The Jack Rabin Collection on
Series I:
Sub-series 1: Johnnie Carr and the
Appendix I.1B: Transcript of Audiotape 6, Program 2
Location:
Speakers: Solomon Seay, Sr., and Ralph Abernathy
Date: December 5, 1963
Repository: University
Libraries, The
Collections Department, Historical Collections and Labor Archives
Transcriber: Barry Kernfeld
Item number: Audiotape 6, program 2
[The church organist plays during the first two minutes of this recording, as Solomon Seay’s offers a welcoming prayer for Ralph Abernathy, and many of Seay’s words are difficult to distinguish. The organ playing ends, and Seay then introduces Abernathy.]
Seay: Amen. In
all this talk that I’ve done, I’m sure that it will be necessary that we sing
something, but before we sing it, let me give my introductory remarks. [ ? ? ]
begin this by saying, the man who’s going to speak to us this evening has [ ? ?
] long before he became a colleague in a common cause [? ?] civil rights, and
before he was a preacher, before he was a pastor at [ ? ? ], [ ? ? ] he was a
student at [ ? ? ], he was working over there at the time, I knew him and had
great admiration for him. I’ve watched him, and I’ve rubbed elbows with him.
There are times when he has impressed me when he sought the least of an
impression. Last time we met in
[Seay leads the congregation in the singing of a spiritual.]
Seay: O.k. Amen (Amen).
Abernathy: Thank you very kindly, President Seay, for these very kind and generous words of introduction, to Mrs. Carr, our presiding officer and vice-president, to my most worthy and distinguished successor, Dr. Larry Williams, the pastor of the best church in the world (Amen) [Laughter], and to all of my colleagues and friends of freedom and human dignity here assembled in the Mt. Zion AME Zion Church. Words are inadequate for me to express to you the joy that comes to my heart at this hour, for I want you to know that I am more than delighted to have the privilege and the opportunity to be with you in this opening service of the celebration of the eighth anniversary of the Montgomery Improvement Association.
The stewardess on my plane, after we had flown for 30
minutes in the air, said, some few minutes ago, that “you must now fasten your
seatbelts, for we are making our descent into the airport that serves the city
of
Audience member: [inaudible]
Abernathy: Yes I noticed [Laughter].
And as we left the airport, it soon became apparent—I was
wondering why we had all these [?] and officers around—it soon became apparent
that they were—that they were keeping good watch over us [Murmurs]. And we
remarked—made statements concerning their presence, and Mrs. Dungee thought
that we ought to be extra careful in driving. We came all the way to the corner
of Day Street and—and Hope, just a few yards away, and then the officer pulled
us over [Laughter]. And do you know what [ ? ? ]. That officer shined his light
on Mrs. Dungee’s driver’s license and took a good look a me in the back [Laughter].
And then the officer, he might [?] be confused. He wanted to know if Dr.
Williams was Mr. Dungee [Laughter]. And of course he gave her a ticket, and I
said this is the same old
But once I got here and came into this building, I felt the warmth of your presence and the warmth of the hand of your leader, Dr. Seay. And I have been greatly inspired by your worship here this evening and by your presence. I could stand here all evening and talk about you, because I know everyone (Um-hmm, amen) name by name (Yes), and I know more than the name (Um-hmm). I am at home (Yes sir) in Montgomery (Amen).
I’m glad to see that all the white people here tonight are not law-enforcement officers (Amen), that we still have some good white friends of good will who will stand up, even in the cradle of the Confederacy [Applause].
Now if I have a father in the gospel ministry—I guess it
would have to be by adoption, because he’s [ ? ? ], and I am—it would have to
be Reverend S. S. Seay. I look upon him as my father in the gospel ministry,
for as he has well said, long before I started preaching, I used to make my way
from the campus of Alabama State College into the Montgomery African Methodist
Episcopal Zion Church, to hear his inspiring, dynamic, and fiery rhetoric. I
remember the first time I heard him speak at the [?more] Hotel in a drive, a
kickoff drive for the YMCA. And that night—he talked that night, talking about
freedom. You know I’ve always loved freedom (Um-hmm), and I’ve always walked for my freedom. And I said I’d like
to get to know him better. And it had been my privilege to walk by his side.
