Paul Good Recordings : Tape 1 : Transcript

Collection:: Civil Rights Library of St. Augustine
Title:: Paul Good Recordings : Tape 1 : Transcript
Date of Original:: 1964
Subject:: Civil rights--United States--Florida
People:: King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968
Manucy, Holsted, 1919-1995
Good, Paul
Bryant, Farris, 1914-2002
Pope, Verle Allyn, 1903-1973
Location:: United States, Florida, 28.75054, -82.5001
Medium:: transcripts
Type:: Text
Format:: application/pdf
Description:: This is a transcript for the first in the series of journalist Paul Good's tape recordings in St. Augustine during the summer of 1964. The transcript for this tape consists of three parts: 1. Press conference with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (starting at 0:00). 2. A segregation rally at the Old Slave Market consisting of several unknown speakers, plus local KKK leader Halstead "Hoss" Manucy (starting at 00:06:11). 3. Press conference with local citizen Verle Pope (starting at 00:20:48).
Paul Good Recordings : Transcript for Tape 1 Part 1: Press Conference with Martin Luther King (00:00:00) Martin Luther King: …given by the grand jury yesterday, however we discovered that we were the victims of a blasted hope. We are therefore greatly disappointed at what we consider an unwise, unfair and unreasonable position taken by the grand jury. It completely fails to grasp the deep discontent, the haunting frustration and the seizing despair of the Negro community as a result of the continued existence of segregation and discrimination. The presentment is based on the false assumption that Saint Augustine had genuinely peaceful race relations, and though the Southern Christian Leadership Conference quote “picked it as a symbol before the world.” A more honest assessment for the situation would reveal that Saint Augustine has never had peaceful race relations. It may have had a negative peace which was the absence of tension, but certainly not a positive peace which is a presence of justice. True, Saint Augustine has made progress in race relations like numerous other cities, but one must realize that progress wets the appetite for greater progress. Moreover, it must be recognized that the progress made has not been nearly great enough to compensate for the centuries of injustice and oppression inflicted upon the Negro. One needs only to catalogue the numerous unsolved shootings and bombings of Neqro homes and automobiles, the sick toleration of Ku Klux Klan activity, the economic deprivation of the Negro and the exclusion of Negros from most places of public accommodation in Saint Augustine to see that the progress made has been all too inadequate. Saint Augustine can of course try to temporize, negotiate small inadequate changes, and prolong the time table of freedom in the hope that the narcotics of delay will dull the pain of progress. But the fact remains that there would be neither peace nor tranquility in this community until the righteous demands of the Negro are fully met. In the light of the foregoing we cannot in good conscience accept the proposal of the grand jury. For the SCLC to be asked to leave Saint Augustine and call off all demonstrations without any concrete step being made to rectify the situation is not only an impractical request, but an immoral one. It is asking the Negro community to give all and the white community to give nothing. This is hardly a just and ethical way to deal with such an urgent problem. But even in spite of our disappointment, we still want it clearly known that we are deeply desirous of reaching a settlement. We are not demonstrating for demonstration's sake, we are merely seeking to make ourselves heard so that the community will be compelled to deal with our just demands. We would be happy to bring about a cessation of demonstrations if we could see a good faith move to solve the Saint Augustine racial problem. We would therefore propose that the grand jury be reconvened in the next few days and that the biracial committee mentioned in the presentment be appointed immediately. At the appointment and convening of said committee, we would be willing to halt demonstrations for the week in order to demonstrate good faith and allow the committee to deliberate without undo community tension. If at the end of this period of good faith communication, a reasonable attempt is made to comply with our request, we will gladly accept this as a settlement. Let us say in conclusion that we are not seeking to disrupt the life of Saint Augustine or humiliate its white citizens. We are merely seeking to achieve a moral balance that will make justice a reality in this community. We are not seeking a hollow victory. We are seeking reconciliation. We are not seeking to develop a community of fear. We are seeking to develop the beloved community where all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. That's the end of the statement. Do you have any questions? Reporter: I understand that unless the grand jury does reconvene in the next two days, your demonstrations will continue. Is that correct? Martin Luther King: That is correct. Reporter: Even if the grand jury does reconvene, you will still continue demonstrations until this biracial committee is formed, is that correct? Martin Luther King: That’s correct. We feel that the formation of this biracial committee is an absolute necessity to get meaningful negotiations moving in the community. Reporter: Are you willing to let the jury appoint the committee? Martin Luther King: Well we have said all along that the persons on the committee, at least the Negro committee, should be at least