Paul Good Recordings : Tape 4 : Transcript

Collection:: Civil Rights Library of St. Augustine
Title:: Paul Good Recordings : Tape 4 : Transcript
Date of Original:: 1964
Subject:: Civil rights--United States--Florida
People:: Young, Andrew, 1932-
Stuart, Virgil
Brock, James, 1922-2007
Location:: United States, Florida, 28.75054, -82.5001
Medium:: transcripts
Type:: Text
Format:: application/pdf
Description:: This is the fourth in the series of journalist Paul Good's tape recordings in St. Augustine during the summer of 1964. This tape consists of 8 parts. Part 1: Unidentified speaker addressing a mass meeting at of St. Paul's AME Church (00:01:03); Part 2: Andrew Young addressing a mass meeting (00:04:19); Part 3: Sounds of a night march (00:06:08); Part 4: Andrew Young speaking with police officers, including Chief Virgil Stuart (00:07:31); Part 5: Andrew Young addressing marchers (00:11:11); Part 6: Singing of a freedom hymn and sounds of a night march (00:18:07); Part 7: Paul Good describing the scene and the sounds of a night march (00:20:20); Part 8: Paul Good interviews demonstration participants and James Brock (00:22:37).
Paul Good Recordings : Transcript for Tape 4 Part 1: Unidentified speaker addressing a mass meeting at of St. Paul's AME Church (00:01:03) Unidentified speaker: [First part muffled and unintelligible]. If you love, you’re involved in liberation, and that’s why we’re marching tonight. We’re marching because we want to be involved in a great non-violent army of liberation. We can say to the world that we will not be robbed, but we will liberate. And we’ll make this a better place to live in. Let us look at it if you will, we’ve got it all now. Oh, we’ve got the man. Oh we’ve got the man in Martin Luther King. We’ve got the man. When they put him on the cover of Time magazine, even though they didn’t want to admit it, had to admit it. That we’ve got the man. [Applause] Reminds me of the story of the fellow who moved to Washington, D.C., and he went up to work in D.C. and he saw a Negro policeman throwing a million tons of traffic this way with this arm and a million tons of traffic that way with this arm. He looked at it, he made sure it was a Negro policeman, he watched that traffic, and he said, “Man [unintelligible] they told me black was white and white was black up here, but I didn’t know black [unintelligible]. When I saw the cover of Time magazine, I knew that we’d come a long, long way. But I realized how far we had come. That our loss, our people have been degraded and placed in second level. Our loss, of people that have been given a second rate education. Our loss of people that have always been at the bottom of the economic level. Our loss came the man of the year. We’ve got the man. Now we’ve got something more than that. We’ve got the message. We’ve got the message [unintelligible]. We’ve got a better message than anyone’s got. When you get on the Today Show, when you have to get up inside of Wallace, he hasn’t got a chance. The bigots and the segregationists don’t have a chance. And the Ku Klux Klansmen go and hide. And you know why they bomb the churches and you know why they beat you? Because they don’t have a message. We’ve got the message.[Applause] [Unintelligible] whether you’re going to stand up with dignity. Whether you’re going to march on with a sense of [unintelligible] and quality. Whether you’re going to hold your head high and show the world the raw power of righteousness. We’ve got something to march about tonight. Now we’re getting ready to go out of here to get ready to march down the aisle. We’re not going to stop until segregation is gone in St. Augustine. And this will not be our last march and this is not the first. We marched last night and we march again tonight. How many are ready tonight? [Cheers] How many people here simply are not going to march tonight because they are [unintelligible]? [Laughter] Is everybody going to march tonight? [Cheers] Alright, let us prepare to march. Part 2: Andrew Young addressing a mass meeting (00:04:40) Andrew Young: I don’t care what happens, we want you all to remain nonviolent. Now I don't know how often you pray, but I want you to pray tonight and I want you to pray especially for anybody that looks mean at you or anybody that curses you, anybody that spits at you. If somebody even throws something at you, it doesn't make any difference. Hold your head straight ahead and honor a prayer in your heart for them. And let’s stay very silent and let’s have this a quiet, dignified and prayerful march, okay? May I have your attention here? Can you hear me back there? Can you be quiet toward the rear? Let me say that tonight we want to have things especially quiet and prayerful. Now we believe that we shall overcome, but we won’t overcome by trying to be as mean and hateful as our enemies. If we overcome, it will be overcoming through love. Now I want you walk quietly and I want you to pray. If anybody curses you, you walk straight ahead and say a prayer for them. If anybody says any kind of mean word to you, I want you to pray for them. If anybody should throw anything at you, spit at you, do anything to you, I don't want you to even look evil at them. All right? Let everybody pray Amen for me. Part 3: Sounds of a night march (00:06:28) Part 4: Andrew Young speaking with police officers, including Chief Virgil Stuart (00:07:47) Andrew Young: And if they don't ever realize that we're human beings and children of God just like they are, then they can go along still thinking of us as slaves, and really this is all we're trying to overcome, and it requires a certain amount of courage and dignity to do this, but I think it’s something that we've got to do. Policeman 1: We're not forbidding you. We’re