WEBVTT - The Girlfriends S4/Bonus Ep 5: Sparking A Movement 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:04.840 Hey is Kadija. This episode will tell the story of 0:00:04.880 --> 0:00:09.280 how one incredibly dark moment in our country's history sparked 0:00:09.280 --> 0:00:13.200 a seventy year movement that we're still feeling the benefits 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:16.840 of today. But in order to tell that story, we're 0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:20.360 going to be discussed in racially motivated violence and murder. 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:24.400 If you are someone you love has been affected by 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:27.200 any of the themes that come up in this episode, 0:00:27.680 --> 0:00:30.720 we left some links in the description that offer resources 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:39.920 and support. Take care of yourself. I Matil was a 0:00:39.960 --> 0:00:42.159 fourteen year old boy when he took a trip to 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:46.840 visit his family in Money, Mississippi. It was nineteen fifty five. 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:49.960 Much of the US was still in the era of 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:54.080 Jim Crow's segregation. It was a time when violent racism 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:58.240 was the norm and where one small bad encounter could 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:03.400 ruin your life, which is what happened to Emmitt. After 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:06.440 being accused of offending a white woman in a grocery store, 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:11.200 he was abducted and lynched in a horrific case that 0:01:11.400 --> 0:01:16.039 shocked America. You've probably heard his story before in high 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:19.839 school lessons are Hollywood movies. You might have seen black 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:22.760 and white photos of him and assumed it happened a 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:26.200 long time ago, but the past is not as distant 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:27.960 as it seems. 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:31.440 I am Marvelle McCain Parker, and I am the wife 0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:35.360 of Reverend Wheeler Parker, who is the last surviving eyewitness 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:39.640 of the kidnapping of Emmitt Till. Not only was he 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:42.960 and I witness to the kidnapping, but he and Emmitt 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:45.760 from the age of seven. They grew up together. 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:49.480 They were cousins and best friends. 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:56.120 Emmett actually traveled to Mississippi with Wheeler, and Wheeler came 0:01:56.160 --> 0:01:56.840 home alone. 0:01:57.600 --> 0:02:01.440 Doctor Parker's husband lost his childhood friend into a racist lynching, 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:06.440 but Emmett's murders sparked a movement, a movement that continues 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:11.400 to inspire me and Nikki and our activism and justice work. 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:15.960 The open casket funeral of Mmittil at Robert's Temple, Church 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:19.000 of God in Christ is said to have been the 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:23.440 catalysts that sparked the civil rights movement. Rosa park said 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:26.520 when she refused to give her seat up on the 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:31.239 bus that September of nineteen fifty five, that hot day, 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:34.720 she refused to give up a seat, she thought about Mmittil, 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:37.400 and she stayed in her seat and we know that 0:02:37.400 --> 0:02:41.760 that one act was the birth of the Montgomery bus 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:45.200 boycott that brought doctor King of town, that gave birth 0:02:45.240 --> 0:02:49.639 to the civil rights movement. Emmitt's death was the spark. 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:56.200 The civil rights movement started with a few ordinary but 0:02:56.280 --> 0:03:00.240 deeply passionate organizers determined to fight against the status quo 0:03:01.000 --> 0:03:05.040 regular people like you and me. In this episode, I'll 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:08.440 be talking to doctor Parker about her remarkable life fighting 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:11.520 for social change, and she'll share some of her top 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:14.800 tips for how to rally your own community around the 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:16.720 causes that you care about the most. 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:31.760 Oh God, I'm. 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:33.120 Kadida herdaway from the teens at Novel and iHeart Podcast. 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:55.760 This is the girlfriends Untouchable by Guys Bonus, Episode five, 0:03:56.360 --> 0:04:10.960 sparking a movement, Doctor Parker, it is so lovely to 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:14.560 see you and talk to you as always. 0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:18.680 Good morning, Kadija. It's so nice to see you this 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:22.159 Monday morning and to have this opportunity to share with you. 0:04:22.960 --> 0:04:26.440 Doctor Parker has a long and story career. She's the 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:31.279 executive director of the Imma Till and Maybe Till Mobley Institute. 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:35.200 She graduated with a doctorate from Seminary School, wrote a 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:39.080 book about the impact of HIV and AIDS on African 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:43.599 American women and spent her life mentoring activists like me. 