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Speaker 1: Coming up on the AID Building.

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Speaker 2: Nineteen sixty eight, the murder of doctor King, which traumatized everyone.

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Speaker 3: State patrol came to campus. They were beating students, they

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Speaker 3: were shooting tear gas into the dorm rooms of Clark.

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Speaker 1: It's not just killing us as a humanity, but it's

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Speaker 1: killing our neighbor's.

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Speaker 4: Globally, the FBI had a role in the murder of

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Speaker 4: a black panther leader.

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Speaker 2: Sam Jackson was exploring his future on the Moorhouse campus.

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Speaker 5: To be in what we really thought was a revolution

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Speaker 5: or was a revolution. I mean people were die. I

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Speaker 5: remember when doctor King was assassinated. I flew from Atlanta

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Speaker 5: to Memphis in March with you know those people that night.

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Speaker 1: I'm Hans Charles.

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Speaker 4: I'm in Lechlamomba.

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Speaker 1: And this podcast is about the student lock in of

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Speaker 1: the board of trustees at Morehouse College in nineteen sixty nine.

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Speaker 1: Samuel L. Jackson was one of those students. Martin Luther

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Speaker 1: King Senior was on the board of trustees.

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Speaker 4: It's a story about protest, the struggle for black rights

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Speaker 4: and freedom of speech that echoing today's world far louder

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Speaker 4: than they should. It's a lesson to us now more

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Speaker 4: than ever and it will blow your mind.

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Speaker 1: The A Building Episode one, thirty nine years old.

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Speaker 4: What is the Perfect tist?

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Speaker 1: Not of money, not of possessions, but of ideas.

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Speaker 4: In the nineteen sixties, America found itself in war of

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Speaker 4: ideas with high stakes. The stakes were the soul of America.

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Speaker 1: Leaders like Malcolm X spoke to these times in these issues.

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Speaker 6: Look at the American Revolution in seventeen seventy six.

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Speaker 3: That revolution was for what for lane? Why did they

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Speaker 3: want land independence?

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Speaker 4: How was it carried out? Bloodshed?

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Speaker 6: Right number one? That was based on land the basis

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Speaker 6: of independence, and the only way they could get.

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Speaker 4: It was bloodshed.

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Speaker 6: You haven't got a revolution that doesn't involve bloodshed. And

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Speaker 6: you're afraid to bleed. I saw you were afraid to bleed.

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Speaker 6: As long as the white man send you to Korea,

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Speaker 6: you bled. He sent you to Germany, you bled. He

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Speaker 6: sent you to the South Pacific to fight the Japanese.

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Speaker 4: You bled. You bleed for white people.

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Speaker 6: But when it comes times to seeing your own churches being.

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Speaker 7: Bombed in little black girls who murd you haven't gotten

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Speaker 7: no good.

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Speaker 4: February twenty first, nineteen sixty five. Malcolm xis killed during

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Speaker 4: this speech in New York City. He was thirty nine

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Speaker 4: years old.

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Speaker 1: Doctor Martin Luther King Junior, a more houseman, a freedom fighter,

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Speaker 1: another soldier in the war against oppression. At the end

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Speaker 1: of his life, his rhetoric becomes more militant, a far

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Speaker 1: cry from the hopeful optimism of the I have a

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Speaker 1: dream speech.

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Speaker 8: Strangely enough, I would turn to the Almighty and say,

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Speaker 8: if you allow me to live just a few.

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Speaker 9: Years in the second half of the twentieth century, I

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Speaker 9: will be happy. And that's a strange statement to make,

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Speaker 9: because the world.

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Speaker 4: Is all messed up.

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Speaker 9: The nation is sick, trouble is in the land, confusion

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Speaker 9: all around.

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Speaker 8: That's a strange statement. Something is happening in our world.

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Speaker 4: The masses of people.

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Speaker 9: Arising up.

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Speaker 4: And wherever they.