recommended by the leadership of the Negro community, and we still feel that this is still necessary in order to get good faith negotiations going. However, the committee already been appointed according to the statement from the grand jury and we would hope that they have on that committee people who are accepted in the Negro community. Reporter: It’s charged Dr. King that you broke good faith yesterday with the jump in at the Monson swimming pool. What's your reaction to that? Martin Luther King: Well I don't know the basis for that charge. I had not made any promise to anyone concerning the type of demonstrations that we would have and this was just a new and creative development we thought in our nonviolent thrust. We had no idea when the grand jury would make its report. In fact, we had gotten a little pessimistic concerning possibilities of anything coming out of grand jury because of the slow movement. I felt on Tuesday when I got back that things would be developed then by the grand jury nothing happened. Part Two: Segregation Rally (00:06:11) Unidentified Speaker: …these freedom songs and all this other rif raff that you hear every day, well let me tell you something right now, there’s millions that’s standing in this country tonight and sacrifice their blood for that price of freedom and that's all we're fighting for tonight is our freedom. They want to bring in the McCarran Immigration Act right now. They want to pass it in this country and bring four million more aliens into this nation every day and they’re not doing one thing about the people that’s down in Florida in this country. And yet they want to pass a bill that says a man employing people has got to lay off so many white people to get so many niggers to work for him and make up for the difference. And they call that freedom? Well I’ve got to lay off so many people to hire so many niggers and that’s my freedom of choice? No, that's not freedom. [unintelligible] That's taking bread out of your mouth and my mouth and that's not freedom tonight. So let me tell you this, we have got to change our whole political structure and there's only one way, the democratic way tonight, and that is to go to the polls and do something about it. As one of the speakers said earlier tonight “let the party system” that's all they want. They don't care who the people want as president, not who the people want, that’s immaterial tonight. It’s get a hold of somebody that suits our ways. We the politicians, we want ol’ Joe Blow, so you put him in office. Well I’ll tell you this much tonight, let’s the people of America, the grass roots element, let’s rise up and put the man we want in office and show them once and for all we’re dissatisfied with the trend our country’s taking today. Are you with me on this? [Cheering] We tonight are gathered out here for one specific purpose, and that is you came to hear I’m sure Mr. J.B. Stoner and not me, but someone else. There’s too many people in this country today who are still an independent, rebel people. It’s the people in the south and the west today. They are still the people in this United States of America that the Communist Party has got to conquer and accomplish their aims in. And that’s why they got to put us down, because they know that the people of the south and the west will still fight for the principles they espouse and believe in. And they still believe in the flag, God, country, motherhood and these things that we have held precious so long and that’s what we’re really fighting for. That’s the thing we’re holding against, because we know that once a nation is integrated it has failed, it is proven in history. You can take your Nordic race [unintelligible] State’s Rights Party and study the history of it and you’ll find that every race, whether it’s Brazil, Spain or what have you, when they have intermarried and intermingled it has lowered their moral standards, destroyed their people, and brought ‘em down to nothing. And it’s this nation tonight is the greatest on the face of the earth. One reason why, because it was settled by Anglo Saxon people. It was given a constitution and a flag it was proud of and the people that fought and stood for that. And if you’ll do the same tonight, I assure you, you won’t be sorry and I know that’s why you’re here because you intend to do that very thing. Because we still believe as the saying goes and the stars and bars and I say this to you tonight: let’s unite as one body and one people and we can’t lose because we got ‘em outnumbered. You with me on that? [Cheering] [Unintelligible chatter] Some people have said to me in recent months, in fact I was listening to a man in a barbershop the other day, he said, “well, we just as well give up.” No, when a man gives up, he doesn’t believe in the ideals and the things that he espouses. But when he does believe in those things and will fight for them regardless of the cost and the price he has to pay, then he really and sincerely believes in those ideals. And so I say to you in closing tonight, I didn’t come to speak, I just come to stand in the background and watch, because I’m awful tired. But I say to you, I believe in those ideals, the same ideals you stand for, the same things you fight for. And as the emcee said earlier, the Ku Klux Klan is always supposed to be the organization that’s trying to kick everybody’s head in and stomp everybody in the street. That’s not so. The Ku Klux Klan though in 1866, began to rise in 1867 and was well on their way to bringing the south from off of its knees and protecting the womanhood and the families and rebuilding this country. And no matter what they