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:46.839 But if you asked her what shaped her commitment to 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:50.400 social justice work, she'll tell you it was the Till 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:53.240 story and the pivotal role that played in the civil 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:57.760 rights movement. In nineteen fifty five, her husband, Wheeler Parker, 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:01.920 then a teenager, and his friend Emmett Til traveled from 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:07.120 Chicago to Mississippi visiting relatives for a summer vacation. The 0:05:07.160 --> 0:05:10.120 two boys were asleep when a group of men broke 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:12.839 into the house they were staying in during the middle 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:15.400 of the night. They came in with a gun and 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:19.320 a flashlight, pulled Emmett out of the bed and dragged 0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:23.680 him away. It was the last time Wheeler saw him alive. 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:27.760 The aftermath of the luncheon traumatized Wheeler. 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:31.760 For all of these years, he's had survivor's guilt, but 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:34.479 he didn't want to talk about the story. It was 0:05:34.480 --> 0:05:37.640 such an unpleasant story to him, and living with the 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:41.000 guilt that he came home and Emmett didn't. It was 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:43.800 not something that he felt he wanted to visit every 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:47.880 day or every week. Publicly, he didn't want any fame, 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:50.960 any claim. He said, I'm not a hero, I'm a survivor. 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:55.479 He sat back, he let Mami tell the story Maye 0:05:55.480 --> 0:06:01.119 being Emmett Till's mother. But eventually we decided to share 0:06:01.440 --> 0:06:05.080 his perspective. He was convinced that he needed to write 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:09.000 his book tell the authentic story. We haven't been asked 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:13.040 by Mami before her death to ensure that the legacy 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:15.640 of Mmititil was told in perpetuity. 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:20.040 Most things are catapulted by storytelling. In the case of Mtil, 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:24.800 the story has been told in many different versions. I 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:28.479 identified very much so with storytelling. When it comes to 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:31.920 the work I've done in Windot County, it's pretty much 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:36.080 what moves the needle. But I've also found that people 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:40.680 have very strong desires, and the desires center around their 0:06:40.720 --> 0:06:44.200 ego and them wanting to tell their version of a 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:47.800 story that may not even be true or even helpful 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:52.880 toward moving the needle for the entire project. Can you 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:55.599 talk about that a little bit and how you navigated that. 0:06:57.160 --> 0:06:59.680 Our goal was to make sure that the story was 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:03.400 told truthfully, because the people that were being featured on 0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:06.839 CNN and other news outlets, some of them weren't even 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:10.679 born when the story happened, and they told a distorted story. 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:14.720 So we were just, I guess we were just forced 0:07:15.120 --> 0:07:17.360 to tell the true story because there were so many 0:07:17.440 --> 0:07:20.720 miles out there painting the picture and it was false. 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:25.360 So, alongside other friends, family and supporters of the Till family, 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:28.680 Doctor Parker made it a part of her mission to 0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:32.000 ensure the true version of that story stayed alive. 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:36.160 Then twenty twenty one we created what is called the 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:40.360 m Matil It Made Me Tell Mobiley Institute, and it 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:44.320 was created to ensure that the story of Immittil is 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:49.400 told correctly and truthfully, and that the resources that would 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:53.800 be made available in order to erect or dedicate national 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:56.560 sites to the memory of he and his mom were 0:07:57.240 --> 0:08:00.960 brought to fuition. So as exactly kative director of the 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:05.360 Immitil and Maymi Till Mobili Institute, we were successful in 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:09.160 getting the sites dedicated as a national monument. President Joe 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:12.840 Biden signed a proclamation creating the Immittill and Maymi Till 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:17.400 Mobili National Monument with three sites. It is the first 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:21.960 non contiguous national monument in the United States. The three 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:24.559 sites are one Roberts Temple Church, of God in Christ 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:27.880 in Chicago, where Immit's funeral was held. It is said 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:30.840 that over one hundred thousand people passed by and viewed 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:34.280 the mutilated body of the slain fourteen year old boy. 