:27:14.280 --> 00:27:18.423
We didn't interact in those
days with people of color.

00:27:19.257 --> 00:27:22.413
The Howard students were leery of us.

00:27:24.030 --> 00:27:26.070
We were saying we so much want

00:27:26.070 --> 00:27:27.780
what you're trying to accomplish.

00:27:27.780 --> 00:27:29.883
We have not been able to do it.

00:27:31.200 --> 00:27:32.850
I think they were a little set back,

00:27:32.850 --> 00:27:34.150
and did they even want us?

00:27:35.131 --> 00:27:38.100
And the youngsters I think were wondering

00:27:38.100 --> 00:27:39.963
whose picket line is this?

00:27:41.071 --> 00:27:44.571
(gentle orchestral music)

00:27:46.117 --> 00:27:47.613
"Why are we picketing?

00:27:49.487 --> 00:27:52.260
To end discrimination
against Negro Americans

00:27:52.260 --> 00:27:54.057
at Glen Echo Park?"

00:27:55.357 --> 00:27:59.160
"Discrimination is morally
wrong and in direct conflict

00:27:59.160 --> 00:28:01.860
with the principle upon which
this nation was founded.

00:28:03.030 --> 00:28:04.677
That all men are created equal."

00:28:07.117 --> 00:28:08.850
"Be a good American.

00:28:08.850 --> 00:28:11.040
Don't violate your conscience.

00:28:11.040 --> 00:28:13.357
And mislead your children."

00:28:13.357 --> 00:28:18.357
"Stay out of Glen Park,
Non-violent Action Group."

00:28:25.260 --> 00:28:28.477
I was on the picket
line and my friend said,

00:28:28.477 --> 00:28:31.917
"I'd like you to meet Hank
Thomas, he's going to Howard."

00:28:33.420 --> 00:28:36.300
I put my hand out to shake his hand

00:28:36.300 --> 00:28:39.903
and he put his hand out
only his hand was trembling.

00:28:41.520 --> 00:28:44.653
Tom, a few minutes later
said, "You know, Helene,

00:28:44.653 --> 00:28:47.790
you were the first white woman's hand

00:28:47.790 --> 00:28:49.047
he's ever shook."

00:28:51.120 --> 00:28:53.523
It just struck my heart.

00:28:55.073 --> 00:28:58.260
(gentle orchestral music)

00:28:58.260 --> 00:29:01.053
I did not tell my parents
that I was going to picket.

00:29:03.360 --> 00:29:05.040
I remember that my knees were shaking.

00:29:05.040 --> 00:29:07.830
I knew I was doing something
different than a white person

00:29:07.830 --> 00:29:09.720
was supposed to do.

00:29:09.720 --> 00:29:13.623
And I just got into the
line and started walking.

00:29:16.835 --> 00:29:18.420
[Reporter] When several picketers,

00:29:18.420 --> 00:29:21.210
headed by 25 year-old
Howard Divinity student

00:29:21.210 --> 00:29:24.030
Laurence Henry, tried to enter the park,

00:29:24.030 --> 00:29:27.273
they were stopped by security
guard Francis Collins.

00:29:28.617 --> 00:29:30.237
Is he white or colored?

00:29:30.237 --> 00:29:31.746
Am I white or colored?
That's correct.

00:29:31.746 --> 00:29:32.723
That's what I want to know.

00:29:32.723 --> 00:29:33.570
May I ask your race?

00:29:33.570 --> 00:29:34.403
My race?

00:29:34.403 --> 00:29:35.670
I belong to the human race.

00:29:35.670 --> 00:29:36.503
Alright.

00:29:36.503 --> 00:29:37.560
This park is segregated.

00:29:37.560 --> 00:29:39.150
I don't understand what you mean.

00:29:39.150 --> 00:29:40.500
It's strictly for white people.

00:29:40.500 --> 00:29:41.997
Strictly for white persons?
Uh huh.

00:29:41.997 --> 00:29:42.897
And has been for years.

00:29:42.897 --> 00:29:44.530
And how long has that policy been?

00:29:44.530 --> 00:29:46.380
Since the park has been open.

00:29:46.380 --> 00:29:47.610
And whose policy is that?

00:29:47.610 --> 00:29:49.650
The owners.
Who are the owners?

00:29:49.650 --> 00:29:51.540
The people who own the park.

00:29:51.540 --> 00:29:52.373
So you are saying

00:29:52.373 --> 00:29:54.180
that you exclude the American Negro,

00:29:54.180 --> 00:29:55.620
who is a citizen of the United States.

00:29:55.620 --> 00:29:57.573
That's right.

00:29:57.573 --> 00:30:01.073
(gentle orchestral music)

00:30:02.190 --> 00:30:05.700
One of the white members
of the group got tickets

00:30:05.700 --> 00:30:08.460
and brought them back out to the group.

00:30:08.460 --> 00:30:10.440
And before anybody could stop them,

00:30:10.440 --> 00:30:13.623
Howard students got on the merry-go-round.

00:30:15.133 --> 00:30:17.472
(gentle orchestral music)

00:30:17.472 --> 00:30:20.703
I remember hearing bells ringing.

00:30:26.100 --> 00:30:26.943
Police came.

00:30:28.170 --> 00:30:30.690
He said, "If you continue to sit here,

00:30:30.690 --> 00:30:32.240
I'm going to take you to jail."

00:30:33.210 --> 00:30:34.043
And he did.

00:30:34.920 --> 00:30:36.270
Bang, they closed the door.

00:30:39.180 --> 00:30:40.622
That's when the realization

00:30:40.622 --> 00:30:42.903
that it wasn't gonna
be a walk in the park.

00:30:46.567 --> 00:30:50.234
(dramatic orchestral music)

00:30:55.290 --> 00:30:57.720
When I got involved in Glen Echo,

00:30:57.720 --> 00:30:59.370
I found out that the owners

00:30:59.370 --> 00:31:02.340
of this park were two
Jewish brothers and as soon

00:31:02.340 --> 00:31:04.620
as I learned that I
took it very personally.

00:31:04.620 --> 00:31:05.820
I thought in some ways

00:31:05.820 --> 00:31:08.163
it was my personal battle against them.

00:31:12.090 --> 00:31:15.543
The Baker brothers, who were Jewish,

00:31:16.500 --> 00:31:18.810
which was embarrassing, but I also knew

00:31:18.810 --> 00:31:20.640
about Jewish landlords in D.C.

00:31:20.640 --> 00:31:22.350
so it wasn't my first embarrassment

00:31:22.350 --> 00:31:24.066
about that sort of thing.

00:31:24.066 --> 00:31:25.020
(gentle orchestral music)

00:31:25.020 --> 00:31:27.480
At some point they had a press conference.

00:31:27.480 --> 00:31:29.370
They said, "we're not personally racist,

00:31:29.370 --> 00:31:32.283
but if we let them into the
park, we'll lose business."

00:31:33.536 --> 00:31:35.190
[Reporter] Abram and Sam Baker

00:31:35.190 --> 00:31:39.243
have refused to negotiate
for any sort of civil rights.

00:31:40.800 --> 00:31:42.390
[Writer] Under the law of this State,

00:31:42.390 --> 00:31:45.510
the owners may exclude whom they wish.

00:31:45.510 --> 00:31:48.450
It is obvious that
integrating the amusement park

00:31:48.450 --> 00:31:50.160
would see much of the white patronage

00:31:50.160 --> 00:31:53.430
stop using the pool and the dance floor.

00:31:53.430 --> 00:31:56.010
The result is that whites stay away

00:31:56.010 --> 00:31:58.173
and the Negroes take over.

00:31:59.250 --> 00:32:00.660
[Writer] It is certainly about time

00:32:00.660 --> 00:32:02.070
that we, the white people

00:32:02.070 --> 00:32:04.920
of Montgomery County, had some protection

00:32:04.920 --> 00:32:08.130
from racial agitators
who for the most part

00:32:08.130 --> 00:32:12.120
are not even residents of our
county, for heaven's sake,

00:32:12.120 --> 00:32:15.210
let's have places where some of us may go

00:32:15.210 --> 00:32:17.400
without being forced to associate

00:32:17.400 --> 00:32:20.823
with a group we would
rather not associate with.

00:32:22.440 --> 00:32:24.570
We weren't that interested
and I know a lot

00:32:24.570 --> 00:32:27.540
of people are appalled when
I say this, about integrating

00:32:27.540 --> 00:32:30.693
with anyone, we just
wanted what was equal.

00:32:32.114 --> 00:32:34.697
(gospel music)

00:32:35.896 --> 00:32:38.982
♪ I shall wear a crown ♪

00:32:38.982 --> 00:32:41.829
♪ I shall wear a crown ♪

00:32:41.829 --> 00:32:45.183
♪ When that trumpet sounds ♪

00:32:45.183 --> 00:32:48.085
How's that look?
It's great!

00:32:48.085 --> 00:32:49.164
♪ I shall wear a crown ♪

00:32:49.164 --> 00:32:50.955
♪I shall wear a crown ♪

00:32:50.955 --> 00:32:52.090
♪ I shall wear a crown ♪

00:32:52.090 --> 00:32:55.231
♪ I shall wear a crown ♪

00:32:55.231 --> 00:32:59.830
♪ I shall wear a golden crown ♪

00:32:59.830 --> 00:33:04.203
Prior to integration, you could
not try on a hat downtown.

00:33:05.580 --> 00:33:09.540
But then when integration
came, they expected Black women

00:33:09.540 --> 00:33:13.503
to put a brown paper bag over
their heads to try on a hat.

00:33:14.850 --> 00:33:16.250
And I didn't know anybody that was going

00:33:16.250 --> 00:33:18.003
to be humiliated that way.