say, they can never take that away from that organization. Regardless of what is said about it, that is one organization, and even the encyclopedias will prove that. [Cheering] I say to you this much tonight, stand, fight, do your fighting socially, economically. If you’re a businessman, you know what to do. When you hire your labor. If you have a grocery store, if you have trade, remember what to do. Let’s fight ‘em by the same methods they’re trying, because why not? We have more brains. [unintelligible] We’ve got more money. We have got the things it takes to win. All we’ve got to do folks is put ‘em to work. That’s all you’ve got to do. Is when your politician doesn’t do what he’s supposed to, say “Ol Hoss, the next trip around, you’re not going to be riding the same pony down that creek.” [Cheering] If you have in your community someone who begins to say, “Well, I don’t know.” Tell him, “Listen, you’re in the wrong crowd. You are the wrong man for this job. We gotta have somebody else.” If you’ve got a school principal who’s not doing the thing he should, then get him lined up. What are they doing to you? They came to your city. They came to our city. They came to cities all over this nation and said, “You either do this thing or we’re going to get out here in your streets and tear up [unintelligible].” And they did, didn’t they? [Cheering ] They get on the television and radio and say, “If you don’t do this boy, we’re gonna just come down and march up and down your streets, insult you and let you know what we’re gonna do.” Well let me tell you something right now. We can do the same thing. If I got on television and told ‘em, “listen, you either line up for Saint Augustine or the Ku Klux Klan’s gonna come in here and boot you around.” You what they’d do to me? They’d have me arrested and charge me with conspiracy. That’s right. [Cheering] Well I tell you something. That’s a two way street. It’s about time the federal government begin to show that thing works two ways. Because we haven’t got any communists hitting or fighting for us. The Maritime Union didn’t put out any lieutenants out of the Klan for being members of the Communist Party. Martin Luther King’s got a lieutenant set inside of him that’s guilty of it. You know what I’m talking about? That’s evidence, irrevocable. The Maritime Union put it out, said he was a communist. And yet he’s right along beside Mr. Lucifer King. [From 12:15-12:45 there is back and forth chatter between the audience and individuals at the microphone] Unidentified Speaker: Tomorrow night there’ll be more Klansmen here. The Klan is like…the Klan in the south is like the dew. It covers the whole south. [Cheering] Unidentified Speaker: I want to greet all my white friends and all the lawmans; they’re my white friends too. Hallelujah. I’m a preacher of the Gospel and don't deny it. I want you to know that God made the separation in the eleventh chapter of the book of Genesis when he made twelve tribes. And I want to be just one of those twelve tribes. I want to continue that twelfth tribe. Hallelujah, but I want my tribe to be in the [Unintelligible] of God's Bible because I am a preacher of God's Bible and that's the name of my church and I am happy that I am one of God's Bible preachers. Hallelujah. This season friends I want you to go to the Lord with me in prayer because we’re in a serious condition. We’ve got somethin on our hands we’ve never had in the world. And I want you to know it’s confronting the lawman. The lawman’s confronted with it and we're confronted with it, the white people are confronted with it and the races have got to where they’re not satisfied, and I want you to know that its gonna take God in this thing to carry us through. Now if you'll bow your heads with me we'll go to the Lord in prayer. Our father as we come before you today with Jesus we praise your wonderful name. We thank you Lord for what the white man stands for. We don't want to run over nobody nor transgress over nobody God, but we want the white man to stay white and we want the black man to stay black and any other races to stay their color. Lord, we want the word of God spread abroad in all the land and we thank you for this gathering and we thank you for what it stands for and we intend to back it with our prayers and our support and with everything we can do. In these favors we ask in Jesus's blessed name, amen. Unidentified Speaker: And I’m sure that you’re not [unintelligible] because they march right down behind us here. And not that we are scared to march, but there's a time and place for everything. So go home tonight and let these law enforcement officers get some rest. I know that [unintelligible] tired. [Unintelligible chatter] Hoss, come up here. This is his town. He’s got an announcement to make. [Cheering] Hoss Manucy: Fellas, I got an announcement to make. As a citizen here of Saint Augustine which all of you are, we’ve been asked by the grand jury, and as citizens and other people, not only me, not only y’all, not to march, not to cause no trouble. Can’t talk no louder. And I’ll tell you all this, we are going to go by what the grand jury asks. A lot of people might not like it, but we better than these colored people out here, these niggers. [Cheering] I said Niggers. [Cheering] There will not be no demonstrations tonight. There will not be no march tonight. Good night everybody. [Cheering] Unidentified Speaker: It’s good to come here tonight and see more good white people out here than King and his red revolutionaries can muster in the city of Saint Augustine. [Cheering] Since King and his black revolutionaries [Unintelligible] Saint