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:38.360 And the courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, where the infamous trial 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:42.520 was held and his confessed murderers were found not guilty 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:46.000 by a jury of their peers. And the third site 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:49.880 is gray Ball Landing where Emmitt's body was retrieved. So 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:53.960 we are working now to restore the church to its 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:58.000 nineteen fifty five facade. We've received two point nine one 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:02.400 eight million dollar grant to begin that and that's ongoing. 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:06.319 We've been able to acquire property, the property where in 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:10.920 its childhood home stood, and we memoralized that site, and 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:20.240 we continue to advocate for the poor. So busy, busy, busy, busy. 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:24.360 But they didn't achieve that by just making the right 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:29.760 calls and waiting for change to happen. Doctor Parker and 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:33.880 those she worked alongside spent years building up a community 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:37.560 of people to join their calls, a feat that would 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:40.600 inspire me and the other women of Kansas City when 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:43.080 it came to the challenge of trying to take detect 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:48.800 the Roger Gluski down and after the break we'll look 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:51.520 at ways you can spark that kind of change in 0:09:51.559 --> 0:10:12.679 your community. When you see activists who have achieved incredible 0:10:12.720 --> 0:10:18.480 things like changing laws or sparking nationwide campaigns, it can 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:20.480 be easy to think that you need to have it 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:24.200 all figured out to make a meaningful difference, but you don't. 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:27.160 You just got to start with what you've got. We 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:30.240 don't need money to accomplish the things that we're trying 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:34.960 to accomplish. I tell people when they come to me 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:37.439 to ask me about you know, how do we get funding? 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:41.000 We want to do ABCD. I said, you get funding 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:45.400 by doing ABCD, and then people will fund what you're doing. 0:10:46.200 --> 0:10:49.720 My husband and I we financed the organization for many 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:54.120 many years. We provided the office space in our building, 0:10:54.880 --> 0:10:59.440 all of the office equipment, did all of the legal work. 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:04.640 Somebody's got to in kind their skills to help you 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:05.840 accomplish your goal. 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:09.120 You remind me so much of the Rosa Parks story 0:11:09.320 --> 0:11:13.880 and how the NAACP got is footing, which in a 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:16.959 lot of ways didn't have any income. But again they 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:19.199 knew that they needed to make a change, and they 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:23.040 organized and used their human capital to make that happen. 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:29.360 How do you pick a good team that supplies the 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:33.480 in kind donations or the kind service that we're talking about, 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:36.840 that gives up their elbow grease and the sacrifice of 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:39.360 what they actually want to see come out of it. 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:44.520 You look for key stakeholders, and for me, key stakeholders 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:49.959 were people who lived in the community, worked in the community. 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:54.400 They were stakeholders because their survival was dependent on the 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:58.360 community surviving. A lot of times we try to bring 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:01.720 in people who are not stakeholder, which means that they're 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:04.680 not tied or linked to the issue or to the need, 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:10.280 and so their human capital or their contribution could be fleeting. 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:14.120 They've here today and gone tomorrow. But key stakeholders are 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:15.400 people that are going to benefit. 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:19.520 It's something doctor Parker also saw when she tried to 0:12:19.559 --> 0:12:22.720 create change in her town, Summit, Illinois. 