00:33:19.860 --> 00:33:21.723
So they made their own hats.

00:33:22.890 --> 00:33:26.470
They wore feathers and ribbons and bows

00:33:28.050 --> 00:33:30.780
and the hats were all magnificent hats.

00:33:30.780 --> 00:33:31.876
Yes.

00:33:31.876 --> 00:33:35.876
♪ I shall wear the golden crown ♪

00:33:36.812 --> 00:33:38.919
(all clapping)

00:33:38.919 --> 00:33:40.336
Amen.

00:33:42.351 --> 00:33:44.934
(gentle music)

00:33:52.049 --> 00:33:53.062
Don't they smell good?

00:33:53.062 --> 00:33:54.645
Can you smell them?

00:33:56.730 --> 00:33:59.520
My great, great, great great grandparents

00:33:59.520 --> 00:34:01.773
worked this land as slaves.

00:34:04.410 --> 00:34:07.800
The land that I currently live on has been

00:34:07.800 --> 00:34:10.293
in my family since 1874.

00:34:12.658 --> 00:34:15.510
(gentle music)

00:34:15.510 --> 00:34:18.620
I graduated from the one
and only Black high school

00:34:18.620 --> 00:34:19.953
in Montgomery County.

00:34:24.000 --> 00:34:26.550
I did have a sense of the
different Black communities

00:34:26.550 --> 00:34:27.603
in Montgomery County.

00:34:34.380 --> 00:34:36.660
We would come together
and have a block party

00:34:36.660 --> 00:34:39.033
on what we called Number 10, Carver Road.

00:34:41.400 --> 00:34:43.230
We all knew each other.

00:34:43.230 --> 00:34:45.300
It seemed like everybody loved everybody

00:34:45.300 --> 00:34:47.300
and everybody got along with each other.

00:34:48.271 --> 00:34:51.688
(gentle music continues)

00:35:15.054 --> 00:35:18.471
(gentle music continues)

00:35:24.090 --> 00:35:26.073
My dad worked for Capital Transit.

00:35:28.110 --> 00:35:30.010
We would sometimes go to work with dad

00:35:32.490 --> 00:35:34.900
and we would ride out to Glen Echo

00:35:37.098 --> 00:35:40.773
and we would just press
our nose against the glass.

00:35:45.344 --> 00:35:47.984
(gentle music continues)

00:35:47.984 --> 00:35:49.920
(water splashing)

00:35:49.920 --> 00:35:53.763
You could hear laughter and
kids were swimming in the pool.

00:35:55.223 --> 00:35:58.056
(kids chattering)

00:36:02.490 --> 00:36:07.490
When I think of Glen Echo
not being accessible to us,

00:36:07.680 --> 00:36:08.613
that was the norm.

00:36:11.970 --> 00:36:14.553
Jim Crow was just a way of life.

00:36:18.810 --> 00:36:20.520
Yes, we saw the park.

00:36:20.520 --> 00:36:25.020
It was never anything that
we expected we would be able

00:36:25.020 --> 00:36:28.263
to participate in,
because we were not white.

00:36:29.166 --> 00:36:31.530
(gentle music continues)

00:36:31.530 --> 00:36:35.820
My mother would clean
houses for white families.

00:36:35.820 --> 00:36:38.553
She would even cook for white families.

00:36:39.990 --> 00:36:44.130
But as far as their
children and us playing,

00:36:44.130 --> 00:36:46.233
that was not done.

00:36:48.690 --> 00:36:50.933
They were two different
worlds that we lived in.

00:36:53.782 --> 00:36:55.600
(water splashing)

00:36:55.600 --> 00:36:56.550
(upbeat orchestral music)

00:36:56.550 --> 00:36:58.860
[Reporter] Mrs. Richard
Nixon conducts a guided tour

00:36:58.860 --> 00:37:00.360
of a Washington amusement park

00:37:00.360 --> 00:37:02.910
for 12 year-old Mohammed Guntur Sukarno

00:37:02.910 --> 00:37:04.170
and other youngsters.

00:37:04.170 --> 00:37:06.900
For Muhammed, it's the first
spine-tingling encounter

00:37:06.900 --> 00:37:08.523
with an American roller coaster.

00:37:10.778 --> 00:37:13.710
Photographers can't keep up
with the Vice President's wife

00:37:13.710 --> 00:37:16.200
and the visiting son of
the President of Indonesia.

00:37:16.200 --> 00:37:19.345
He's going around in every
possible kind of a circle.

00:37:19.345 --> 00:37:22.226
(upbeat orchestral music)

00:37:22.226 --> 00:37:25.440
The Eisenhower
administration had negotiated

00:37:25.440 --> 00:37:29.427
with the people who owned
the park that Black diplomats

00:37:29.427 --> 00:37:32.253
and their families could enter the park.

00:37:33.360 --> 00:37:35.643
And that particularly rankled.

00:37:36.511 --> 00:37:40.011
(gentle orchestral music)

00:37:44.070 --> 00:37:48.033
So that's why we got a stretch limousine.

00:37:49.260 --> 00:37:53.850
We got a white guy dressed as a chauffeur,

00:37:53.850 --> 00:37:57.603
a white female to pose as an interpreter,

00:37:58.890 --> 00:38:02.223
and yours truly dressed in African garb.

00:38:03.540 --> 00:38:07.683
They put me in one of the dress uniforms.

00:38:08.670 --> 00:38:11.010
Our father dressed up as a chauffeur.

00:38:11.010 --> 00:38:15.810
and he sort of drove up and
tried to act like he was

00:38:15.810 --> 00:38:19.515
driving some dignitary from Africa.

00:38:19.515 --> 00:38:23.015
(gentle orchestral music)

00:38:23.880 --> 00:38:26.133
We pull up in front of the main gate.

00:38:27.690 --> 00:38:30.480
There's this flabbergasted guard

00:38:30.480 --> 00:38:32.163
who doesn't know what to do.

00:38:35.550 --> 00:38:37.290
He blocks our path

00:38:37.290 --> 00:38:40.550
and I say to my interpreter,
(speaking foreign language).

00:38:44.057 --> 00:38:46.020
So I had to listen carefully

00:38:46.020 --> 00:38:49.950
to what Dion said so I
could repeat it. (laughing)

00:38:49.950 --> 00:38:53.220
And that's my French from
high school saying that I want

00:38:53.220 --> 00:38:54.780
to go in the park now.

00:38:54.780 --> 00:38:57.210
I didn't know any French so I always spoke

00:38:57.210 --> 00:39:00.423
with a French accent. (laughing)

00:39:02.770 --> 00:39:04.810
We didn't get in. (laughing)

00:39:04.810 --> 00:39:06.007
Still didn't let him in.

00:39:06.007 --> 00:39:06.840
No.

00:39:08.639 --> 00:39:12.139
(gentle orchestral music)

00:39:19.741 --> 00:39:22.908
(gentle guitar music)

00:39:28.260 --> 00:39:32.493
1960 was an incredibly exciting period.

00:39:35.220 --> 00:39:36.877
I was at Wellesley.

00:39:38.219 --> 00:39:40.953
I felt alienated from
most of the students.

00:39:41.910 --> 00:39:46.443
I didn't even realize it, but
I was part of a Jewish quota.

00:39:49.920 --> 00:39:52.443
When the sit-ins first broke out,

00:39:53.520 --> 00:39:56.853
I organized a sympathy picket
at the local Woolworths,

00:39:58.890 --> 00:40:03.660
and we got called into the
dean of students' office

00:40:03.660 --> 00:40:05.403
to tell us not to do it anymore.

00:40:08.970 --> 00:40:13.970
I came home in the summer
and my family ended up moving

00:40:14.400 --> 00:40:19.306
to Bannockburn and right down
the street from Glen Echo.

00:40:19.306 --> 00:40:21.084
♪ Get on board, children, children ♪

00:40:21.084 --> 00:40:23.092
♪ Get on board, children, children ♪

00:40:23.092 --> 00:40:25.972
♪ Get on board, children, children ♪

00:40:25.972 --> 00:40:28.704
♪ And lets fight for human rights ♪

00:40:28.704 --> 00:40:30.330
♪ Those freedom fighters ♪

00:40:30.330 --> 00:40:32.493
The picket line was already started.

00:40:33.570 --> 00:40:37.440
I was like, oh, my God, it's
right here where I live.

00:40:37.440 --> 00:40:39.600
I can participate in this.

00:40:39.600 --> 00:40:44.600
And so, from that day
on, I was there every day

00:40:44.940 --> 00:40:46.040
that I could be there.

00:40:50.510 --> 00:40:53.093
(gentle music)

00:40:55.920 --> 00:40:58.770
The students from Howard were friendly,

00:40:58.770 --> 00:41:02.550
but they also had their own inside jokes,

00:41:02.550 --> 00:41:04.413
their own inside culture.

00:41:06.360 --> 00:41:09.360
It was clear to me that
I wasn't part of it

00:41:09.360 --> 00:41:11.523
and I might never be part of it.

00:41:13.740 --> 00:41:16.713
They were cautious about
the people on the line.

00:41:18.420 --> 00:41:19.980
They were incredibly concerned

00:41:19.980 --> 00:41:22.110
to make sure we did everything correctly.

00:41:22.110 --> 00:41:24.813
It was a solemn duty.

00:41:25.740 --> 00:41:28.803
And you have to maintain
a certain decorum.

00:41:30.088 --> 00:41:32.505
(soft music)

00:41:36.690 --> 00:41:40.380
As a college student I didn't
have a whole lot of clothes.

00:41:40.380 --> 00:41:43.170
I do remember the rule
about the shirt and tie

00:41:43.170 --> 00:41:44.043
and a jacket.