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Speaker 8: Are the symbol today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa, Nairobi, Kenya,

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Speaker 8: Acro Ghana, New York City, Atlanta, Georgia, Jackson, Mississippi.

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Speaker 9: Are Memphis, Tennessee. The cry is always the same, we

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Speaker 9: want to be free.

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Speaker 8: It is no longer the choice.

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Speaker 9: Between violence and nonviolence in this world is nonviolence on

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Speaker 9: non existence.

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Speaker 4: That is where we are today.

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Speaker 1: April fourth, nineteen sixty eight, Doctor King is killed in Memphis,

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Speaker 1: Tennessee's nine years old. Here's Samuel L. Jackson discussing exactly

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Speaker 1: that on the Henry Wallin show back in two thousand

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Speaker 1: and seven.

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Speaker 5: I remember the night Doctor King was assassinated. I was

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Speaker 5: at a campus movie. Me and revolutionary because I still

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Speaker 5: like movies. But so I was at a campus movie

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Speaker 5: and the movie was John GoFar Police come home. And

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Speaker 5: a guy came in and said, Doctor.

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Speaker 4: King has been killed. You motherfucker's sitting in here and

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Speaker 4: watch a fucking movie.

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Speaker 3: We need to be in the streets tan some shit.

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Speaker 5: Up, no, And everybody's like, all right, all right, all right,

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Speaker 5: we will just let us finish watching the movie.

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Speaker 4: On April nineteenth, nineteen sixty nine, a group of Morehouse

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Speaker 4: College students hijack the Board of trustees meeting. They held

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Speaker 4: the board hostage for two days. They made demands for

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Speaker 4: improved student services and curriculum. Martin Luther King, Senior is

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Speaker 4: one of the hostages. Samuel L. Jackson is one of

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Speaker 4: the students. The students planned the heist a heist of idea.

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Speaker 1: Before you hear this story, you need to know the

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Speaker 1: state of black America. After the assassinations of Malcolm X

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Speaker 1: and Martin.

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Speaker 4: Luther King, we wanted to speak with students were at

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Speaker 4: Morehouse during the time of the Locke in so.

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Speaker 1: We spoke to doctor Michael Lomex, Morehouse alum, nineteen sixty eight,

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Speaker 1: president and CEO of the United Negro College Fund and

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Speaker 1: former president of Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana.

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Speaker 2: I think about one of the people who did lock

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Speaker 2: up the trustees, Sam Jackson. Sam was from Chattanooga, Tennessee.

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Speaker 2: He was exploring his future on the Moorhouse campus. No

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Speaker 2: one would have ever thought that he was going to

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Speaker 2: become a worldwide recognized film actor.

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Speaker 10: And you will know my name is the law when

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Speaker 10: I lay my vengeance upon the.

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Speaker 2: But his whole career and the approach that he's taken

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Speaker 2: to his career, as I've never said this to him,

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Speaker 2: I'm saying this to you, has been informed by the

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Speaker 2: events of nineteen sixty eight, the murder of doctor King,

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Speaker 2: which traumatized everyone. You know, doctor King was in many

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Speaker 2: ways prior to sixty eight, obviously a leader, but not

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Speaker 2: revered in the way that he became after his martyrdom,

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Speaker 2: and elements of his voice were not really attended to

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Speaker 2: his opposition to the war in Vietnam, his focus on

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Speaker 2: poor people, those were not the integrating of the establishment

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Speaker 2: institutions that most people had signed on for. So after

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Speaker 2: he gets killed, there's not only a void in leadership,

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Speaker 2: but there are other voices that begin to be heard

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Speaker 2: that hadn't got and the kind of attention when he

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Speaker 2: was on the stage. So you're beginning to hear the

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Speaker 2: voices of Stokely Carmike.

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Speaker 3: Violence is a part of America's culture as American as.

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Speaker 1: Cherry pie and black power.