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:26.120 The target was to make my community aware of the 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:29.960 resources that they were entitled to that they weren't being 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:35.320 able to access, and challenging the elected officials to be 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:39.559 fair in distributing the resources. In the black community, the 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:43.120 church is the anchor institution in the black community. So 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:46.959 we began our first meeting with the pastors, made them 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:49.840 aware of the problems and the issues we were facing 0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:53.880 and the need for us to come together as a community. 0:12:54.360 --> 0:12:58.839 Our first community meeting, the meeting room could not hold 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:02.800 all of the people that we listened to the residents, 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:05.760 and we had created an agenda of issues that the 0:13:05.840 --> 0:13:10.200 community wanted to be heard about and that wanted to 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:14.720 be answered. Then after we created the form of agenda items, 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:18.280 then we ask them to prioritize, you know, everything. We 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:20.920 can't do everything at once, so now tell us, you know, 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:25.320 let's prioritize our needs and then let's begin to systematically 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:29.280 address them with the powers that be. So you might 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:33.079 start off with a very small nucleus of people as 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:36.520 key stakeholders, but as you begin to move forward and 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:40.880 people become proactive in wanting to be involved, you will 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:44.480 bring on people, and a small group of people deeply 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:50.680 invested in their community can be pretty powerful community mobilization. 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:54.760 Usually it begins with an issue that there's something that 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:58.560 needs to be addressed. In order to mobilize a community, 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:01.679 we found that as long as everything was going smooth, 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:04.920 you know, people don't have time to attend meetings, but 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:09.920 you let something happen and everybody's ready to fight. Really, 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:14.319 mobilization helps you to be able to address the issue 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:19.040 as a community, which will bring your elected officials to 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:22.760 the table because we know that every four years, every 0:14:22.800 --> 0:14:27.640 two years, there's an election, so mobilizing is important as 0:14:27.640 --> 0:14:32.320 it relates to politics. That's how community mobilization paid off 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:36.720 for my neighborhood. We now have senior housing, we got 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:40.040 all of our new streets, new alleys. All of these 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:43.240 resources were there, but they weren't being channeled to my neighborhood, 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:46.120 which was the poorest neighborhood in the community and of 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:49.160 course entitled to the resources, but they were going to 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:54.680 other places. So community mobilization, where there's unity, their strength. 0:14:55.760 --> 0:15:00.240 And if you're organized without anger and without animosity, you 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:02.720 become a mover and shaker. And that's what happened in 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:03.200 my time. 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:09.160 But what do you do when you're trying to organize 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:12.320 in the midst of a tense political climate like the 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:16.520 one we're living through right now. How do you form 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:19.320 alliances with the people you don't see eye to eye 0:15:19.360 --> 0:15:22.720 with and a time when it feels more important than 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:25.120 ever to fight for our civil liberties. 0:15:26.640 --> 0:15:37.320 That's after the break I got you I got you. 0:15:37.480 --> 0:15:38.120 I got you. 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:49.920 I have always been told when it comes to making change, fundamentally, 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:53.240 it literally only takes two to three people, But when 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:56.640 it comes to actually moving that forward, it. 0:15:56.520 --> 0:15:59.200 Takes the vote. It takes we the people. 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:02.560 If I can't get the people to come out and 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:06.600 vote and stand and measure for that, then we have nothing. 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:09.400 I know, in my community, I. 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:12.920 Think only thirty percent of the population votes, and a 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:16.280 very small percentage of that is black. How do we 0:16:17.080 --> 0:16:20.800 move the needle of voter registration and raise those percentages 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:22.000 up across the country. 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:28.960 That's what I asked, doctor Parker. Our whole system of 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:34.160 government is being challenged. I see no respect for the Constitution. 