WEBVTT

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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."

07:41.127 --> 07:43.095 align:left position:15% line:83% size:75%
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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(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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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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ride their bicycles around town.

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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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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,

09:36.542 --> 09:38.444 align:left position:27.5% line:89% size:62.5%
one way or another,

09:38.444 --> 09:41.314 align:left position:27.5% line:83% size:62.5%
off the vast cotton
and soybean fields

09:41.314 --> 09:43.849 align:left position:27.5% line:89% size:62.5%
that surrounded us.

09:43.849 --> 09:45.885 align:left position:25% line:83% size:65%
(pipe organ playing,
people singing)

09:45.885 --> 09:49.855 align:left position:15% line:83% size:75%
People came from far and wide
at Christmas every year

09:49.855 --> 09:52.291 align:left position:22.5% line:83% size:67.5%
to see the decorations
on the wide creek

09:52.291 --> 09:54.894 align:left position:32.5% line:83% size:57.5%
flowing through
the center of town.

09:56.395 --> 10:00.299 align:left position:22.5% line:89% size:67.5%
(marching band playing)

10:00.299 --> 10:04.303 align:left position:12.5% line:83% size:77.5%
Every fall, there was football
and homecoming parades

10:04.303 --> 10:07.039 align:left position:22.5% line:89% size:67.5%
that wound through town

10:07.039 --> 10:08.908 align:left position:17.5% line:89% size:72.5%
and ended up on the field.

10:08.908 --> 10:11.677 align:left position:32.5% line:89% size:57.5%
(band playing)

10:11.677 --> 10:16.315 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70%
Everyone seemed to agree
that Leland was a special place,

10:16.315 --> 10:18.718 align:left position:15% line:89% size:75%
a little wealthier than most,

10:18.718 --> 10:20.553 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60%
better educated,

10:20.553 --> 10:24.357 align:left position:27.5% line:83% size:62.5%
more tolerant than
other places nearby,

10:24.357 --> 10:29.095 align:left position:32.5% line:83% size:57.5%
and it did have
a certain unique spirit.

10:29.095 --> 10:31.831 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70%
(marching band continues)

10:31.831 --> 10:35.267 align:left position:12.5% line:89% size:77.5%
(crowd cheering and applauding)

10:35.267 --> 10:36.869 align:left position:35% line:83% size:55%
JAMES LACEY:
At that time,

10:36.869 --> 10:40.172 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70%
Leland had an unusually good
school system.

10:40.172 --> 10:41.607 align:left position:32.5% line:71% size:57.5%
It was the pride of the
community.

10:41.607 --> 10:44.043 align:left position:17.5% line:71% size:72.5%
I grew up going to the Leland
schools.

10:44.043 --> 10:47.179 align:left position:17.5% line:71% size:72.5%
We rode school bus number 13.
(laughs)

10:47.179 --> 10:50.916 align:left position:17.5% line:71% size:72.5%
 
High school--
it was a really good time.

10:50.916 --> 10:53.285 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70%
And there were 35 people,
I think,

10:53.285 --> 10:56.389 align:left position:12.5% line:89% size:77.5%
in my graduating class in 1960.

10:56.389 --> 10:58.290 align:left position:12.5% line:89% size:77.5%
(whistle blows, crowd cheering)

10:58.290 --> 11:00.359 align:left position:37.5% line:83% size:52.5%
ANNOUNCER:
Fourth down coming up.

11:00.359 --> 11:01.761 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60%
(crowd cheering)

11:01.761 --> 11:04.864 align:left position:42.5% line:83% size:47.5%
NEILL:
Football was the big sport.

11:04.864 --> 11:08.467 align:left position:22.5% line:83% size:67.5%
Everybody from town was
at the game on Friday night.

11:08.467 --> 11:11.070 align:left position:12.5% line:89% size:77.5%
Everybody rooted for the Cubs.

11:11.070 --> 11:14.340 align:left position:47.5% line:89% size:42.5%
♪ ♪

11:14.340 --> 11:17.910 align:left position:12.5% line:89% size:77.5%
It was a community-supported...

11:17.910 --> 11:21.714 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60%
There again, in,
in these terms of modern days,

11:21.714 --> 11:25.618 align:left position:32.5% line:83% size:57.5%
it was a white-
community-supported, um, school.

11:25.618 --> 11:29.321 align:left position:47.5% line:5% size:42.5%
♪ ♪

11:29.321 --> 11:32.725 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60%
There was a team
on the other side of town.

11:32.725 --> 11:35.594 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80%
Gosh, I hate saying it this way.
(laughs)

11:35.594 --> 11:37.129 align:left position:17.5% line:89% size:72.5%
But that's the way it was.

11:37.129 --> 11:38.464 align:left position:42.5% line:83% size:47.5%
I mean,
that's the way we grew up.

11:38.464 --> 11:42.835 align:left position:47.5% line:89% size:42.5%
♪ ♪

11:42.835 --> 11:46.372 align:left position:35% line:77% size:55%
BILLY BARBER:
Breisch High School was
the high school for Black people

11:46.372 --> 11:49.775 align:left position:27.5% line:83% size:62.5%
and Black athletes
in Leland, Mississippi.

11:49.775 --> 11:50.843 align:left position:12.5% line:71% size:77.5%
You know, they did a good job.

11:50.843 --> 11:52.178 align:left position:22.5% line:71% size:67.5%
They competed, they...

11:52.178 --> 11:53.612 align:left position:15% line:71% size:75%
They, they played for titles.

11:53.612 --> 11:55.715 align:left position:22.5% line:71% size:67.5%
We had one of the best

11:55.715 --> 11:57.683 align:left position:12.5% line:71% size:77.5%
basketball teams in the state.

11:57.683 --> 12:01.053 align:left position:15% line:89% size:75%
Basketball, football, track.

12:01.053 --> 12:03.589 align:left position:25% line:89% size:65%
We didn't have a gym.

12:03.589 --> 12:05.458 align:left position:35% line:83% size:55%
We played on
the bare ground outside.

12:05.458 --> 12:07.460 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70%
We had a football field.

12:07.460 --> 12:08.994 align:left position:25% line:89% size:65%
It wasn't, you know,

12:08.994 --> 12:11.363 align:left position:17.5% line:83% size:72.5%
with the bleachers and all,
but you had a football field.

12:11.363 --> 12:14.033 align:left position:22.5% line:71% size:67.5%
Oh, we had good, some great
ballplayers.

12:14.033 --> 12:15.634 align:left position:17.5% line:71% size:72.5%
Had some great ballplayers.

12:15.634 --> 12:17.803 align:left position:15% line:5% size:75%
They would even have a crowd,

12:17.803 --> 12:21.674 align:left position:30% line:5% size:60%
a cheering crowd,
a supportive crowd.

12:21.674 --> 12:23.209 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60%
Loved the mascot.

12:23.209 --> 12:24.510 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70%
We were the, the Braves.

12:24.510 --> 12:27.480 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70%
The Breisch High Braves.

12:27.480 --> 12:30.616 align:left position:42.5% line:83% size:47.5%
BARBER:
You know, you take Breisch High

12:30.616 --> 12:32.485 align:left position:37.5% line:83% size:52.5%
and go back
and check the history,

12:32.485 --> 12:36.889 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80%
they could compete with any team
in the state of Mississippi.

12:36.889 --> 12:40.889 align:left position:47.5% line:5% size:42.5%
♪ ♪