00:41:45.120 --> 00:41:48.480
We had to represent
that we were the epitome

00:41:48.480 --> 00:41:49.773
of the middle class.

00:41:51.060 --> 00:41:55.560
So if the people got arrested,
they were not Joe Blow

00:41:55.560 --> 00:41:56.880
or so forth.

00:41:56.880 --> 00:41:59.703
They were doctors, medical students.

00:42:03.025 --> 00:42:06.692
(dramatic orchestral music)

00:42:11.790 --> 00:42:13.410
Excuse me sir, does your park here extend

00:42:13.410 --> 00:42:14.265
just to the top of the steps-

00:42:14.265 --> 00:42:15.932
No, through the fence, to the railing.

00:42:15.932 --> 00:42:17.970
This is government property leased-

00:42:17.970 --> 00:42:19.110
This is government property?

00:42:19.110 --> 00:42:21.180
Leased by the owner of the park.

00:42:21.180 --> 00:42:22.950
Did you say this is government property?

00:42:22.950 --> 00:42:24.240
It was.
It was?

00:42:24.240 --> 00:42:25.524
What is it now?

00:42:25.524 --> 00:42:26.694
It is private property.

00:42:26.694 --> 00:42:27.900
It was leased from the federal government?

00:42:27.900 --> 00:42:28.733
That's right.

00:42:28.733 --> 00:42:30.901
The federal government.
The federal government.

00:42:30.901 --> 00:42:34.568
(dramatic orchestral music)

00:42:35.413 --> 00:42:38.640
[Reporter] A group of 20
sit-down demonstrators

00:42:38.640 --> 00:42:41.910
have just marched through the gate

00:42:41.910 --> 00:42:43.350
and into a restaurant here

00:42:43.350 --> 00:42:46.053
within the Glen Echo Park grounds.

00:42:47.790 --> 00:42:49.950
Five of us, Black and white,

00:42:49.950 --> 00:42:54.950
as always, we went into
the eating concession

00:42:54.960 --> 00:42:56.820
and asked to be served

00:42:56.820 --> 00:42:59.223
and they refused and we refused to leave.

00:43:00.180 --> 00:43:02.463
And I remember thinking to myself,

00:43:03.780 --> 00:43:06.540
damn it, I'll sit here
till hell freezes over.

00:43:06.540 --> 00:43:09.123
Can I have a Pepsi-Cola please?

00:43:26.466 --> 00:43:27.393
(chain clanking)

00:43:27.393 --> 00:43:28.226
[Reporter] That was the lock being put

00:43:28.226 --> 00:43:29.450
on the ice cream machine.

00:43:33.480 --> 00:43:36.000
The park police pointed

00:43:36.000 --> 00:43:38.887
to each one of us and said,

00:43:38.887 --> 00:43:42.687
"You're undesirable, you're
undesirable, you're desirable."

00:43:45.210 --> 00:43:47.043
We were arrested.

00:43:48.450 --> 00:43:50.163
I was scared.

00:43:52.350 --> 00:43:54.960
I thought this is the end
of my life as I know it.

00:43:54.960 --> 00:43:57.480
I won't be able to get into
graduate school or law school,

00:43:57.480 --> 00:43:59.490
I'll be on the Attorney General's list.

00:43:59.490 --> 00:44:02.103
So I got drunk. For the
first time in my life.

00:44:04.560 --> 00:44:07.773
I thought a nice Jewish girl
like me is getting arrested.

00:44:08.880 --> 00:44:10.560
How absurd that they would arrest

00:44:10.560 --> 00:44:13.198
a nice Jewish girl like me. (laughing)

00:44:13.198 --> 00:44:17.160
(gentle orchestral music)

00:44:17.160 --> 00:44:18.090
[Reporter] The small band

00:44:18.090 --> 00:44:19.530
of anti-segregation demonstrators

00:44:19.530 --> 00:44:23.010
now picketing Glen Echo Amusement Park

00:44:23.010 --> 00:44:24.780
won the public support yesterday

00:44:24.780 --> 00:44:27.690
of the National Association
of the Advancement

00:44:27.690 --> 00:44:28.863
of Colored People.

00:44:30.060 --> 00:44:32.670
Laurance Henry, leader
of the pickets, said-

00:44:32.670 --> 00:44:34.710
"We want you to come
down to the picket line

00:44:34.710 --> 00:44:35.973
for your own dignity."

00:44:36.900 --> 00:44:37.770
He criticized

00:44:37.770 --> 00:44:39.240
the local Negro community,

00:44:39.240 --> 00:44:42.780
pointing out that there have
been more white demonstrators

00:44:42.780 --> 00:44:43.643
than Negro.

00:44:45.388 --> 00:44:49.471
♪ What a friend we have in Jesus ♪

00:44:55.830 --> 00:44:58.770
Going to the local churches was important

00:44:58.770 --> 00:45:00.900
because you've got to
involve the community.

00:45:00.900 --> 00:45:01.860
You're not going to be there.

00:45:01.860 --> 00:45:04.140
You're not going to live there.

00:45:04.140 --> 00:45:05.973
We were not from that community.

00:45:08.310 --> 00:45:11.530
So it was important not
to invade the community

00:45:12.780 --> 00:45:15.180
and if possible, ask
members of the community

00:45:15.180 --> 00:45:16.280
to come along with us.

00:45:18.020 --> 00:45:20.103
♪ Prayer ♪

00:45:21.660 --> 00:45:22.983
My mother didn't walk.

00:45:24.060 --> 00:45:26.790
And a lot of other kids that I
walked with from Carver Road,

00:45:26.790 --> 00:45:28.110
their parents didn't walk either

00:45:28.110 --> 00:45:30.693
because they was trying
to keep food on the table.

00:45:32.100 --> 00:45:33.990
[Writer] Mr. Henry and Mr. Diamond

00:45:33.990 --> 00:45:36.780
deserve the Negro's everlasting gratitude

00:45:36.780 --> 00:45:39.540
in picketing the Glen Echo Amusement Park,

00:45:39.540 --> 00:45:42.633
however, they have the
cart before the horse.

00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:46.680
Neither Glen Echo Amusement Park

00:45:46.680 --> 00:45:50.160
nor any white theater have
ever represented places

00:45:50.160 --> 00:45:52.113
I must go before I die.

00:45:53.310 --> 00:45:56.670
The Negroes most desperate
need today lies not

00:45:56.670 --> 00:46:00.153
in entertainment but in job
opportunities and housing.

00:46:03.118 --> 00:46:04.410
(all chattering)

00:46:04.410 --> 00:46:07.290
I met some of the students
from Howard University,

00:46:07.290 --> 00:46:10.473
but I never had a close
relationship with any of them.

00:46:11.550 --> 00:46:13.380
We just saw them as an outsider.

00:46:13.380 --> 00:46:15.750
Because they were from Washington D.C.

00:46:15.750 --> 00:46:19.410
They went to all-Black prestigious college

00:46:19.410 --> 00:46:22.953
and they came from very educated
and articulate families.

00:46:24.059 --> 00:46:25.923
I think it was social class.

00:46:28.161 --> 00:46:33.161
(soft music)
(singer vocalizing)

00:46:34.650 --> 00:46:38.257
I was eight years old when
I remember my mom said,

00:46:38.257 --> 00:46:40.950
"Come on, we're going to go and picket"

00:46:40.950 --> 00:46:44.709
so that we could gain access
to go to Glen Echo Park.

00:46:44.709 --> 00:46:47.163
That's something we wanted, absolutely.

00:46:48.240 --> 00:46:50.647
Folks from Bannockburn
would talk to us saying,

00:46:50.647 --> 00:46:52.620
"The march is going to be on this weekend.

00:46:52.620 --> 00:46:54.240
Are you going to be able to come?"

00:46:54.240 --> 00:46:55.893
Of course we said, "Yes!"

00:46:57.720 --> 00:47:00.813
And we walked about two miles
to Glen Echo from Carver.

00:47:02.820 --> 00:47:06.482
It was hot as blue blazes down there,

00:47:06.482 --> 00:47:08.823
but I was just determined to come in here.

00:47:10.689 --> 00:47:12.723
♪ We are picketing Glen Echo ♪

00:47:12.723 --> 00:47:15.996
♪ And our cause is just ♪

00:47:15.996 --> 00:47:19.497
♪ We'll be picketing Glen
Echo til segregation's bust♪

00:47:19.497 --> 00:47:21.360
[Reporter] The picket line has had as many

00:47:21.360 --> 00:47:24.750
as 100 demonstrators marching
at one time regardless

00:47:24.750 --> 00:47:25.850
of weather conditions.

00:47:26.700 --> 00:47:28.590
We sang as we walked.

00:47:28.590 --> 00:47:32.310
So that gave it a tremendous
amount of exhilaration.

00:47:32.310 --> 00:47:33.856
I loved that part of it.

00:47:33.856 --> 00:47:36.515
♪ Segregation's got to go ♪

00:47:36.515 --> 00:47:40.327
♪ If you miss me at the back of the bus ♪

00:47:40.327 --> 00:47:42.800
♪ You won't find me nowhere ♪

00:47:42.800 --> 00:47:44.923
♪ Taking the bus to Jackson ♪

00:47:44.923 --> 00:47:48.341
♪ This time I'm riding that front seat ♪

00:47:48.341 --> 00:47:50.323
♪ I'll do it every time ♪

00:47:50.323 --> 00:47:52.937
♪ Hallelujah, I'm a travelin' ♪

00:47:52.937 --> 00:47:56.604
♪ Down freedom's main line. ♪

00:47:58.170 --> 00:47:59.940
Me being a teenager back there then,

00:47:59.940 --> 00:48:02.283
walking that distance wasn't nothing.