just asking you. Virgil Stuart: Let me tell you something: don’t come any further, unless you’re prepared to get your [unintelligible]. But there’s too many, there’s a meeting up there being conducted now. And we can’t break up one meeting to let you have another meeting. So it’s our advice and strong advice that you back [unintelligible] I don’t want no…It’s my strong advice to go on back down there and [unintelligible] that camera on me. Andrew Young: Well, we kind of feel that the only way we’ll ever really have any respect and… Virgil Stuart: Now listen, let me tell you something. I’m not here to argue with you at all. My advice is to you to go back. If you don't, it’s my firm conviction that some of you are going to get hurt and some other people are going to get hurt. It’s my job to protect this city. Now you’ve gone just as far as you better go. We can't protect you anymore. Andrew Young:Would you allow us to go on? Virgil Stuart: I can’t allow you to do anything. I’m just telling you not to do it. Now if you up here, you said you want a peaceful demonstration. Now you’ve had a peaceful demonstration last night. Nobody bothered you. We do not have manpower enough to protect you and protect these other people. And it’s my judgement that you shouldn't come any further. You should go back and run all the meetings you want over there, but not up here. Andrew Young: We're not trying to have a meeting here Chief, we'd just like to march by. Virgil Stuart: Well, why march by? To do that you’re going get somebody hurt bad and the blood is going to be on your hands and your hands if you do it. Now get back if you take my advice. If you don't, it’s your responsibility. You guys that are playing with these cameras, don’t encourage these people to do it. Somebody's going to get hurt. It may be you instead of them. Reporter: I don't have a camera, I'm not encouraging anybody. Virgil Stuart: Well somebody's doing it. [Unintelligible chatter] But I’m inviting you to leave. [Muffled chatter] You’re getting ready to get a bunch of your people hurt and hurt bad. Unidentified marcher: We’ve been hurting for 300 years. Virgil Stuart: Oh no, you ain't been hurt like this. [Unintelligible chatter] We haven't the manpower to protect this situation right here. Part 5: Andrew Young addressing marchers (00:11:28) Andrew Young:Is there anybody that can’t hear me, please raise your hand. Now tonight's the night we decide whether or not you want to be free. For three hundred years we’ve been kept in slavery through fear. If you can keep a man afraid, you can keep him from being a man, because a man who's afraid never stands up for any of those things which God has ordained for him. Now from the time of slavery until the present, whenever Negroes have tried to get their freedom, there’ve been some people, sometime in sheets and sometime, sometime even in police uniform that have tried to keep us from getting our freedom, and they’ve done this by putting fear into our hearts. Now tonight a group has gotten through the slave market before us. The chief of police has advised us not to march down in the block of the slave market. He says that he’s not sure that he’ll be able to protect us. Well I think we've been living this way for some time now. I think this is really one of the first times that I've ever been in a situation where a Deep South police chief was even concerned about protecting me. And so frankly I’ve lived all my life depending on God to protect me. Now we're not asking anybody to go on and risk danger. There may be some, there may not be. I’ve been in situations that looked dangerous before and somehow we've come through. There may be some physical hurt but I know if I get a broken arm it'll be healed in six weeks. I know if there’s a cut or bruise in a few weeks’ time that’ll go away. But the scars that are placed on the minds and hearts of Negro people throughout the Southlands, through having to live under fear and intimidation all their lives, never heal. And so tonight we have to decide whether to stand back and give into fear, or whether we really mean the words that we say, “Before I’d be a slave, I’d be buried in my grave and go home to my Lord and be free.” Now I would like to ask the cameramen if they would stop for just a minute, if they would give us time to think and pray about this. I think this is a decision that every man has to make in his own heart. Nobody can make it for you. And so I want you to think, how many of us will go on and keep this movement alive and assure ourselves of an opportunity to gain our freedom, or if we stop now, we can give it up, perhaps forever in St. Augustine. And so I'd like to ask that we all bow our heads for a minute and I'd like to ask again if we could be perfectly quiet, and if each person could pray, silently in his heart, whether or not you are ready to go on. Let us pray. Paul Good:And then came the silence in the night square, a tremendous deep silence, prayer. A few blocks away, the Klan was waiting, while about one hundred and fifty Negroes bowed their heads and prayed for God to guide them. Andrew Young: God who has called us to be thy sons and thy daughters, we come before thee like empty pitchers before a full fountain confessing our fears, confessing our doubts, and yet knowing dear God that thou has ordained us to be thy sons. We ask you this evening for courage. We ask you for strength, we ask you for wisdom. We ask you dear father if you would not only melt our hearts, and mold them in thine image. Give us the strength of the prophets of old. Give us the strength and the courage of children and adults of all ages who have stood their ground in order that man might be free. We would pray dear father for those who would stand between us