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Speaker 2: You're beginning to hear the voices of other post colonial

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Speaker 2: African leaders and theorists about a more global, pan African

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Speaker 2: approach to liberation. Black people begin to at some level

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Speaker 2: connect with other oppressed people, like the Vietnamese, like the Palestinians.

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Speaker 1: Welcome back to the A buildings. To gain a better

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Speaker 1: understanding of what might have motivated these students, we speak

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Speaker 1: to Professor Philosophy at Morehouse College, doctor Elia Davis.

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Speaker 4: First of all, Doctor Davis, I want to thank you

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Speaker 4: for going to do this with us. This story has

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Speaker 4: been an obsession for Hans and I for God going

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Speaker 4: on five six years now. You know the folklore behind it.

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Speaker 4: We've been talking about, I mean literally since we met

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Speaker 4: twenty years ago. We would just love to hear about you,

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Speaker 4: your background at Morehouse, What brought you to Morehouse as

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Speaker 4: a student, and what kept you there as an educator

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Speaker 4: all these years?

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Speaker 3: Am I supposed to be honest?

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Speaker 4: Oh?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, we will be honest absolutely.

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Speaker 3: I was born in July, the month before the Watch

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Speaker 3: Riot nineteen sixty five.

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Speaker 11: Six days of rioting in the Negro section of Los

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Speaker 11: Angeles left behind the scenes reminiscent of war torn cities.

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Speaker 11: More than one hundred square blocks were decimated by fire

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Speaker 11: and looters, and few buildings were left intact.

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Speaker 3: They blew up my grandfather's home, and interestingly enough, his

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Speaker 3: home was on the front of newsweek magazine Ablaze. And

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Speaker 3: so because of that impetus, my mother quickly returned to

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Speaker 3: her home of Atlanta, Georgia, and so I was reared

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Speaker 3: here from about a year and a half until my

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Speaker 3: mother said you will attend Morehouse College. And I didn't

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Speaker 3: want to because I didn't know what Morehouse College was.

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Speaker 3: I had no idea where it was. I lived two

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Speaker 3: miles away from the campus. So I went to Morehouse

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Speaker 3: had no money. Few government funds assisted me. But after

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Speaker 3: my first semester there after having joined the Morehouse College

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Speaker 3: Glee Club, I was given a full talent grant, which

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Speaker 3: meant that they covered my all of my tuition, and

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Speaker 3: I owed them singing until I graduated. So I'm in

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Speaker 3: nineteen eighty nine philosophy graduate of Morehouse College, and I've

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Speaker 3: been at Morehouse ever since then, teaching political philosophy, Africano philosophy,

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Speaker 3: intro the philosophy critical thinking, and now my position, I'm

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Speaker 3: pretty much the dean director of freshman and seniors academic success.

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Speaker 3: So I bring them in and the hope is that

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Speaker 3: I'll take them out.

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Speaker 4: When did you first hear about this lock in at

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Speaker 4: Morehouse or this particular incident of what was some of

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Speaker 4: the kind of general folklore behind it.

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Speaker 3: Just like behins, I'm sure it was apocryphal at best.

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Speaker 3: So it's not even about whether that is true. It

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Speaker 3: was just a wonderful more House story when you get

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Speaker 3: to Morehouse, true or not? No, no, because the fundamental

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Speaker 3: point was motivating us to be radical. See that was

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Speaker 3: the kicker. They don't give a damn whether or not

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Speaker 3: it's true. We want you all to be radical, and

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Speaker 3: it normally came from students. Matter of fact, I don't

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Speaker 3: think I ever heard a professor talk about it. It

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Speaker 3: was always upperclassmen. And not until Sam Jackson became Sam

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Speaker 3: Jackson did we even include his.

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Speaker 4: Name to be in.

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Speaker 5: What we really thought was a revolution or was a revolution.

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Speaker 4: I mean people were dying.