Augustine to counteract King's outside demonstrators. [Cheering] As you know in every war, there is a decisive battle. It’s in Saint Augustine…it’s in Saint Augustine the red revolution can be turned back. [Cheering] Now, they are about to sign this so-called civil rights bill, this so called civil rights bill that in effect repeals the United States Constitution. [Cheering] Of course we all know what that stacked Supreme Court in Washington will do. It will rule that any kind of an act is constitutional that is in accordance with the platform of the Communist Party. Which reminds me back in 1928, the Communist Party adopted a platform which is now incorporated into the civil rights bill. I don't think that the civil rights bill settles anything. All that the civil rights bill does is to start a race war in the United States. As a general rule, when Congress declares an act of war, declares war, it is against another country. And it’s not the first time Congress has ever been so stupid as to declare a state of civil racial war in the United States. [Cheering] We’ve got people who set up a biracial committee to integrate Saint Augustine [Unintelligible] believing that that interracial committee is going to give them everything that they are asking for. Now some, yes, are demanding, but they can keep on demanding. We pay no attention to nigger demands in Saint Augustine. [Cheering] Now some of the people who want to sit down [Unintelligible] people in Jacksonville. Now if there is an interracial council set up here in Saint Augustine it will do the same way as they did in Jacksonville. In Atlanta, Knoxville, Nashville, Birmingham and other cities the chambers of commerce have set up interracial committees and every time, they were set up to give the niggers the integration that they want. Now if anybody sets up an interracial committee in Saint Augustine, then that man or those men are preparing to surrender our white rights to King and any other black mobs. Part Three: Verle Pope Statement to Reporters (00:20:48) Verle Pope: The processes of law and order are not to be dictated by any individual. Nor are these processes of law subject to trade on the table of barter. It is a sickening thing when the processes of government are subject to the influence and trade of a handful of individuals from the outside of this community. It is true that Saint Augustine is the battleground, but it is also true that it could have been Jacksonville, Orlando, Sanford or any other area within this community. And I say you that the people of Saint Augustine will never yield to trading the systematic processes of law to be beckoned and bartered with by outside organizations and individuals that have no political status in the field of government. I know of only one recourse which we might have in this trying situation, and those of you who witnessed the demonstrations last night know how tense the feeling is, and how great the danger is that human lives might be lost, and I have been besieged by phone calls from mothers of girls who have been out on dates, who couldn't get home because they were being told to ride around until they could be sent through the proper traffic lanes in order to avoid these demonstrations. And this constitutes a terrible invasion of human rights and it is indeed a terrible thing. And because of the acuteness of this situation, because of the fact that I feel that human lives will be lost, because I have a knowledge that businessmen of this community are not allowed to follow the normal processes of government. I am asking and hoping that the governor of this state will invoke the provisions of the emergency act, which was passed by the state legislature, which will and does give to him the authority to order that such demonstrations cease because they are not in public interest, and because public lives and public businesses and the operation of the normal rights of individuals are jeopardized by the holding up of such demonstrations. Whether the rights of the governor and the state legislature which in its wisdom anticipated the provisions and the necessity for this law will withstand the interpretations of the invading federal courts remains to be seen. But if this act will not withstand federal adjudication in the favor of the great citizenry of this state, then I say to you that the tail is wagging the dog, and when that happens, the dog is very, very sick. Reporter: Have you spoken to Governor Bryant this morning concerning this emergency act? Verle Pope: Not directly, but indirectly. Reporter: You have spoken to his office? Verle Pope: I have spoken to representatives of his office, yes. Reporter: Have they given you any indication that the governor may in fact invoke this emergency act? Verle Pope: I feel that he will, I hope that he will. Reporter: Would it be immediate today? Verle Pope: I hope that will be immediate. Reporter: Verle, how [Unintelligible]? Verle Pope: Under the provisions of the emergency act it provides that certain conditions must exist. There must be of course a danger. Reporter: [Unintelligible] Verle Pope: That was a part of this act, yeah. End of recording.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) -- Ku Klux Klan -- St. Johns County Grand Jury -- Monson Motor Lodge -- Old Slave Market -- Integration of Monson Pool -- Klan Rally -- Civil Rights Act of 1964
Metadata URL:: http://civilrights.flagler.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p16000coll5/id/128
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Extent:: 11 pages
Contributing Institution:: Proctor Library
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