and our freedom, for we know they are not to blame. We know that they are only saying and repeating those things which they have heard for generations, and which we have silently adhered to, they have heard that we were inferior and most of us. [The rest of this prayer is muffled, then followed by Andrew Young reciting the Lord’s Prayer]. Part 6: Singing of a freedom hymn and sounds of a night march (00:18:28) Part 7: Paul Good describing the scene and the sounds of a night march (00:20:39) Paul Good: The scene tonight in the heart of St. Augustine is eerie beyond description. Through the darkened streets in the main square of the town, about two hundreds Negroes are slowly walking in defiance of police requests that they go back. The police have said it is simply too dangerous to continue. The Negroes returned to a park. They had a prayer meeting. They decided among themselves that the time had come to declare themselves no matter what happened. And so, men, women and children, they advanced slowly. The only sound, their shuffling footsteps toward the old slave market in the heart of St. Augustine. There are dozens or perhaps hundreds of hostile whites in the square now. And the climax of this night is fast approaching. [Night march sounds follow] Part 8: Paul Good interviews demonstration participants and James Brock (00:23:04) Paul Good: Tell us what you just said to the owners. Unknown Speaker 1: The owner asked us to leave and I told him that we refuse to leave until we’re served. Now either we’re served or the people on the inside [unintelligible]. Paul Good: Do you intend to get arrested if they call the police? Unknown Speaker 1: Yes. Paul Good: How do you think, what do you think is the next step here? Are you gonna march again tonight? Unknown Speaker 1: Definitely. Paul Good: Through the downtown section to the slave market? Unknown Speaker 1: Definitely. Paul Good: Girls? Can I ask you a couple questions? Why have you come here? Unknown Speaker 2: We’ve come here to be served. We’d like to eat here. Paul Good:Do you intend to stay until you get served? Unknown Speaker 2: We do. Paul Good: Turn and answer some questions for the camera please. Unknown Speaker 2: We won't move. Paul Good: Now if he calls the police what will happen? Unknown speaker 2: We'll just go to jail. But we won't move until we've been served. Paul Good: Did you girls take part in the march downtown last night? Unknown speaker 2: Yes. Paul Good: And you intend to march again tonight if you’re not arrested? Unknown speaker 2: Yes. Paul Good: What was your reaction to what happened during the march? Unknown speaker 2: First time I ever felt that close to God before, because I know he was with me [unintelligible] right. Paul Good: Did you think that something violent was going to happen? Unknown speaker 2: Yes, only God stopped it.Paul Good: Only God stopped it? Unknown Speaker 2: Only God. Paul Good: Mr. Peters, do you have a statement? Mr. James E. Brock: My name is Brock. James E. Brock. I’m general manager of the Monson Motor Lodge. This is a private property here and the only way that we'll integrate this property here is one of two ways: either by a federal court order or if the citizens’ representative group of St. Augustine citizens comes and ask us to integrate this property, we'll do it. We'll only do it one of two ways. Which I’ve just explained to you. Paul Good: You would comply with a federal court order? James E. Brock: Absolutely, by a federal court order we will integrate our property or if a representative group of St. Augustine citizens feel that in the interest of this community that we should integrate, we will then integrate, but not until one or the other of these things happen. Paul Good: Does such a group or commission that might study that exist now in St. Augustine? James E. Brock: I’m not familiar with it. I could not say. Paul Good: Do you yourself have any personal objection on a racial basis for not eating at a restaurant where a Negro might eat? James E. Brock: I'd rather not go into that. I made the statement very clear to you. I have nothing further to say on the subject.Paul Good: Thank you very much. Paul Good: Miss, you were in the march downtown last night, a march that nearly ended in violence and today you’re trying to sit in at this restaurant. What motivates you to do it? Unknown Speaker 3: I have been robbed of my human dignity and I feel that I have a right like any other citizen to choose where I want to sleep, where I want to eat, and what I want to do. Paul Good: Now, during the march last night, did you fear physical violence? Unknown Speaker 3: Yes I did, when I first began, I was afraid. Afterwards I passed by with a song in my heart and a prayer on my lips and I said: let it be done if necessary. Paul Good: You prayed let it be done? Unknown speaker 3: [Unintelligible] in my life for what I felt was right. Paul Good: Do you think that was the general feeling of the people who marched? Unknown speaker 3: Definitely. If you could have been there to see the people, the fear in their faces when they started marching, it was really amazing. I was surprised. Paul Good: And how did their faces look when they finished? Unknown Speaker 3: Joyful, very joyful. Paul Good:Are you going to march again tonight? Unknown speaker 3: If I'm not in jail I'll march again tonight.
St. Paul's AME Church -- Old Slave Market -- Monson Motor Lodge -- Civil Rights Rally -- Klan Rally -- Sit-in -- Night March
Metadata URL:: http://civilrights.flagler.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p16000coll5/id/110
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Extent:: 11 pages
Contributing Institution:: Proctor Library
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