00:48:03.570 --> 00:48:05.280
I remember the pair of tennis shoes,

00:48:05.280 --> 00:48:07.953
I wore, walking through
the dirt and that grass.

00:48:09.274 --> 00:48:11.174
We'd wear that grass down to the dirt.

00:48:12.390 --> 00:48:15.190
Trying to let these folks
know why we can't go in there.

00:48:16.147 --> 00:48:17.460
(dramatic orchestral music)

00:48:17.460 --> 00:48:20.220
[Writer] The vast majority
of white people feel

00:48:20.220 --> 00:48:22.560
it would really be totally wrong morally

00:48:22.560 --> 00:48:24.870
for young white girls to be bumping hips

00:48:24.870 --> 00:48:27.753
in a swimming pool with
teenage Negro boys.

00:48:28.860 --> 00:48:31.200
[Writer] I would like to
point out, that every hour

00:48:31.200 --> 00:48:34.050
of every day here in Washington, decent,

00:48:34.050 --> 00:48:37.350
respectable white girls
have obscene insults hurled

00:48:37.350 --> 00:48:41.070
at them by loitering
Negro teenagers and men.

00:48:41.070 --> 00:48:43.140
And these white girls are just going

00:48:43.140 --> 00:48:45.480
about their legitimate business,

00:48:45.480 --> 00:48:47.880
not deliberately stirring
up trouble like the pickets

00:48:47.880 --> 00:48:49.293
are at Glen Echo.

00:48:52.605 --> 00:48:55.605
(upbeat jazz music)

00:49:02.363 --> 00:49:03.240
The picket line

00:49:03.240 --> 00:49:05.943
just took over as a priority in my life.

00:49:07.830 --> 00:49:10.080
I had a social work degree.

00:49:10.080 --> 00:49:12.660
But I had five children by
that time and I had them

00:49:12.660 --> 00:49:13.593
in eight years.

00:49:14.790 --> 00:49:16.263
I was a little restless.

00:49:18.780 --> 00:49:20.643
My mom was a block captain.

00:49:21.930 --> 00:49:24.120
I remember going to meetings

00:49:24.120 --> 00:49:29.120
in the evenings and she would
be talking, talking, talking.

00:49:29.250 --> 00:49:33.090
I would say, "Come on,
Mom, pay attention to us.

00:49:33.090 --> 00:49:34.927
Pay attention to us."

00:49:34.927 --> 00:49:36.420
You know, I neglected my children.

00:49:36.420 --> 00:49:37.410
Absolutely.

00:49:37.410 --> 00:49:40.350
And I couldn't take into
consideration what you wanted.

00:49:40.350 --> 00:49:41.183
I said, "Come on-"

00:49:41.183 --> 00:49:42.427
"This is what we're doing."

00:49:42.427 --> 00:49:43.561
This is what we're doing.

00:49:43.561 --> 00:49:44.403
Yeah.

00:49:46.560 --> 00:49:48.540
I always considered myself a shepherd,

00:49:48.540 --> 00:49:49.473
not a mother.

00:49:50.810 --> 00:49:53.227
(soft music)

00:49:55.110 --> 00:49:58.650
There weren't very many women
in Bannockburn who worked.

00:49:58.650 --> 00:50:00.300
They were all very well educated,

00:50:01.230 --> 00:50:04.473
but they would have been
overeducated and underused.

00:50:05.700 --> 00:50:10.140
The men had jobs, so the women could focus

00:50:10.140 --> 00:50:12.513
on the daytime picketing.

00:50:15.930 --> 00:50:19.170
Taking four kids and a
baby on the picket line,

00:50:19.170 --> 00:50:23.564
were you worried about
our safety, our stamina?

00:50:23.564 --> 00:50:27.920
Oh, of course not. (laughing)

00:50:28.793 --> 00:50:31.543
(dramatic music)

00:50:46.556 --> 00:50:48.690
The one time I left you home

00:50:48.690 --> 00:50:51.123
was when the Nazi party counter-picketed.

00:50:52.140 --> 00:50:55.560
We were on one side of MacArthur
and the counter-picketers

00:50:55.560 --> 00:50:56.793
were on the other side.

00:50:58.140 --> 00:51:00.183
That week, I was afraid.

00:51:04.020 --> 00:51:06.753
The brownshirts showed up.

00:51:08.640 --> 00:51:10.593
I know this was not for me.

00:51:13.313 --> 00:51:15.660
(dramatic music)

00:51:15.660 --> 00:51:18.210
The thought that I would be picketing

00:51:18.210 --> 00:51:21.003
while there are these people
here from whom I fled,

00:51:24.450 --> 00:51:26.313
it was too much for me.

00:51:27.288 --> 00:51:28.530
(dramatic music)

00:51:28.530 --> 00:51:30.495
When we saw the American Nazi Party,

00:51:30.495 --> 00:51:32.073
that was pretty shocking.

00:51:33.960 --> 00:51:36.109
We had just fought a war
to keep them from taking

00:51:36.109 --> 00:51:38.490
over the whole world, and here are people

00:51:38.490 --> 00:51:39.873
that sympathize with them.

00:51:40.843 --> 00:51:42.270
(dramatic music)

00:51:42.270 --> 00:51:43.320
[George Lincoln Rockwell]
The white race isn't going

00:51:43.320 --> 00:51:46.113
to tolerate any more race
mixing in this country.

00:51:47.820 --> 00:51:52.820
People are trying to destroy
our race and our nation.

00:51:52.890 --> 00:51:55.830
My mother, who was not
particularly enthusiastic

00:51:55.830 --> 00:51:58.143
about me being involved in this,

00:51:58.980 --> 00:52:01.050
when I told her that
Lincoln Rockwell was here,

00:52:01.050 --> 00:52:02.520
with the American Nazi Party,

00:52:02.520 --> 00:52:06.390
she came from New York with
my little brother immediately

00:52:06.390 --> 00:52:07.990
to walk the picket line with us.

00:52:09.085 --> 00:52:10.773
(dramatic music)

00:52:10.773 --> 00:52:12.090
[George Lincoln Rockwell]
Every time I've ever seen

00:52:12.090 --> 00:52:13.620
a race mixing picket line,

00:52:13.620 --> 00:52:15.753
at least half the so-called white people

00:52:15.753 --> 00:52:18.008
that are leading the people are Jews!

00:52:18.008 --> 00:52:19.364
That's the truth!

00:52:19.364 --> 00:52:22.947
(dramatic music continues)

00:52:26.447 --> 00:52:29.193
It was the kind of theater
that America likes.

00:52:30.300 --> 00:52:32.163
It was good versus evil.

00:52:33.330 --> 00:52:36.213
And that played out throughout
the Civil Rights Movement.

00:52:37.316 --> 00:52:40.899
(dramatic music continues)

00:52:42.450 --> 00:52:46.050
During the whole summer that we picketed,

00:52:46.050 --> 00:52:48.840
it was the looks on people's
faces that were going

00:52:48.840 --> 00:52:52.383
by us and going into the
park that most affected me.

00:52:53.546 --> 00:52:56.880
(dramatic music)

00:52:56.880 --> 00:53:01.590
The faces were so angry,
the eyes would be bulging,

00:53:01.590 --> 00:53:03.423
and faces all red.

00:53:04.860 --> 00:53:07.213
It's like they were like crazy people

00:53:07.213 --> 00:53:10.023
just calling you filthy names.

00:53:11.490 --> 00:53:13.770
They made comments to the white women

00:53:13.770 --> 00:53:16.350
about Black men particularly.

00:53:16.350 --> 00:53:19.743
They would make jokes about
"you're going to be lynched,"

00:53:20.610 --> 00:53:22.777
and that, just just terrible things.

00:53:26.940 --> 00:53:29.640
There was a young Black
woman in front of me

00:53:29.640 --> 00:53:33.624
and a man came running up
from the left side of us

00:53:33.624 --> 00:53:36.483
with this furious look on his face.

00:53:37.650 --> 00:53:40.590
My grandma had made me
this beautiful blouse,

00:53:40.590 --> 00:53:42.810
it had a Peter Pan collar I remember.

00:53:42.810 --> 00:53:44.070
I loved that blouse.

00:53:44.070 --> 00:53:45.780
And the guy spit on me.

00:53:45.780 --> 00:53:47.640
And he spit right in her face.

00:53:47.640 --> 00:53:48.960
On the side of my face.

00:53:48.960 --> 00:53:50.820
It rolled down over my collar.

00:53:50.820 --> 00:53:54.840
And I didn't know what to do.

00:53:54.840 --> 00:53:56.850
I wanted to say, "So
you're proud of yourself?"

00:53:56.850 --> 00:53:58.470
but we were taught not to react.

00:53:58.470 --> 00:54:00.470
I really wanted to say something to him.

00:54:03.090 --> 00:54:05.550
She did not acknowledge what he did.

00:54:05.550 --> 00:54:09.578
She just looked straight
ahead and kept on walking.

00:54:09.578 --> 00:54:12.578
(light piano music)

00:54:14.460 --> 00:54:17.310
When we got back on the bus,
somebody gave me a sweater

00:54:17.310 --> 00:54:20.720
to put on because I didn't
want it any more after that.

00:54:25.260 --> 00:54:28.440
One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight,

00:54:28.440 --> 00:54:31.323
nine, 10, there are 11 pickets.

00:54:34.560 --> 00:54:39.273
That's 11 saying "niggers
out", and there's me.

00:54:41.910 --> 00:54:46.347
What the heck could I have
been thinking? (chuckling)

00:54:46.347 --> 00:54:49.500
Were it not for reporters
and photographers,

00:54:49.500 --> 00:54:51.303
I think I'd be dead.