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Speaker 5: I remember when doctor King was assassinated. I flew from

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Speaker 5: Atlanta to Memphis in March with you know those people

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Speaker 5: that night.

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Speaker 3: Because when out the school he was a Sam Jackson.

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Speaker 3: Sam Jackson, So nineteen eighty five, eighty six, eighty so

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Speaker 3: who is he?

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Speaker 4: Yeah?

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Speaker 3: Right, So it wasn't like now or they'll say Sam

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Speaker 3: Jackson held the board. Yeah, we didn't have that. What

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Speaker 3: we did have was a story of Martin Luther King's senior.

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Speaker 3: That was funny to us, especially those of us who

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Speaker 3: grew up in Atlanta with the bourgeois sensibilities that associated

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Speaker 3: with them, is that, oh wow, they even locked up.

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Speaker 3: Daddy came and I even went back. I read Gloss's

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Speaker 3: evaluations of what he called student protesting.

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Speaker 1: Doctor Hugh Gloucester was more House College president during the

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Speaker 1: lock in. He had a conservative approach to managing the

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Speaker 1: student body compared to his predecessor, Doctor Benjamin Emains more

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Speaker 1: on these two men later.

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Speaker 3: And Gloucester was a very refined scholar. And so on

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Speaker 3: one occasion there was a group of students who were

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Speaker 3: trying to protest and decided to go to Gloucester's house

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Speaker 3: to protest. And he was infuriated and came out and

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Speaker 3: told them it wasn't that important, and I fired, it

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Speaker 3: offensive for you all to have come to my house

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Speaker 3: to protest, all right. It always amazes me how, like,

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Speaker 3: you know, what a protest is supposed to really create

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Speaker 3: this sense of, you know, antagonism towards we're not on

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Speaker 3: your team. It was just funny when I hear people say,

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Speaker 3: don't do that. That bothers me, irritates me.

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Speaker 1: It's it's fascinating that you make that point. Because in

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Speaker 1: the research Melican, I found a letter that doctor Mays

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Speaker 1: wrote sort of in the moment, and he's taking notes,

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Speaker 1: he's sort of taking a diary.

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Speaker 4: And the title is Prisoner in Heartness, Hall Black and Daily.

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Speaker 4: He's writing from inside the lock in and he all

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Speaker 4: he's pissed, and.

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Speaker 1: I quote some of the group of students were most insulting.

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Speaker 1: So he curse and used vulgar language. And this was

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Speaker 1: fascinating to me because they're you know, like there's a

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Speaker 1: quote and they were doctor Doctor King Senior says that

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Speaker 1: he doesn't want the name of his son to be

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Speaker 1: hijacked for for whatever these radical students are doing.

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Speaker 4: One of the demands that the student has was to

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Speaker 4: have the school's consolidates and to be named m o

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Speaker 4: K University, and an m o K senior was Adam

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Speaker 4: Lee against this.

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Speaker 1: And I didn't understand how these distinguished scholars who we

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Speaker 1: you know, revered you know, I revered doctor Mays, you

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Speaker 1: know he has he has the memorial on campus, how

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Speaker 1: there was no reconciliation of this moment of protests from

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Speaker 1: from King MegaR Evers, Malcolm and to these students that

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Speaker 1: there that that this distinguished scholar did not make this

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Speaker 1: through line m hm.

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Speaker 3: And that's the question I.

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Speaker 1: Have for you, like, what is your analysis of this disconnect,

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Speaker 1: this this lack of reconciliation.

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Speaker 3: He grounded his life in certain principles such that he

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Speaker 3: would sacrifice any and everything to maintain them. Example, going

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Speaker 3: to I believe it was a board meeting and it

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Speaker 3: was getting on the elevator with the white gentleman he

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Speaker 3: was with black guy. Cleaner couldn't get on the elevator.