And I want him to know that he is my president, for wherever I go I am always,
God willing, a member of the
And I will always be a member of the Montgomery Improvement Association [Applause]. My wife said her final words to me this evening from her bedside: “Be sure and give my best regards to all of the good people of First Baptist you see, all of the good people of the Montgomery Improvement Association, but especially Mrs. N[?]” [Laughter]. And I said, “Well Mrs. N[?] will not be there, because I understand that she is feeble now and ill, and [ ? ? ].” I said, [ ? ? ] (Uh-huh).
I want to talk briefly with you and very plainly and down-to-earth
this evening. I’m going to preach at
We gather here tonight in the birthplace of the Montgomery Improvement Association. Many of you may not realize, but I know very well, for I was a part of it, that this day, eight years ago in the late afternoon, we gathered upstairs in the pastor’s [?] and formed a new organization known as the Montgomery Improvement Association, and I had the great and noble honor of giving the organization its name (Um-hmm) [Applause].
So I feel that it is most significant that we gather in this church on this holy ground tonight, the place where we began (Yeah), the place where we made the first strike for freedom, and it rang out all over the city of Montgomery, the state of Alabama (Yeah), the nation, and the world (All right). I challenge you on this, your birthday, again to let freedom ring (All right).
We gather in one of the darkest hours in the history of our nation (Yes), in the history of our world and of our civilization (Yes). It is dark because hate, prejudice (All right), bigotry (Yes sir), and violence (Um-hmm) have now come on the scene (Yes, you’re right), and men who want fear with these strange and foolish notions and ideas are seeking to take over the reins of this government and destroy this idea and make of it a second-rate country.
Do you know the same violence that took the life of
[?(name)], moved on and sucked the life out of [?(name)], moved on and took the
life from Reverend Lee (Yeah) down in
Mississippi (Yes, um-hmm), moved on
and robbed Medgar Evers (Yes) of his
life (Tell me) during the early and
youthful years, moved on, skipped across to Birmingham, Alabama (Yes) and took the lives of six innocent
children (Uh-huh), four of them as
they studied the word of God in a Sunday school class (Yes) and two of them as they moved up and down the streets of
Birmingham, Alabama (Yes). But keep
on tracing the lines of hate and violence (Um-hmm)
to
But I want to remind you that even though our President (Oh Lord) is dead (Yes), our Savior lives. One of the greatest sights I’ve ever beheld (Um-hmm) was to see Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy, as she got off of that plane (Yes sir) behind the corpse (Oh yeah) of her young husband (Yes sir) with blood spattered (Yes. All right) on her [?] (Yes sir). And then she got out and did not pick a seat up front (No), but got in the back of the hearse (Yes sir) with the body (Yes). I said, this is a woman (Yes) that is loyal and dedicated to her husband (No sir] and to our President (Yes sir). But I said that just as she is dedicated to him, moving with blood stains (Yeah) on her body and on her [?] (Yeah), those of us who are dedicated to the principles of our Christian faith (Amen) must move on in the name of Jesus (Yes) with the blood stains on our hearts (Yeah) and on our [?] (Yeah). Where he leads us (Yes), we must be willing to follow.
But the Negro, in this age of restlessness and in this dark hour, is tired, and don’t you let that [?] fool you—but he’s tired (Yes sir). I’ve traveled all across this country, and I know what I’m talking about. If it’s in the backwoods of Mississippi (Yeah), if it’s in the swamps of Louisiana, if it’s in the hills of Alabama, or even right here in Montgomery (Um-hmm), negroes are tired (Oh yeah) of second-, third-, and fourth-class citizenship [Applause]. And we want our freedom (Yes). I [?] reporters [?] right here, [ ? ? ] writing about [Laughter and applause].