00:54:53.160 --> 00:54:56.640
[Reporter] Violence breaks out
at Maryland Amusement Park.

00:54:56.640 --> 00:55:00.120
Three white anti-segregation
pickets were beaten

00:55:00.120 --> 00:55:01.620
as they walked to their cars

00:55:01.620 --> 00:55:03.963
after leaving the picket line last night.

00:55:05.430 --> 00:55:07.260
The Bakers have declined to comment

00:55:07.260 --> 00:55:08.640
throughout the picketing,

00:55:08.640 --> 00:55:11.730
during which 16 persons were arrested.

00:55:11.730 --> 00:55:13.747
Their spokesman said yesterday,

00:55:13.747 --> 00:55:17.127
"We just don't feel that
we have to say anything."

00:55:18.260 --> 00:55:21.927
(dramatic orchestral music)

00:55:24.870 --> 00:55:28.650
Two of the Jews on that
picket line were survivors

00:55:28.650 --> 00:55:29.883
from Auschwitz.

00:55:32.400 --> 00:55:34.143
I saw their tattoos.

00:55:36.720 --> 00:55:39.360
I asked, "You were in a death camp

00:55:39.360 --> 00:55:40.583
because you were a Jew.

00:55:41.813 --> 00:55:46.813
And now you are protesting
racial injustice to Black people.

00:55:47.820 --> 00:55:48.653
Why?"

00:55:50.850 --> 00:55:54.750
And he said, "When they
started rounding up the Jews,

00:55:54.750 --> 00:55:57.513
nobody stood up to protest.

00:55:58.890 --> 00:56:02.937
Nobody did anything about
the injustice to Jews."

00:56:05.739 --> 00:56:08.430
And they just wanted to
make sure that this type

00:56:09.570 --> 00:56:12.149
of thing never happened again.

00:56:12.149 --> 00:56:15.149
(light piano music)

00:56:19.470 --> 00:56:22.598
A white woman came up to me, and she said,

00:56:22.598 --> 00:56:24.390
"I didn't understand, why do you want

00:56:24.390 --> 00:56:26.067
to come to this amusement park?"

00:56:28.140 --> 00:56:32.081
But then if those are the
people that are opposed to you,

00:56:32.081 --> 00:56:34.890
why shouldn't you be able
to come into this park?

00:56:34.890 --> 00:56:37.893
And she said, "I never
thought about it before,

00:56:38.930 --> 00:56:40.047
but I get it now."

00:56:42.015 --> 00:56:45.527
And it allowed me to
see that people change.

00:56:49.170 --> 00:56:51.723
People change, as I changed.

00:56:52.920 --> 00:56:54.330
It's just so interesting

00:56:54.330 --> 00:56:56.853
what motivates us and why we're motivated.

00:56:58.347 --> 00:57:02.073
I grew up in a right wing
oriented neighborhood,

00:57:03.480 --> 00:57:05.850
and a certain class of Jewish people

00:57:05.850 --> 00:57:07.533
were referred to as kikes.

00:57:08.940 --> 00:57:12.783
I myself did something terrible
when I was four years old.

00:57:15.030 --> 00:57:17.400
I was with the maid that
was walking my brother

00:57:17.400 --> 00:57:18.453
and his go-kart,

00:57:19.730 --> 00:57:22.057
I pointed to a Black man and said,

00:57:22.057 --> 00:57:23.817
"Look at that nigger up there."

00:57:26.250 --> 00:57:28.260
How could I have done that?

00:57:28.260 --> 00:57:30.633
How was I even aware of that word?

00:57:31.500 --> 00:57:34.837
And it was my father's
gentle remonstrance,

00:57:34.837 --> 00:57:37.143
"Esther, I'm so disappointed in you.

00:57:39.056 --> 00:57:40.977
Think how Mary felt about that."

00:57:43.892 --> 00:57:46.059
Okay, he got into my soul.

00:57:48.979 --> 00:57:52.890
I think if anything I've been
expiating my guilt over that,

00:57:52.890 --> 00:57:57.393
I think a lot of my actions
are, how could I have done that?

00:57:58.824 --> 00:58:02.345
(dramatic music)

00:58:02.345 --> 00:58:04.928
♪ Oh freedom, oh freedom ♪

00:58:07.511 --> 00:58:10.290
One day I was picketing
in the rear parking lot,

00:58:10.290 --> 00:58:13.147
and one of the Bannockburn men said,

00:58:13.147 --> 00:58:14.667
"Everybody here is white."

00:58:15.810 --> 00:58:17.887
He asked me to get a message to Dion,

00:58:17.887 --> 00:58:20.490
"Please send a few people up to the front

00:58:20.490 --> 00:58:23.401
so we could have an
integrated picketed line."

00:58:23.401 --> 00:58:26.763
And I was very proud to
be asked to do a task.

00:58:27.660 --> 00:58:30.600
So I vaulted the fence, ran
through the parking lot,

00:58:30.600 --> 00:58:32.433
and I delivered that message.

00:58:33.420 --> 00:58:35.670
I realized, I thought oh my
God, we have this tendency

00:58:35.670 --> 00:58:36.873
to self-segregate.

00:58:38.340 --> 00:58:41.670
And from then on whenever
I showed up to picket,

00:58:41.670 --> 00:58:43.293
I always checked the front line,

00:58:44.711 --> 00:58:47.111
and I would join the one
with the fewest whites.

00:58:48.003 --> 00:58:50.420
(soft music)

00:58:53.250 --> 00:58:54.213
We talked a lot.

00:58:55.800 --> 00:58:59.070
A lot of interesting
conversations on that picket line

00:58:59.070 --> 00:59:02.013
that were endless because
it just went on all summer.

00:59:03.575 --> 00:59:06.450
(soft music continues)

00:59:06.450 --> 00:59:08.613
I was very close with Hank Thomas.

00:59:09.937 --> 00:59:10.770
It was the first time that I

00:59:10.770 --> 00:59:14.583
had ever been really friends
with African Americans.

00:59:16.410 --> 00:59:20.610
That was the first time that
I had any social contact

00:59:20.610 --> 00:59:21.723
with a white person.

00:59:22.830 --> 00:59:23.954
So it was

00:59:23.954 --> 00:59:28.806
♪ Getting to know you, getting
to know all about you ♪

00:59:28.806 --> 00:59:32.190
When I first joined the picket
line, I saw Dion Diamond,

00:59:32.190 --> 00:59:35.580
and he was singing, "Don't
Let the Sun Catch You Crying."

00:59:35.580 --> 00:59:39.057
I went, "Oh, my goodness,
this is so exciting."

00:59:40.194 --> 00:59:43.953
And then it just became my life.

00:59:45.270 --> 00:59:48.690
Because these Black students

00:59:48.690 --> 00:59:53.280
welcomed a white Jewish
southerner, all of a sudden,

00:59:53.280 --> 00:59:55.620
there was a place for me in the world.

00:59:55.620 --> 00:59:59.301
I was part of a Movement.

00:59:59.301 --> 01:00:01.884
(upbeat music)

01:00:08.007 --> 01:00:11.010
I do remember the partying.

01:00:11.010 --> 01:00:13.323
Sometimes it was in the homes of people.

01:00:16.207 --> 01:00:19.624
(upbeat music continues)

01:00:23.760 --> 01:00:26.010
Sometimes I would picket
until really late,

01:00:26.010 --> 01:00:28.697
go partying, and then go straight to work.

01:00:28.697 --> 01:00:31.290
(laughing) It was just what we were doing

01:00:31.290 --> 01:00:33.123
because we were 18, 19 years old.

01:00:37.530 --> 01:00:40.050
People were dancing together

01:00:40.050 --> 01:00:41.883
and everyone was inter-dating too.

01:00:43.950 --> 01:00:45.580
Is that me?
Mm-hmm.

01:00:46.930 --> 01:00:49.320
I... (laughing)

01:00:49.320 --> 01:00:50.970
Patti Bright.

01:00:50.970 --> 01:00:51.803
I had a crush on her too.

01:00:51.803 --> 01:00:52.636
Dion was a lover and women
just wanted to baby him.

01:01:00.660 --> 01:01:04.620
He weighed maybe 130 pounds.

01:01:04.620 --> 01:01:08.640
That's why when I saw him
after 40 something years,

01:01:08.640 --> 01:01:12.330
I went, "Dion, is that you?" (laughing)

01:01:12.330 --> 01:01:14.013
His head had gotten bigger.

01:01:14.970 --> 01:01:16.593
You know where she is now?

01:01:20.040 --> 01:01:24.240
To meet a bunch of people
who were African-American

01:01:24.240 --> 01:01:27.450
that spoke the same way
I did, had the same kind

01:01:27.450 --> 01:01:29.343
of education that I had,

01:01:30.750 --> 01:01:32.470
I just felt like I was meeting me

01:01:34.740 --> 01:01:37.050
and now when I look back at that,

01:01:37.050 --> 01:01:38.190
I was pretty naive

01:01:38.190 --> 01:01:40.830
because obviously their backgrounds,

01:01:40.830 --> 01:01:44.220
they had experienced a lot of
things I hadn't experienced.

01:01:44.220 --> 01:01:47.220
When some of the girls
came over to my house,

01:01:47.220 --> 01:01:49.590
my mother was looking out the window.

01:01:49.590 --> 01:01:51.905
She was afraid somebody
was going to throw a bomb.

01:01:51.905 --> 01:01:53.529
(dramatic orchestral music)

01:01:53.529 --> 01:01:56.220
(people chanting)

01:01:56.220 --> 01:01:58.623
[Reporter] Glen Echo
Guard Charges Student.