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Speaker 3: Maze's response was, I will not ride the elevator until

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Speaker 3: he can, and he would walk the stairs. Another thing, Hans,

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Speaker 3: you never see Mays with a hat on. It is told,

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Speaker 3: maybe apocryphally, but it was told somebody slapped the hat

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Speaker 3: off his head one time. He said, I'll never wear

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Speaker 3: a hat. Want it allow you to knock.

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Speaker 4: A hat off my head.

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Speaker 3: That's a very strong principal person, you understand. So it's like, hmm. Now,

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Speaker 3: when we came to Moorhouse and we were trying to protest,

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Speaker 3: because we did some minor protest, they told us the

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Speaker 3: story of students were protesting the food in the dining

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Speaker 3: hall and had gone to the office Harkness Hall to

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Speaker 3: complain and Mays was coming back in town and he

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Speaker 3: looked at them. He said, I'm ashamed of you all.

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Speaker 3: Just left the country where people were fighting for the

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Speaker 3: rights to vote for democracy, and this is what you

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Speaker 3: all came in with the food. That's it. And it

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Speaker 3: was always important for me to realize that's his principle, right,

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Speaker 3: that's unfair. That's what he was looking at this is

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Speaker 3: not fair. It's not fair. I think he cultivated that

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Speaker 3: since in Martin, Luther King, Junior, Maynard Jackson, Laron Bennett,

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Speaker 3: I mean, you name it. From nineteen forty to nineteen

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Speaker 3: sixty seven he was president. And so for us that

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Speaker 3: stood out like damn, we need to be down with

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Speaker 3: you know. And again that's the same way we heard

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Speaker 3: about the story of Hartin's Hall with the boy being

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Speaker 3: held captive. They were trying to motivate us, to let

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Speaker 3: us know, you can't be at more House and not

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Speaker 3: get with the program. And so even if you were,

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Speaker 3: you all probably already read many of the nineteen sixty

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Speaker 3: nine Maroon Tigers. They are replete with story of the

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Speaker 3: story of rebellion. It is a ma and I have

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Speaker 3: several of them that I downloaded. I mean, these brothers,

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Speaker 3: they're calling each other out in ways that I wish

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Speaker 3: my students were today. I mean, one guy says he

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Speaker 3: didn't even know who he is at Morehouse because the

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Speaker 3: teachers aren't letting him be who he should be. He

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Speaker 3: was having an overwhelming impact on these guys, thinking about

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Speaker 3: when you commit yourself to a certain way of being

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Speaker 3: in the world. So unlike I think Gloucester. I think

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Speaker 3: Mays might have had a little more wiggle room for

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Speaker 3: certain types of protests, because you remember the funt where

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Speaker 3: you know, one of the biggest problems was just having

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Speaker 3: white people on the board. May's had a certain position

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Speaker 3: about there. Remember when May's was given the opportunity to

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Speaker 3: write articles. I think he wrote somewhere fifteen hundred articles

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Speaker 3: while he was president of Morehouse and all of the

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Speaker 3: black periodicals, Daily World, you name it, Pittsburgh Courier, and

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Speaker 3: he was making an argument for integration. His point was,

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Speaker 3: if you all think integration is what you have claimed,

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Speaker 3: if you think it's going to satisfy the social organization,

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Speaker 3: you think, why don't you bust white kids to our

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Speaker 3: black schools? Because you said it was the same right.

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Speaker 3: So obviously they weren't going to do that. But Mays

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Speaker 3: was also interested in hiring white professors because this point was,

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Speaker 3: how then do we turn and ask them to hire

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Speaker 3: our graduates. So he had some strategy here, and I'm

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Speaker 3: associating that with the Board of trustees. His belief was,

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Speaker 3: you don't limit it that way. We're trying to live

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Speaker 3: in a world that has to embrace a certain type

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Speaker 3: of diversity, because when we leave Morehouse, we're going to

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Speaker 3: ask to be members of these organizations that are dominated

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Speaker 3: by white people, And how do we do that when

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Speaker 3: we say, we don't do it? And that's again, that's

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Speaker 3: a principal position. Whatever you're doing the left, you're doing

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Speaker 3: the right. What is fan for one should be fair

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Speaker 3: for the other.

