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♪ ♪

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SARAH BLACKMON: 
You have one shot at 
raising your children.

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You don't get do-overs.

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We were very, very concerned

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that our children 
get a good education.

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♪ ♪

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JOHN MCCANDLISH: 
Growing up in Leland and 
thinking about where I lived,

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it seems somewhat 
like a Mayberry to me.

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It was a very 
tight-knit community.

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People knew each other.

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People really 
cared about each other.

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KEVIN MAGEE: 
I grew up kind of a latchkey kid

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and had the run of the town, 
basically.

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I felt like, growing up, that

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the whole thing belonged to me, 
and I could go anywhere

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and do just about anything 
that I could get away with.

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BRANDON TAYLOR: 
Certain places, you know,

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we couldn't, you know, 
we couldn't visit.

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I mean, just like 
these park benches, you know.

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This park was off, 
off-limits, you know, to Blacks.

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♪ ♪

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EVELYN GORDON-MURRAY: 
Leland was divided.

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You had Black Dog, 
where I grew up,

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and you had the white section.

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(insects chirping)

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VAN POINDEXTER: 
There was always 
a railroad track.

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There was always a creek.

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There was always a road.

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There was always some

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marker that divided 
the neighborhoods.

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DOUGLAS BLACKMON: 
In 1969, my hometown of 
Leland, Mississippi,

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finally had to reckon with

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something it had been 
avoiding for years.

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ROGER MUDD: 
In 1954, the Supreme Court 
made school integration

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the law of the land,

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a law to be implemented 
with all deliberate speed.

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Last fall, the court 
ruled that after 15 years,

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deliberation should end, 
and speed meant now.

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JOHN BELL WILLIAMS: 
The quality of public education 
in a great portion of our state

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has been made an impossibility

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under conditions 
inflicted on our public schools

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by a vindictive, autocratic, 
arbitrary Supreme Court.

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All Blacks that was involved 
was nervous about it,

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because we didn't know 
what was going to happen next,

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but we were still trying to do 
what we felt like was right.

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The only thing I can see this 
leading to

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is the destruction 
of our school system.

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The Negro children, 
on a whole,

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are further behind in their 
studies than our children.

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MAN: We've got a psychology 
running in this state

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which is very deeply negative 
about the possibilities

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of Black and white 
working this thing out together.

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Because of it, we've 
managed to stay 50th or 48th

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for a mighty long time,

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while we're so busy 
holding one down

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and keeping the other 
just on top.

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REPORTER: 
What are your thoughts about 
going to school with

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about half and half 
white and Black students?

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I don't care.

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I mean, 
you know, the same people.

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I think we all 
should be together.

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And I hope that we could 
get along together.

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DOUGLAS BLACKMON: 
My class was the first 
in Mississippi to have

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Black kids and white kids 
in school together

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from the first day of 
first grade

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to high school graduation.

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We were supposed to be

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the seeds of a great harvest 
of racial harmony.

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Three decades later, I needed to 
understand what happened,

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and why America 
is still so divided

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even after all we went through.

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I went back to find out.

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♪ ♪

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♪ You can't hurry God ♪

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♪ ♪

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♪ You got to wait ♪

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♪ ♪

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♪ Give him time ♪

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♪ ♪

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♪ He's a God ♪

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♪ You can't hurry ♪

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♪ He'll be there ♪

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♪ Don't you worry ♪

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DOUGLAS BLACKMON: 
When I was a kid,

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my family lived in this little 
town in the Mississippi Delta

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called Leland, Mississippi.

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SINGER: 
♪ He's right on time ♪

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DOUGLAS BLACKMON: 
If you have any vision 
in your mind

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of a cotton plantation 
in the Deep South,

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the place you are imagining 
is the Mississippi Delta.

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♪ ♪

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In the 1960s, 
Leland was still

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as harshly segregated 
as it ever was.

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In those very early years,

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I just noticed that it was all 
white over here

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and all Black over there,

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and Black folks had more trouble 
than white folks.

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And it perplexed me.

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I started 
asking a lot of questions,

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which seemed uncomfortable 
to everybody I asked them to,

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including my parents at times.

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And so, I couldn't 
make any sense out of it.

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♪ ♪

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Later, in middle school,

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I became aware of 
a place called Strike City.

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Strike City was a settlement 
just outside of town,

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created in 
the middle of the 1960s

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after a group of Black tenant 
farmers went on strike.

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JOHN HENRY SYLVESTER: 
The reason we went on strike,

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I was tired of working for 
six dollars a day,

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and I was tired of 
my wife and kids working

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for three dollars a day.