01:01:59.598 --> 01:02:02.433
I don't even remember the
first time I got arrested.

01:02:03.757 --> 01:02:08.370
"Laurance Henry, 26,
and Dion T. Diamond, 19,

01:02:08.370 --> 01:02:10.677
were held on traffic charges."

01:02:12.574 --> 01:02:16.241
(dramatic orchestral music)

01:02:24.524 --> 01:02:28.470
We weren't arrested
and they were arrested.

01:02:28.470 --> 01:02:29.691
They weren't allowed to come in.

01:02:29.691 --> 01:02:31.590
We were allowed to come in.

01:02:31.590 --> 01:02:35.790
So we had a position of
privilege that they didn't have.

01:02:35.790 --> 01:02:39.153
And they got a lot of
really rough treatment.

01:02:41.368 --> 01:02:44.557
[Reporter] Asked about his
next move, Henry replied-

01:02:44.557 --> 01:02:46.667
"I'm going back to picketing."

01:02:48.844 --> 01:02:51.594
(hands clapping)

01:02:58.694 --> 01:03:02.277
(all singing indistinctly)

01:03:10.923 --> 01:03:15.340
♪ Hallelu, hallelu, hallelu
hallelu hallelujah ♪

01:03:17.790 --> 01:03:20.010
[Reporter] Last night's
group was the largest number

01:03:20.010 --> 01:03:23.643
of demonstrators since the
protests began on June 30th.

01:03:24.900 --> 01:03:26.970
It attracted other people

01:03:26.970 --> 01:03:28.893
way beyond the Bannockburn community.

01:03:30.900 --> 01:03:33.559
Glen Echo, it's almost like a flower.

01:03:33.559 --> 01:03:35.760
That's something that blossomed.

01:03:35.760 --> 01:03:37.383
That's something that bloomed.

01:03:38.280 --> 01:03:40.440
I brought Stokely to the first picket line

01:03:40.440 --> 01:03:42.813
that he'd ever been on at Glen Echo.

01:03:43.732 --> 01:03:46.140
I had to tell him the proper way to act

01:03:46.140 --> 01:03:49.260
because any time Stokely had an audience

01:03:49.260 --> 01:03:50.613
he wanted to perform.

01:03:51.450 --> 01:03:56.450
Stokely, he was very exuberant,
confident, very charming.

01:03:57.780 --> 01:03:59.670
If he said, "Could you do this for me?",

01:03:59.670 --> 01:04:02.790
I was like, "Yes, yes, I'd
be glad to do that for you.

01:04:02.790 --> 01:04:05.181
I'm contributing to the Movement."

01:04:05.181 --> 01:04:06.982
[Reporter] Congressman Adam Clayton Powell

01:04:06.982 --> 01:04:09.787
along with other Congressmen
joined the demonstrators

01:04:09.787 --> 01:04:12.483
against the segregated amusement park.

01:04:15.210 --> 01:04:17.460
Famed entertainer Sammy Davis Jr.

01:04:17.460 --> 01:04:19.350
has promised to put on a benefit show

01:04:19.350 --> 01:04:21.063
for the Glen Echo demonstrators.

01:04:23.010 --> 01:04:24.960
Well known civil rights leaders,

01:04:24.960 --> 01:04:28.680
Executive Secretary of
the NAACP Roy Wilkins,

01:04:28.680 --> 01:04:30.420
and A. Phillip Randolph,

01:04:30.420 --> 01:04:33.056
President of the Brotherhood
of Sleeping Car Porters

01:04:33.056 --> 01:04:36.437
joined the picket line besieging the park.

01:04:36.437 --> 01:04:39.300
(soft music)

01:04:39.300 --> 01:04:42.180
Well it shows you what a
major place Glen Echo became

01:04:42.180 --> 01:04:45.570
if Roy Wilkins, and A.
Phillip Randolph were there,

01:04:45.570 --> 01:04:48.963
this was not a minor part of
the Civil Rights Movement.

01:04:50.920 --> 01:04:54.170
(soft music continues)

01:04:59.497 --> 01:05:02.190
[Reporter] Laurance Henry
said last night that his group

01:05:02.190 --> 01:05:04.980
will stage sit-ins aimed at Senator Clark,

01:05:04.980 --> 01:05:06.840
Democrat of Pennsylvania,

01:05:06.840 --> 01:05:09.540
who had agreed with Southern
democrats not to act

01:05:09.540 --> 01:05:12.933
on any more civil rights
legislation this session.

01:05:14.105 --> 01:05:16.530
(soft music)

01:05:16.530 --> 01:05:19.380
Senator Clark has shaken
hands with the devil.

01:05:19.380 --> 01:05:21.450
I will use every bit of power I possess

01:05:21.450 --> 01:05:23.670
to make sure that Senator
Clark does not get away

01:05:23.670 --> 01:05:25.167
with this ungodly thing."

01:05:26.430 --> 01:05:29.070
Laurance Henry did something

01:05:29.070 --> 01:05:32.043
most of the group thought would
be hurtful to the movement.

01:05:33.780 --> 01:05:35.970
Laurance Henry was rather prickly

01:05:35.970 --> 01:05:39.873
and some of our union
heads were pretty bossy.

01:05:40.936 --> 01:05:44.670
I could see that they were
coming into a conflict.

01:05:44.670 --> 01:05:46.470
Laurance Henry had an ego

01:05:46.470 --> 01:05:51.470
that was twice his size, okay? (laughing)

01:05:51.480 --> 01:05:53.070
A number of persons who were helping us

01:05:53.070 --> 01:05:55.140
in the desegregation battles in Maryland

01:05:55.140 --> 01:05:57.960
suddenly felt I had
violated an unwritten law

01:05:57.960 --> 01:05:59.823
by attacking a liberal senator.

01:06:01.928 --> 01:06:04.928
(upbeat jazz music)

01:06:06.799 --> 01:06:10.233
A censure movement started
within my own group.

01:06:11.160 --> 01:06:13.020
At the meeting on Tuesday evening,

01:06:13.020 --> 01:06:16.530
the Non-violent Action Group
expressed its conviction

01:06:16.530 --> 01:06:18.960
that civil rights had
never had a better friend

01:06:18.960 --> 01:06:21.180
than Senator Joseph Clark.

01:06:21.180 --> 01:06:22.740
We disapprove of any actions

01:06:22.740 --> 01:06:25.136
or statements aimed at embarrassing him.

01:06:25.136 --> 01:06:27.686
(dramatic orchestral music)

01:06:27.686 --> 01:06:30.240
[Reporter] The group of
white and Negro demonstrators

01:06:30.240 --> 01:06:32.343
replaced their leader last night.

01:06:33.660 --> 01:06:35.430
[Reporter] Henry, who refuses to withdraw

01:06:35.430 --> 01:06:37.650
from the movement,
stated that his rejection

01:06:37.650 --> 01:06:40.257
is probably a "spiritual test."

01:06:41.730 --> 01:06:43.860
[Laurance Henry] It is my project.

01:06:43.860 --> 01:06:45.753
I'll be there until the place closes.

01:06:51.550 --> 01:06:53.370
[Reporter] Be sure to be in Glen Echo

01:06:53.370 --> 01:06:55.290
during the last week of the season.

01:06:55.290 --> 01:06:57.809
Six major rides will be free.

01:06:57.809 --> 01:06:59.989
♪ Fun is where you find it ♪

01:06:59.989 --> 01:07:01.875
♪ Where do you find it ♪

01:07:01.875 --> 01:07:03.982
♪ Glen Echo Amusement Park ♪

01:07:03.982 --> 01:07:05.379
♪ One more time, gang ♪

01:07:05.379 --> 01:07:08.099
♪ Glen Echo Amusement Park ♪

01:07:08.099 --> 01:07:11.010
(soft music)

01:07:11.010 --> 01:07:13.980
Dear friend, on Sunday, September 11th,

01:07:13.980 --> 01:07:17.073
we are going to end the Glen
Echo picket line with a bang.

01:07:18.000 --> 01:07:19.623
if we do not get assurances that the park

01:07:19.623 --> 01:07:23.130
will be integrated when it's open in 1961,

01:07:23.130 --> 01:07:24.693
we'll be back again next April.

01:07:26.326 --> 01:07:28.909
(upbeat music)

01:07:41.986 --> 01:07:44.790
[Reporter] The manager says
he knows of no intention

01:07:44.790 --> 01:07:46.803
to invite Negroes next spring.

01:07:49.083 --> 01:07:51.833
(dramatic music)

01:08:08.340 --> 01:08:10.920
We had been so frustrated that we could

01:08:10.920 --> 01:08:14.053
not get the Baker brothers to talk to us

01:08:14.053 --> 01:08:16.680
because they still hadn't
made up their minds

01:08:16.680 --> 01:08:18.000
what they were going to do.

01:08:18.000 --> 01:08:20.190
So we anticipated, oh, my gosh,

01:08:20.190 --> 01:08:22.753
we've got to go through this again.

01:08:22.753 --> 01:08:24.960
(gentle orchestral music)

01:08:24.960 --> 01:08:26.940
[Reporter] Laurence
Henry indicated that NAG

01:08:26.940 --> 01:08:28.980
is willing to go to great sacrifices

01:08:28.980 --> 01:08:31.770
to rid one of Maryland's
most liberal counties

01:08:31.770 --> 01:08:34.977
of "its most glaring
bastion of segregation."

01:08:37.620 --> 01:08:39.690
[Reporter] Some of the
citizens approached the office

01:08:39.690 --> 01:08:42.810
of United States Attorney
General Robert F. Kennedy

01:08:42.810 --> 01:08:44.730
with an appeal for help.