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:38.880 I see no respect for the Supreme Court. I see 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:43.720 absolutely no respect for the separation of powers. And it's 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:47.200 frightening to me when you talk about voter registration and 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:51.400 people getting out the vote. That is the biggest challenge 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:55.360 to anybody that has ever run for office, because people 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:58.520 will not go out and vote. They say that vote 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:02.200 doesn't matter or understand it why it's not important, especially 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:05.760 for black people who, of course, one hundred years ago, 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:07.760 I think women couldn't vote. And you know how long 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:09.400 it took for our people to be able to vote 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:11.959 in Mississippi in the South, and the things that they 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:14.760 had to go through in order to be able to vote, 0:17:14.760 --> 0:17:17.520 and how many people lost their lives. I mean, my 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:21.439 grandmother's church was burned down in the sixties because the 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:25.160 civil rights workers were having meetings there trying to teach 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:27.800 people how to register the votes. We got this right 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:32.399 to vote through blood, sweat and tears. Me Nicki and 0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:36.320 other activists I know often talk about what it takes 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:40.080 to pull people out of apathy and inspire them to action. 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:44.920 For some people, it takes a personal connection or crisis. 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:49.239 It's a multitude of things. For doctor Parker like her 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:53.800 past experience and personal connections, but one of the constants 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:57.560 that keeps her fighting is her faith. My husband and 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:01.600 I are both third generation members of the Church of 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:05.800 God in Christ, so we were raised in a Pentecostal family. 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:09.440 We were taught to live by the Gospels. But for him, 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:12.080 he says that you know, it was his faith in 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:15.960 God that allowed him to survive the ordeal that he 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:19.480 went through because on that night when emmittt was kidnapped, 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:23.199 he prayed to God to spare his life and to 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:25.640 allow him to live and that he would serve him. 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:29.560 And he has kept that vow. He has kept that 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:34.520 vow and that commitment to God. I embrace his role 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:39.080 in preserving the legacy of emmitt. Our faith in God 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:43.080 helps us to endure the things that we've had to endure. 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:50.040 The theme of our work with immit Tell's story is love, forgiveness, 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:55.119 and reconciliation. So you know, the Bible tells us, and 0:18:55.160 --> 0:18:59.199 I'm on my soapbox right now, the Bible tells us 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:02.320 that we have to love our enemy. And I say 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:05.600 to my students, if we have to love our enemy, 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:11.040 who's left to hate nobody? Because we definitely love our 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:13.119 brother and our sister, and our mother, and our father 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:15.959 and our friends. He told us to love our neighbor 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:19.240 as ourself. Then he tells us to love our enemy. 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:21.879 I'm like my God, who can I hate? He says, nobody. 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:25.840 So hate is not even on the table. Now. It's 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:28.119 a challenge to love your enemy. But doesn't mean I 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:31.159 want to go to dinner with him or take a 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:34.080 vacation with him. But I can't hate him. So hate 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:36.240 is not an option. And because hate is not an 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:40.359 option and love is commanded, of us. We have to 0:19:40.440 --> 0:19:43.000 dig deep within our soul and ask God to give 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:45.840 us what he has told us we can do. He 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:47.920 said we can love our enemy. So if he said 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:50.120 we can do it, by golly we can do it. 