GIRL, I TRIED to hold my peace, I tried to let things go by the board, I did my best to remember all the things you told me, but before the night was over, I just had to speak my mind! … Yes, it was a nice meetin’ as meetin’s go. Of course you know I don’t consider a meetin’ to be the last word as far as a good time is concerned. I go to them ’cause sometimes folks got to meet in order to straighten out things, and I feel that it’s my beholden duty to be right there meetin’ along with everybody else.
Marge, the church was crowded, and it would have done your heart good if you could of been there to see that fine turnout! … It’s a good thing that you had a toothache ’cause I wouldn’t of taken nothin’ else for a excuse! … No, I don’t mean that I’m glad your tooth is achin’, and you know it! … Why do you always twist and turn every word I say…. I don’t mean every word, I only mean some words! … Are you feelin’ better now? … Well, that’s good. Do you want me to tell you ’bout the meetin’? … All right, I’ll begin at the beginnin’.
Honey, they raised some money this evenin’! This civil rights business has got folks so tore up ’til they’re really ready to dig down in their pocketbooks and put some money where their mouth is! The whole idea of givin’ the money is simply this: they’re gonna send it down South to help out people who are catchin’ a hard time ’cause they want to vote and ride the buses and things like that…. Yes, they had several speakers there and they spoke right well.
The minister introduced one white man who got up and started his speech by sayin’, “The South today is in a state …” and then he went on to tell us all about the state of things. After he finished a colored man got up and started his speech by sayin’ “The South has always been in a state …” Then he went on to further tell us ’bout the state of things. Two or three more people spoke a little bit, and I’m here to tell you that they gave the South a hard way to go! Oh, it was the South this and the South that and by the time they got through, I don’t think there was another bad word to say ’bout the South ’cause they had said ’em all!
When the question and answer time came, everybody started in on the South all over again and took it from slavery and traveled each day and year right back on up to nineteen hundred and fifty-six. I learned a lot, but it seemed to me that we was forgettin’ that this land also has a North, East and West to it! Since I didn’t think we should be so forgetful I got up to say my say.
When it came my turn, I said, “We have heard a great deal about the South tonight and rightly so, but I’m wonderin’ if we got room to just low-rate the South in such a sweepin’ manner….” Marge, before I could go on with what I had to say, there was a little disturbance in the back of the auditorium, and one squeaky-voiced little man jumped up and said, “Yes, that’s right, before we get on the South, let’s take care of the North!”
… Now, he wasn’t doin’ a thing but tryin’ to mislead the people, so I kept standin’ and got him out of my way! “Never mind that before business,” I says, “but let’s take care of the North while we’re gettin’ on the South! To hear us talk, anybody would think the North was some kind of promise-land come true. All is not sweetness and light just ’cause we’re on the North side of the Mason and Dixon line!
“But the main thing I want us to remember is that there’s lots of good people down South!” Marge, they started to mumble then, and I could see that I wasn’t gettin’ too much agreement on the last thing that I had said, “Yes,” I says, “good people. When we talk about slave days let’s bear in mind that there was plenty of white folks who helped the slaves to escape, Southern folks. No, they didn’t get the honor and the glory like the Abolitionists in the North ’cause they had to work quiet and secret and it was worth their lives if they got caught. I heard about them Southern ship captains who took slaves out of the South and hid them ’til they got to freeland, I heard about Southerners who bought slaves in order to bring them, to the North and set them free, I heard of Southern homes where the poor ‘run-away’ found rest and food and hope. Believe me, when I say that it took nerve and courage to fight slavery right there in the teeth of it, so to speak! It wouldn’t be right for us to forget those things ’cause even though there was more help comin’ from the North, it was harder to get help in the South and for that reason it was worth its weight in gold!”
One woman sittin’ behind me, whispered, “We don’t want to make them Southerners sound like no angels now.” And I said, “We got to give credit where credit is due at the same time that we’re puttin’ the blame to the South! Are we goin’ to forget the judge in Carolina that spoke up for us, are we goin’ to forget how he had to leave his home for sayin’ what was on his mind? … Are we gonna forget the man in Kentucky who sold a colored family a home and got put in jail for it? Are we goin’ to forget those youngsters in Alabama who signed a paper sayin’ that they didn’t want to have nothin’ to do with mobs and that they were for the right of a colored student to go to their college? Are we gonna forget the folks who refuse to join up with klans and such? Are we gonna forget them Southerners who made trips to people’s homes to warn them that bad white folks was comin’ over to molest them? Oh, yes, there’s been a lot of good Southerners who took a stand for the right even when the goin’ was lonely-like and frightenin’, when they got chased from their homes, when ‘friends’ wouldn’t talk to them, when they got ugly telephone calls and letters. Oh, my, but it ain’t easy to do right in the midst of all that killin’, burnin’ and mobbin’ that’s goin’ on!”
One of the speakers interrupted me and said, “They ought to be doin’ a whole lot more. After all, it’s their laws that’s makin’ all the trouble!” “You are so right,” I says, “and we oughta encourage ’em! We got to start showin’ that we know how some of the folks are scared and pep-talk ’em a little bit! When we hear that there’s a mob made up of hundreds of folks, we got to realize that the other thousands upon thousands was not out there with ’em and got to ask ’em how come they can’t show some gumption and start doin’ and speakin’ against the mobs instead of sittin’ home washin’ their hands of it like Pontius Pilate. For too long they have been allowed to think that we don’t expect any good to come from them, that we just fold our hands and say, ‘Oh, well, they’re Southerners, so what can you expect?’ We got to start sayin’ to ’em, ‘Speak up so’s we can hear you, if everybody ain’t for oppressin’, then let those that’s against it stand up and be counted! We got to include ’em in the stand! We got to write some of their churches and clubs and things and ask ’em, ‘Where are you and what are you goin’ to do?’ When we get their answers, we’ll have it down in black and white for the whole world to see! And I bet we’ll rack up a few more friends down that way!”
The lady behind me says to me, “Honey, they should speak if they feel right! Looks like we’d be goin’ out of our way to be askin’ ’em about it.”
“Yes,” I says, “we would, but it’s goin’ to take some out-of-the-way things to change them Southern laws! After all, we sure hear plenty from the folks who don’t want the law to change and from the Northerners who’re willin’ to go part-way with the civil rights but hang back some when it comes to livin’ the thing right down the line!”
Marge, I got solid agreement on that ’cause folks know that even though our laws are much better than down home, we still got to put up such a to-do to get what the law promises. Didn’t they try to keep the man out of the housin’ project out in Chicago, didn’t they have mobs gatherin’? How ’bout folks tarrin’ the colored woman’s home out in Long Island? Mobs and meanness can happen in any part of the land but them laws in the South just make it easier for it to go on!
Sure, I told them all those things and they had to listen to me, too, ’cause while we’re settlin’ the trouble down South, we got to remember that we want all our rights, everywhere and this is no time for Northerners to get so smug…. You’re right, girl! All the colored folk that’s standin’ up and talkin’ out in Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Carolina and all over the South, ain’t they Southerners, too! Yes, indeed, we got to send the message East, West, North and South …. It’s high time that the land should be free, from one corner to the other!