01:08:44.730 --> 01:08:48.060
They pointed out that part of
the amusement park's property

01:08:48.060 --> 01:08:50.010
is leased from the federal government.

01:08:50.010 --> 01:08:51.870
Did you say this is government property?

01:08:51.870 --> 01:08:52.703
It was.

01:08:52.703 --> 01:08:53.873
It is private property.

01:08:53.873 --> 01:08:54.870
It was leased from the federal government?

01:08:54.870 --> 01:08:56.190
That's right.

01:08:56.190 --> 01:08:57.990
[Reporter] They asked the
Attorney General's office

01:08:57.990 --> 01:09:01.473
to revoke the lease if the
park continued segregation.

01:09:02.940 --> 01:09:04.020
They said, "no,

01:09:04.020 --> 01:09:05.520
asolutely not.

01:09:05.520 --> 01:09:06.353
No, no, no."

01:09:06.353 --> 01:09:08.216
That's all we ever heard was no.

01:09:08.216 --> 01:09:11.243
And at some point something happened.

01:09:11.243 --> 01:09:14.743
(gentle orchestral music)

01:09:30.069 --> 01:09:34.203
[Reporter] Glen Echo says come
one come all and means it.

01:09:35.250 --> 01:09:36.900
The amusement center will operate

01:09:36.900 --> 01:09:41.253
on a non-segregated basis for
the first time in 52 years.

01:09:42.180 --> 01:09:44.230
Neither owners was available for comment.

01:09:45.630 --> 01:09:47.490
Wednesday's announcement came as shock

01:09:47.490 --> 01:09:49.170
to the groups which were looking forward

01:09:49.170 --> 01:09:51.900
to another eight months
of walking, talking

01:09:51.900 --> 01:09:53.733
and in general raising Cain.

01:09:55.267 --> 01:09:57.000
"Thanks be to God"-

01:09:57.000 --> 01:10:00.556
Was the fervent reaction
of Laurance Henry.

01:10:00.556 --> 01:10:04.056
(gentle orchestral music)

01:10:18.326 --> 01:10:20.993
(kids shouting)

01:10:25.557 --> 01:10:27.510
Oh, yeah, it was a whole bunch of us

01:10:27.510 --> 01:10:29.460
that went the first day we could get in

01:10:30.720 --> 01:10:33.033
and we was running from
one place to another.

01:10:35.370 --> 01:10:39.390
I remember being so elated
and joyful to be able

01:10:39.390 --> 01:10:40.683
to go to this park.

01:10:41.909 --> 01:10:44.670
(gentle orchestral music)

01:10:44.670 --> 01:10:47.970
The thing that I wanted
to do the most was to go

01:10:47.970 --> 01:10:50.550
to the pool and once it was open,

01:10:50.550 --> 01:10:53.347
that's exactly what we did.

01:10:53.347 --> 01:10:57.480
(gentle orchestral music)

01:10:57.480 --> 01:10:59.910
Boy, did we rush down that first day.

01:10:59.910 --> 01:11:04.610
We went there consistently,
to show yes, we really do want

01:11:04.610 --> 01:11:07.053
to be enjoying ourselves in your park.

01:11:09.390 --> 01:11:11.700
We weren't treated as kings and queens

01:11:11.700 --> 01:11:14.293
when we first went in,
but they was having a ball

01:11:14.293 --> 01:11:16.653
in there, so we went in to enjoy the ball.

01:11:19.710 --> 01:11:24.095
Oh boy, we had won. (laughing)

01:11:24.095 --> 01:11:26.730
(soft music)

01:11:26.730 --> 01:11:31.500
I did not want to go, it has such really,

01:11:31.500 --> 01:11:33.303
really bad memories.

01:11:35.880 --> 01:11:37.440
I can hear the chanting,

01:11:37.440 --> 01:11:39.393
the people calling you names.

01:11:47.760 --> 01:11:51.240
As a result of that picketing,
I distinctly remember

01:11:51.240 --> 01:11:56.240
in high school wearing a big
Afro, Angela Davis style,

01:11:56.730 --> 01:12:01.730
to let it be known, I am a Black
person and I'm proud of it.

01:12:04.218 --> 01:12:06.801
(upbeat music)

01:12:10.380 --> 01:12:12.990
Glen Echo gave me a determination

01:12:12.990 --> 01:12:16.773
to not accept being mistreated
because of my color.

01:12:21.120 --> 01:12:22.920
Don't get too far ahead of me now.

01:12:24.199 --> 01:12:26.370
Let's wait for Poppa!

01:12:26.370 --> 01:12:27.633
Over on this side,

01:12:28.920 --> 01:12:32.544
where white people were,
and notice we were separate

01:12:32.544 --> 01:12:34.800
because that was the law.

01:12:34.800 --> 01:12:36.030
Not like it is today

01:12:36.030 --> 01:12:38.553
where you can have your
white friends over.

01:12:39.600 --> 01:12:41.410
Now let's look ahead here.

01:12:41.410 --> 01:12:44.037
Ain't that Ruby Bridges?
That's Ruby Bridges.

01:12:44.037 --> 01:12:45.120
That's right.

01:12:48.210 --> 01:12:49.893
That's her when she was your age.

01:12:52.338 --> 01:12:54.780
Hey, can we try to find you up there?

01:12:54.780 --> 01:12:55.923
Let's find Poppa.

01:13:00.840 --> 01:13:02.760
Henry Hank Thomas.

01:13:02.760 --> 01:13:03.593
We found you.

01:13:05.370 --> 01:13:06.680
That's not Poppa.
Yes, he is.

01:13:06.680 --> 01:13:08.763
That's Poppa when he was younger.

01:13:09.970 --> 01:13:13.470
(gentle orchestral music)

01:13:17.160 --> 01:13:20.130
When the Freedom Rides
came, it was an extension

01:13:20.130 --> 01:13:22.680
of what I had already been doing.

01:13:22.680 --> 01:13:24.873
It was a no-brainer to be involved.

01:13:30.902 --> 01:13:31.830
(upbeat orchestral music)

01:13:31.830 --> 01:13:33.780
[Reporter] Negroes took
their integration fight

01:13:33.780 --> 01:13:36.840
to bus terminals of the
deep South during the year.

01:13:36.840 --> 01:13:40.260
Whites and Negroes called
Freedom Riders tested segregation

01:13:40.260 --> 01:13:41.820
in waiting rooms and restaurants

01:13:41.820 --> 01:13:44.970
of bus terminals in Birmingham
and Montgomery, Alabama,

01:13:44.970 --> 01:13:47.850
in Jackson, Mississippi,
and in New Orleans.

01:13:47.850 --> 01:13:51.570
I wanted to be on the Freedom
Ride and I chose to be in.

01:13:51.570 --> 01:13:55.590
I wanted to have children
and did not have children,

01:13:55.590 --> 01:13:58.200
and I was able though, to go and do things

01:13:58.200 --> 01:14:00.631
that married women with
children could not do.

01:14:00.631 --> 01:14:03.573
I was glad that I could do something.

01:14:04.676 --> 01:14:06.990
(gentle orchestral music)

01:14:06.990 --> 01:14:09.390
Had it not been for
Glen Echo, I don't know

01:14:09.390 --> 01:14:12.060
that I would have gone
on the Freedom Ride.

01:14:12.060 --> 01:14:14.433
Believe me, it got nasty after that.

01:14:17.178 --> 01:14:18.720
Only thing I could hear

01:14:18.720 --> 01:14:19.860
is let's burn them niggers,

01:14:19.860 --> 01:14:21.360
let's burn them niggers alive.

01:14:23.321 --> 01:14:26.509
(fire crackling)

01:14:26.509 --> 01:14:29.259
(dramatic music)

01:14:43.560 --> 01:14:47.430
After the Freedom Ride,
I stayed in the South

01:14:47.430 --> 01:14:50.883
for two years, doing
voter registration work.

01:14:54.960 --> 01:14:59.920
One night, in Macomb,
Mississippi, I was laying in bed

01:15:01.140 --> 01:15:04.143
and a shotgun blast
comes through the window.

01:15:07.680 --> 01:15:09.693
Went right across my body,

01:15:11.010 --> 01:15:14.883
tearing out the window and the paneling.

01:15:18.510 --> 01:15:21.723
Dion knows that I hold him in awe.

01:15:22.800 --> 01:15:26.850
The number of times they
tried to kill him, the number

01:15:26.850 --> 01:15:28.640
of times he was shot at...

01:15:29.550 --> 01:15:32.310
I don't know all that he went through,

01:15:32.310 --> 01:15:34.440
but I know enough about it

01:15:34.440 --> 01:15:38.457
to say, "How did you
maintain your sanity?"

01:15:43.860 --> 01:15:48.860
I was incarcerated in a
maximum security prison

01:15:48.900 --> 01:15:50.073
in Mississippi.

01:15:54.660 --> 01:15:57.363
When I would look out the
window and see a tower,

01:15:58.800 --> 01:16:00.933
the Holocaust stayed with me.

01:16:07.561 --> 01:16:11.228
(dramatic orchestral music)

01:16:12.180 --> 01:16:17.180
They would be bringing tours
of young white jeering males

01:16:20.940 --> 01:16:23.190
to just stand there and look at us.

01:16:23.190 --> 01:16:25.530
It was terrifying.

01:16:25.530 --> 01:16:26.823
It was terrifying.

01:16:30.876 --> 01:16:33.840
And I can identify with
anybody who was arrested

01:16:33.840 --> 01:16:36.780
and is helpless.