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♪ ♪

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DOUGLAS BLACKMON: 
They were among

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the very first African Americans 
in American history

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to rebel in this way 
against a white landowner.

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There was a town 
oratorical contest

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sponsored by the Lions Club,

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and so I decide to write 
a speech about Strike City.

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I went to the library,

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read stories 
that had been written

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in the local papers 
at the time.

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I learned that the strikers were 
thrown out of their homes,

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they were attacked 
by the Ku Klux Klan,

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the men are blackballed 
from employment.

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None of the men ever work again.

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All kinds of 
terrible experiences.

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So my little boy essay 
maps all this out,

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and at the end says,

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"Martin Luther King came along,

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and the Civil Rights Movement 
solved everything."

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That was the conclusion. 
(laughs)

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And so, the day of the contest, 
I go in.

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And, of course, it's a room of 
about 45 middle-aged white men.

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♪ ♪

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The other students 
give their speeches,

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and then I get up and give 
my speech about Strike City.

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And immediately, 
as soon as I start speaking,

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I realize that something, 
something's wrong.

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As soon as 
I mention Strike City,

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the men in the room 
begin to snicker.

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I was so confused.

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Then as I proceed 
through the speech,

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and talk about 
the courage of the strikers,

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they go dead silent.

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When I get to the part about 
the Ku Klux Klan attacking them,

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there's no response whatsoever.

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I don't win the contest, 
naturally.

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Then afterwards, all the men 
file by and shake our hands.

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But this one fellow stands back,

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and waits till 
the others are gone.

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And then he comes up to me, 
and he attacks.

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"Who told you 
all those things, boy?

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"Where did you get 
all that stuff, boy?

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Nothing like that happened."

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You know, "Did your momma and 
daddy tell you all that stuff?"

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"They," you know, "They fillin' 
your head with lies."

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And he gets louder and louder,

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and I stood there thinking, 
why is this happening?

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Why is this man so angry at me?

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And he's yelling and screaming.

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Finally, my teacher comes over,

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bumps into the guy, and says, 
"What are you doing?"

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And he spins 
around and takes off.

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SINGER: 
♪ He'll be there ♪

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DOUGLAS BLACKMON: 
That was the beginning 
of my quest.

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I became obsessed with 
trying to get to the bottom of,

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you know, why is this the way 
that things are?

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SINGER: 
♪ When you want him ♪

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♪ He's right on time ♪

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♪ ♪

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00:08:30,142 --> 00:08:33,212
(radio tuning)

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DOUGLAS BLACKMON: 
In 1967, my dad was finishing 
his Ph.D.

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and got a job 
at a research laboratory

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in the Mississippi Delta.

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So my parents, 
two older brothers, and I

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moved from Baton Rouge, 
Louisiana, to Leland.

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(radio tuning)

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I was three years old.

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♪ ♪

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For me, that's 
when this story began.

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00:09:08,548 --> 00:09:11,150
SARAH BLACKMON: 
We chose to live in Leland.

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We liked that our children 
would be able

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to do things on their own, that 
they could

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00:09:15,821 --> 00:09:18,791
ride their bicycles around town.

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00:09:18,791 --> 00:09:21,260
Uh, we, we liked the idea 
of a small town.

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DOUGLAS BLACKMON: 
Leland was a busy, growing 
community in the 1960s.

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00:09:27,466 --> 00:09:29,702
The farm economy was strong,

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particularly for the people 
who owned large amounts of land.

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Almost everyone 
made their living,

191
00:09:36,542 --> 00:09:38,444
one way or another,

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00:09:38,444 --> 00:09:41,314
off the vast cotton 
and soybean fields

193
00:09:41,314 --> 00:09:43,849
that surrounded us.

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00:09:43,849 --> 00:09:45,885
(pipe organ playing, 
people singing)

195
00:09:45,885 --> 00:09:49,855
People came from far and wide 
at Christmas every year

196
00:09:49,855 --> 00:09:52,291
to see the decorations 
on the wide creek

197
00:09:52,291 --> 00:09:54,894
flowing through 
the center of town.

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00:09:56,395 --> 00:10:00,299
(marching band playing)

199
00:10:00,299 --> 00:10:04,303
Every fall, there was football 
and homecoming parades

200
00:10:04,303 --> 00:10:07,039
that wound through town

201
00:10:07,039 --> 00:10:08,908
and ended up on the field.