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:54.920 We can do it. And the closing of my interrogation 0:19:55.119 --> 0:19:58.760 or my speech is to visitors to the monument, I 0:19:58.880 --> 0:20:02.399 say that my husband and I are in the twilight 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:05.440 of our life, and you know, we've got to work 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:07.720 the work of him that sent us whiles day, because 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:10.199 the night coming when no man can work. And what 0:20:10.240 --> 0:20:12.840 I'm trying to do now is train younger women to 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:17.000 carry on what I do and what I've done. 0:20:17.160 --> 0:20:20.040 I often wonder what the future of Kansas City, Kansas 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:23.480 will look like. Most of the victims and survivors never 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:27.159 got justice will happen to them, and even the ideal 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:29.240 of justice itself feels flawed. 0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:31.760 What does justice. 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:34.879 Even look like when a woman has been killed or 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:37.760 a family has been destroyed by the actions of one 0:20:37.840 --> 0:20:42.320 man who's not allied to face the consequences. Doctor Parker 0:20:42.400 --> 0:20:46.280 doesn't know, but in the case of Immittil, it's his 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:50.520 legacy that remains. 0:20:52.160 --> 0:20:56.720 This year, we celebrating seventy years since his death. His 0:20:56.920 --> 0:21:01.439 murder in money in Mississippi is kidnapping in money and 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:06.280 his subsequent murder. We don't celebrate it because it's pleasant. 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:10.640 It's an unpleasant event. But we celebrate his life because 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:16.800 of what his life has contributed to all of America. 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:18.520 I have a picture of we the hold in the 0:21:18.560 --> 0:21:22.160 hand of Emmitt, the statue of Emmitt in Greenwood, Mississippi, 0:21:22.280 --> 0:21:25.080 which is about eighteen feet and he's holding his hand 0:21:25.160 --> 0:21:28.200 and he said, you're bigger in death than you would 0:21:28.240 --> 0:21:29.159 have been in life. 0:21:30.880 --> 0:21:33.320 I just hope that the women of Kansas City whose 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:36.359 lives were cut short are looked back on in the 0:21:36.440 --> 0:21:39.720 same way that the stories of their murders are used 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:43.040 to shine a light on glucpi's crimes, and that their 0:21:43.119 --> 0:21:48.679 ongoing investigation exposes corruption. I hope that by continuing to 0:21:48.720 --> 0:21:52.159 tell these stories will inspire the people of Kansas City 0:21:52.160 --> 0:21:55.639 and beyond to fight back against the forces that seek 0:21:55.720 --> 0:22:03.639 to suppress and prey upon us. Thank you, doctor Parker 0:22:03.760 --> 0:22:07.119 for all your work that you've done. It's truly amazing 0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:09.280 to see a lot of it come to fruition. I 0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:12.600 greatly appreciate not just hearing the words, but being able 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:19.720 to watch you grow and expand knowledge and education around 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:26.120 EMMIT TIL. To learn more about doctor Parker's work and activism, 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:32.520 visit www dot doctor Marvell Parker dot net. 0:22:38.200 --> 0:22:40.080 What an inspiring conversation. 0:22:40.600 --> 0:22:44.400 I really admire doctor Parker's lifelong commitment to fighting against 0:22:44.440 --> 0:22:48.520 social injustice and preserving the part of our country's history 0:22:48.560 --> 0:22:51.840 that can be difficult to hear. It's more important than 0:22:51.880 --> 0:22:56.000 ever to fight back, So rally your community, mobilize them 0:22:56.000 --> 0:22:59.040 around the issues you care about, and get to work. 0:22:59.520 --> 0:23:04.200 Because no person, system, or form of oppression is ever 0:23:04.359 --> 0:23:08.720 truly untouchable when regular people like you and me come 0:23:08.760 --> 0:23:21.840 together to make a change. In the next and final 0:23:21.920 --> 0:23:26.000 episode of The girlfriends Untouchable, I'll be having a conversation 0:23:26.119 --> 0:23:31.000 with the journalists to Mary Cherry about how survivors, families, 0:23:31.160 --> 0:23:34.320 and activists can use the media to put a spotlight 0:23:34.359 --> 0:23:36.320 on the injustice in their communities. 0:23:37.000 --> 0:23:38.080 Here's a sneak peek. 0:23:39.520 --> 0:23:42.480 You cannot adequately take care of yourself unless you take 0:23:42.520 --> 0:23:45.399 care of that person who's sharing their traumatic story, because 0:23:45.440 --> 0:23:49.359 you can be traumatized by the traumatic stories of others, 0:23:49.440 --> 0:23:51.679 and the best way to protect yourself from that is 0:23:51.760 --> 0:23:58.879 to support them in an ethical trauma informed way. 0:24:08.040 --> 0:24:12.080 The Girlfriend's Untouchable is produced by Novel for iHeart podcast. 0:24:12.800 --> 0:24:16.679 For more from Novel, visit novel dot Audio. This episode 0:24:16.760 --> 0:24:20.280 was hosted by me Kadija Hardaway. It was produced by 0:24:20.359 --> 0:24:25.320 Mohammad Ahmed and Referro Masurua. The editor is Joe Wheeler, 0:24:25.640 --> 0:24:30.040 the researcher is Aiyana Yusuf. Production management from Sharie Houston 0:24:30.200 --> 0:24:34.600 and Joe Savage. The fact checker is Vindo Fulton. Sound design, 0:24:34.800 --> 0:24:39.680 mixing and scoring by Daniel Kempsen with additional engineering by 0:24:39.800 --> 0:24:46.199 Nicholas Alexander. Music supervision by Refriro Mazurua, Nicholas Alexander and 0:24:46.320 --> 0:24:51.080 Joe Wheeler. Original music by Amanda Jones. The series artwork 0:24:51.200 --> 0:24:55.320 was designed by Christina Limku, Novels Director of Development in 0:24:55.400 --> 0:25:00.000 Selena Metta. Willard Foxton is Novel's creative director of Development. 0:25:00.080 --> 0:25:04.000 Max O'Brien and Craig Strachan are executive producers for Novel. 0:25:04.280 --> 0:25:08.159 Katrina Novo and Nikki Etour are the executive producers for 0:25:08.240 --> 0:25:12.879 iHeart Podcasts, and the marketing lead is Alison Kenttour And 0:25:13.040 --> 0:25:16.359 a special thanks to Carley Frankel and the whole team 0:25:16.600 --> 0:25:17.680 at w m E. 0:25:20.480 --> 0:25:24.639 I got you, I got you. I got you, I 0:25:24.840 --> 0:25:25.159 got you.