01:16:36.780 --> 01:16:40.447
(dramatic orchestral music)

01:16:52.050 --> 01:16:54.870
I was 26 by the time I came back

01:16:54.870 --> 01:16:56.643
from the Freedom Ride.

01:16:57.930 --> 01:17:01.143
We were hoping that we would
be able to then have children.

01:17:02.640 --> 01:17:06.151
Unfortunately, I just changed.

01:17:06.151 --> 01:17:10.403
(dramatic orchestral music)

01:17:10.403 --> 01:17:11.973
I was more fearful.

01:17:13.080 --> 01:17:14.913
it affected our marriage.

01:17:15.991 --> 01:17:19.413
And I think that really
eventually led to a divorce.

01:17:24.990 --> 01:17:28.583
It dramatically changed my life. (sighing)

01:17:32.910 --> 01:17:37.910
I was in jail when the
mother of my son divorced me.

01:17:39.660 --> 01:17:44.660
In later years, I attempted
to involve myself.

01:17:46.560 --> 01:17:47.433
It was too late.

01:17:49.172 --> 01:17:52.839
(dramatic orchestral music)

01:17:54.690 --> 01:17:59.100
There was an exhibit at Glen
Echo that featured a lot

01:17:59.100 --> 01:18:00.510
of the stuff that we went through

01:18:00.510 --> 01:18:02.763
and my picture's up around the place.

01:18:06.103 --> 01:18:09.960
And my son wasn't interested.

01:18:09.960 --> 01:18:12.090
I have three grandsons,

01:18:12.090 --> 01:18:14.010
they weren't particularly interested,

01:18:14.010 --> 01:18:17.460
It's like, what's the relevance of this,

01:18:17.460 --> 01:18:18.783
to me or to them?

01:18:20.060 --> 01:18:23.727
(dramatic orchestral music)

01:18:35.923 --> 01:18:39.960
I want the kids today to
know that if they don't fight

01:18:39.960 --> 01:18:43.923
for their legal, inalienable rights,

01:18:45.300 --> 01:18:48.393
it's going to come back
and bite you in the butt.

01:18:48.393 --> 01:18:53.393
(all chattering)
(soft music)

01:18:54.694 --> 01:18:58.320
Glen Echo was the beginning
of my career as an

01:18:58.320 --> 01:19:01.623
in-the-street, nonviolent,
direct action activist.

01:19:03.090 --> 01:19:05.370
I also discovered that your body

01:19:05.370 --> 01:19:08.583
is the most political instrument you have.

01:19:10.410 --> 01:19:12.390
You don't have to wait for other people.

01:19:12.390 --> 01:19:15.180
you just have to know
there's some injustice

01:19:15.180 --> 01:19:18.884
right in front of you and
stand up and oppose it.

01:19:18.884 --> 01:19:20.269
(soft music)

01:19:20.269 --> 01:19:22.110
You can say you have free speech,

01:19:22.110 --> 01:19:24.360
but you don't have it unless you use it.

01:19:24.360 --> 01:19:27.145
You can say you have
the freedom of assembly,

01:19:27.145 --> 01:19:29.372
(crowd cheering)

01:19:29.372 --> 01:19:31.290
but you don't have it
unless you go to an assembly

01:19:31.290 --> 01:19:32.133
over an issue.

01:19:33.120 --> 01:19:34.260
Where did I learn that lesson?

01:19:34.260 --> 01:19:35.163
At Glen Echo.

01:19:37.500 --> 01:19:39.810
So that was a real
sense of accomplishment.

01:19:39.810 --> 01:19:40.743
It really was.

01:19:41.760 --> 01:19:44.043
Press on, press on.

01:19:45.150 --> 01:19:46.980
That is a lesson from Glen Echo.

01:19:46.980 --> 01:19:50.883
What it did teach me was
having the drive to do it,

01:19:52.230 --> 01:19:54.630
the drive, the drive, the drive.

01:19:54.630 --> 01:19:56.643
You just keep driving, the drive.

01:19:59.966 --> 01:20:03.810
(soft music continues)

01:20:03.810 --> 01:20:06.150
For me, it was a whole learning experience

01:20:06.150 --> 01:20:08.228
of how you bring about social change.

01:20:08.228 --> 01:20:09.427
(all chattering)

01:20:09.427 --> 01:20:11.613
When you get together you have power.

01:20:13.560 --> 01:20:16.694
What brings us together
today is a strong desire

01:20:16.694 --> 01:20:19.863
to end mass incarceration.

01:20:20.794 --> 01:20:24.044
(soft music continues)

01:20:36.157 --> 01:20:38.907
(all chattering)

01:20:40.590 --> 01:20:42.270
As a seven year old,

01:20:42.270 --> 01:20:46.320
it was very important for
me to see my mom speak

01:20:46.320 --> 01:20:49.230
from her heart about
a social justice issue

01:20:49.230 --> 01:20:51.690
that she felt passionate about.

01:20:51.690 --> 01:20:53.220
I was proud of her.

01:20:53.220 --> 01:20:57.900
And I think she gave me
the courage to do the same

01:20:57.900 --> 01:20:59.013
in my life.

01:21:00.840 --> 01:21:05.040
I have only gratitude
to the Howard students

01:21:05.040 --> 01:21:07.830
by putting their bodies on the line,

01:21:07.830 --> 01:21:10.834
that's where I learned
the lesson that it counts

01:21:10.834 --> 01:21:13.113
and it counts to be there with them.

01:21:14.239 --> 01:21:16.230
It's meant for the rest of my life

01:21:16.230 --> 01:21:17.553
I want to be a witness.

01:21:21.385 --> 01:21:24.385
(upbeat jazz music)

01:21:57.360 --> 01:22:02.070
I hereby award the degree,
Doctor of Laws, Honoris Causa,

01:22:02.070 --> 01:22:06.543
to Dr. Henry James Thomas.

01:22:08.138 --> 01:22:11.971
(upbeat jazz music continues)

01:22:13.560 --> 01:22:17.640
Scholarships and contributions
are my continuation

01:22:17.640 --> 01:22:19.230
of the struggle,

01:22:19.230 --> 01:22:22.653
just in a different form
and on a different level.

01:22:24.844 --> 01:22:28.011
(audience applauding)

01:22:29.070 --> 01:22:29.907
Thank you.

01:22:29.907 --> 01:22:33.120
Mr. Thomas, why did you get
involved in civil rights

01:22:33.120 --> 01:22:35.820
when so many others didn't do anything?

01:22:35.820 --> 01:22:39.960
We wanted to get rid
of the segregation laws

01:22:39.960 --> 01:22:42.390
which would limit me,

01:22:42.390 --> 01:22:46.980
when I was your age, to jobs, to housing,

01:22:46.980 --> 01:22:50.250
the same things that
were happening in Europe

01:22:50.250 --> 01:22:53.130
in the 1930s to Jews.

01:22:53.130 --> 01:22:55.644
The Nuremberg Laws were based

01:22:55.644 --> 01:22:59.433
upon the segregation laws in this country.

01:23:00.870 --> 01:23:05.460
1960, a student at Howard,

01:23:05.460 --> 01:23:07.500
there was an amusement park outside

01:23:07.500 --> 01:23:10.470
of Washington that would not admit Blacks.

01:23:10.470 --> 01:23:15.390
This little community,
primarily American Jews,

01:23:15.390 --> 01:23:17.070
they started picketing.

01:23:17.070 --> 01:23:21.923
American Jews were our
most important allies

01:23:22.920 --> 01:23:24.660
in the Civil Rights movement.

01:23:24.660 --> 01:23:28.740
Jews decided that they were
going to march with us,

01:23:28.740 --> 01:23:32.700
sit in with us, and a
few of them died with us.

01:23:32.700 --> 01:23:36.273
So whenever you hear anyone,

01:23:37.140 --> 01:23:39.393
and especially a person of color,

01:23:40.620 --> 01:23:44.043
say anything resembling anti-semitism,

01:23:45.030 --> 01:23:47.820
I want you to tell them
that they are talking

01:23:47.820 --> 01:23:51.567
about our most important allies.

01:23:51.567 --> 01:23:52.530
(light piano music)

01:23:52.530 --> 01:23:53.853
Goodbye little house.

01:23:56.533 --> 01:24:00.366
(light piano music continues)

01:24:14.160 --> 01:24:18.123
Most of the people who
made history are invisible.

01:24:19.320 --> 01:24:20.853
They don't exist.

01:24:24.748 --> 01:24:28.050
(light piano music continues)

01:24:28.050 --> 01:24:30.990
The real story is that all these people

01:24:30.990 --> 01:24:34.770
are important because
had they not been there,

01:24:34.770 --> 01:24:37.320
no change would have been made.

01:24:37.320 --> 01:24:40.445
No change would have been made.

01:24:40.445 --> 01:24:44.278
(light piano music continues)

01:24:56.065 --> 01:24:58.648
(upbeat music)

01:25:07.086 --> 01:25:10.086
(singer vocalizing)

01:25:30.592 --> 01:25:33.900
(upbeat music continues)

01:25:33.900 --> 01:25:37.567
The drive, the drive, the drive.

01:25:44.381 --> 01:25:47.381
(singer vocalizing)

01:26:00.143 --> 01:26:03.560
(upbeat music continues)

01:26:30.601 --> 01:26:34.018
(upbeat music continues)

01:27:00.399 --> 01:27:03.816
(upbeat music continues)

01:27:30.159 --> 01:27:33.576
(upbeat music continues)

01:27:47.340 --> 01:27:50.007
The drive, the drive, the drive.

01:27:54.341 --> 01:27:57.341
(singer vocalizing)

01:28:30.460 --> 01:28:33.877
(upbeat music continues)

01:29:00.158 --> 01:29:03.575
(upbeat music continues)