We want our freedom. And we don’t want a part of it, but we
want all of it (All of it)
[Applause]. We do not want it in
I was talking to a man the other day, and he said—in
We want our freedom now (Now). We want it right now (Yeah, all right). If you can tell Mr. Wallace (Yeah) to get it to us tomorrow morning (Yeah), it’ll still be 12 hours (Too late) too late [Applause].
The movement for freedom started here in
That was the way it was in
We walked through the rain. We walked through the snow. We
walked through the sleet (Yes). We
walked through the July sun, but we kept on walking (Walk). We wore out our shoes, but we kept on walking (Go man). We got new shoes wherever we
could get ’em, and when we couldn’t get ’em we walked barefoot (Yeah), but we kept on walking (That’s right). We met twice a week, and
we talked with each other about it and talked to God about it (Yeah) and kept on walking for freedom (All right), and vowed that in the
process, we would not yield, but we would love. We would not use the weapons of
the world, but we would use the weapons of the spirit (Yes). We would choose non-violence not as a technique for any given
situation, but we would choose it as a way of life (Yeah). We threw away our weapons (Yes). We threw away our guns and our ammunition (Yes). They bombed our homes (Yes). They dynamited our churches (Right). They beat us up (Yes). They threw us in jail (Tell). But they could not stop the
movement for freedom here in
For freedom rang out (Yeah),
and finally it was caught up in Birmingham (Yeah),
in Tallahassee (Yes), in New Orleans,
in Baton Rouge (Yes), in Richmond (Yeah) and other parts of the South, but
it had its beginning right here in the cradle of the Confederacy [Applause].
And I say to you that the time has come for a spiritual freedom revival (Right) to take place again right here in
The world is looking to
I tell you what has taken place here under the governorship
of Mr. John Patterson (Yes), whom the
people elected to office simply because of the sympathy that went out because
his father was assassinated as he sought to clean up
You know we [?] unjust laws, laws that we feel to be unjust,
but we’re willing to go to jail for them (?).
We don’t dodge, we don’t run, and we don’t hide. For 12 times I have been in
jail for freedom, and I’m ready to go the thirteenth time (Yes) if it becomes necessary [Applause]. For these men have decided
to hide the law of the land (?), and
that is the Constitution of the
Now, we are not mad [ ? ? ], that the negro is not mad—is not mad at the white man. We worked for our forefathers (Yeah) from 1619 to 1863 without wages (Um-hmm). Almost 250 years (Um-hmm). But we’re not mad (No). He can take all he wants (Um-hmm). Just give us our freedom (Yes).
We have labored under the yoke of
injustice for almost 100 years (Yes),
under the theory of separate but equal (Um-hmm).
Our schools have been in theory, nothing but shacks (That’s right) built across the railroad tracks (That’s right). And in many communities
there are no schoolhouses at all (That’s
right). You know they had nothing but shacks until nineteen-hundred and
fifty-four, when the Supreme Court rendered—rendered its decision (Um-hmm), and ever since then they’ve
been built in some alley, different schools (That’s right). Sidney Lanier, since the day it was built, has been
a [?] fine high school (Yes) for
whites right here in
But we’re not mad about it (No). In many communities there are no schoolhouses at all. In the community I grew up in, I went to a school in a church that served as a schoolhouse during the week and a church on Sundays (Yeah).
What about the bus station? Wouldn’t you say it was a dirty, dungy, filthy hole (That’s right) that negroes were forced to wait in (Yes). And the ticket agent waiting on everybody (Um-hmm) over on the white side in a nice, spacious waiting room. And finally the negro—after he cleared up his store and cleared up—and it didn’t need any clearing up at all (That’s true). We wanted a ticket. He’d call us, as though you wanted a hamburger or a hot dog, and said, “Boy” or “Girl,” “What do you want?”
Forced to ride in the back of the
bus (Yes). How many times right here
in
But we’re not mad about it. Even
right now today, there is not a single lunch-counter in a chain store in
What do we want? I’ll tell you
what we want. Just this afternoon I thought I would miss my plane in
[The recording ends abruptly in mid-sentence.]