202
00:10:08,908 --> 00:10:11,677
(band playing)

203
00:10:11,677 --> 00:10:16,315
Everyone seemed to agree 
that Leland was a special place,

204
00:10:16,315 --> 00:10:18,718
a little wealthier than most,

205
00:10:18,718 --> 00:10:20,553
better educated,

206
00:10:20,553 --> 00:10:24,357
more tolerant than 
other places nearby,

207
00:10:24,357 --> 00:10:29,095
and it did have 
a certain unique spirit.

208
00:10:29,095 --> 00:10:31,831
(marching band continues)

209
00:10:31,831 --> 00:10:35,267
(crowd cheering and applauding)

210
00:10:35,267 --> 00:10:36,869
JAMES LACEY: 
At that time,

211
00:10:36,869 --> 00:10:40,172
Leland had an unusually good 
school system.

212
00:10:40,172 --> 00:10:41,607
It was the pride of the 
community.

213
00:10:41,607 --> 00:10:44,043
I grew up going to the Leland 
schools.

214
00:10:44,043 --> 00:10:47,179
We rode school bus number 13. 
(laughs)

215
00:10:47,179 --> 00:10:50,916
High school-- 
it was a really good time.

216
00:10:50,916 --> 00:10:53,285
And there were 35 people, 
I think,

217
00:10:53,285 --> 00:10:56,389
in my graduating class in 1960.

218
00:10:56,389 --> 00:10:58,290
(whistle blows, crowd cheering)

219
00:10:58,290 --> 00:11:00,359
ANNOUNCER: 
Fourth down coming up.

220
00:11:00,359 --> 00:11:01,761
(crowd cheering)

221
00:11:01,761 --> 00:11:04,864
NEILL: 
Football was the big sport.

222
00:11:04,864 --> 00:11:08,467
Everybody from town was 
at the game on Friday night.

223
00:11:08,467 --> 00:11:11,070
Everybody rooted for the Cubs.

224
00:11:11,070 --> 00:11:14,340
♪ ♪

225
00:11:14,340 --> 00:11:17,910
It was a community-supported...

226
00:11:17,910 --> 00:11:21,714
There again, in, 
in these terms of modern days,

227
00:11:21,714 --> 00:11:25,618
it was a white- 
community-supported, um, school.

228
00:11:25,618 --> 00:11:29,321
♪ ♪

229
00:11:29,321 --> 00:11:32,725
There was a team 
on the other side of town.

230
00:11:32,725 --> 00:11:35,594
Gosh, I hate saying it this way. 
(laughs)

231
00:11:35,594 --> 00:11:37,129
But that's the way it was.

232
00:11:37,129 --> 00:11:38,464
I mean, 
that's the way we grew up.

233
00:11:38,464 --> 00:11:42,835
♪ ♪

234
00:11:42,835 --> 00:11:46,372
BILLY BARBER: 
Breisch High School was 
the high school for Black people

235
00:11:46,372 --> 00:11:49,775
and Black athletes 
in Leland, Mississippi.

236
00:11:49,775 --> 00:11:50,843
You know, they did a good job.

237
00:11:50,843 --> 00:11:52,178
They competed, they...

238
00:11:52,178 --> 00:11:53,612
They, they played for titles.

239
00:11:53,612 --> 00:11:55,715
We had one of the best

240
00:11:55,715 --> 00:11:57,683
basketball teams in the state.

241
00:11:57,683 --> 00:12:01,053
Basketball, football, track.

242
00:12:01,053 --> 00:12:03,589
We didn't have a gym.

243
00:12:03,589 --> 00:12:05,458
We played on 
the bare ground outside.

244
00:12:05,458 --> 00:12:07,460
We had a football field.

245
00:12:07,460 --> 00:12:08,994
It wasn't, you know,

246
00:12:08,994 --> 00:12:11,363
with the bleachers and all, 
but you had a football field.

247
00:12:11,363 --> 00:12:14,033
Oh, we had good, some great 
ballplayers.

248
00:12:14,033 --> 00:12:15,634
Had some great ballplayers.

249
00:12:15,634 --> 00:12:17,803
They would even have a crowd,

250
00:12:17,803 --> 00:12:21,674
a cheering crowd, 
a supportive crowd.

251
00:12:21,674 --> 00:12:23,209
Loved the mascot.

252
00:12:23,209 --> 00:12:24,510
We were the, the Braves.

253
00:12:24,510 --> 00:12:27,480
The Breisch High Braves.

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BARBER: 
You know, you take Breisch High

255
00:12:30,616 --> 00:12:32,485
and go back 
and check the history,

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they could compete with any team 
in the state of Mississippi.

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♪ ♪