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Speaker 1: But that seems to be in the detail a of

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Speaker 1: Morehouse because when I was a student there, this is

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Speaker 1: the exact thing that we wrestled against. We felt that

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Speaker 1: we were we.

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Speaker 4: Were just a part of the Morehouse man thing.

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Speaker 1: This is That is kind of what I want you

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Speaker 1: to speak to, doctor Davis, is this feels like the

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Speaker 1: mystique of the more House man. This this person who

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Speaker 1: comes in and with this radical energy, but then has

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Speaker 1: a framework, leaves with the framework of how to integrate,

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Speaker 1: and then just decides on their own when they leave.

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Speaker 3: Can you speak to that?

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Speaker 4: Is that?

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Speaker 1: Am I reading that correctly?

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Speaker 4: What are your thoughts on there?

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Speaker 3: Well? Oftentimes, especially because of my present position, it's difficult

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Speaker 3: to disabuse students of what they came to Morehouse with.

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Speaker 3: So I'll say it this way. So I think Morehouse

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Speaker 3: might be and I can't prove it, but I'm going

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Speaker 3: to say it. It's the only school in the country

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Speaker 3: where people send their sons to be saved. To be saved.

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Speaker 3: We get these guys in, but they're filled with apocryphal stories.

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Speaker 3: They're filled with myths that aren't most productive about Morehouse

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Speaker 3: and then, believe it or not, I will get students

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Speaker 3: every year who will come in my office and say

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Speaker 3: things like, I don't think I belong here, I can't

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Speaker 3: do it, can't do what. I don't think I can

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Speaker 3: be a Morehouse man.

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Speaker 4: Huh.

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Speaker 3: One kid comes to me and says, I can't be

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Speaker 3: here anymore. I'm not black enough. What do you mean

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Speaker 3: not black enough? He's like, I have two white mothers.

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Speaker 3: She adopted me and my sister. And I just left

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Speaker 3: a class where the stories the students were telling I

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Speaker 3: wasn't familiar with. I said, stop, I know your class demographics.

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Speaker 3: They ain't made like that either. Now you off see,

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Speaker 3: I'm like, you all have seen some nice movies, You've

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Speaker 3: heard some stories, some rap lyrics. I know your class demographics. Dog,

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Speaker 3: I know they're not and they shouldn't be made that way.

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Speaker 3: Do you understand it?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, huwork, I know you know.

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Speaker 3: What I've never celebrated. That's nothing to be celebrated. Stop

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Speaker 3: walking around here celebrating poverty and danger. I will switch

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Speaker 3: places with you. You all have to embrace the sacrifices

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Speaker 3: your families have made. So all of this goes into

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Speaker 3: the Morehouse Man.

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Speaker 1: Let's sidebar here for one second. Whenever people talk about

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Speaker 1: Morehouse College, the conversation eventually turns to the Morehouse bestique.

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Speaker 1: That energy, that aura the student's faculty and alumni seemed

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Speaker 1: to personify. Doctor Benjamin E. Mays, a distinguished former president

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Speaker 1: of Morehouse, was once quoted saying of the school, over

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Speaker 1: the heads of her students, she holds a crown that

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Speaker 1: she challenges them to grow tall enough to wear. Doctor

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Speaker 1: Mays conceived of a set of ideals to build a

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Speaker 1: campus culture and the characters of his students. He felt

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Speaker 1: these ideals would help them succeed in and transform the world.

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Speaker 1: He coined these ideals the more House mystique. Some of

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Speaker 1: these ideals include leadership, fearlessness, honor in a deep rooted

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Speaker 1: sense of morality, and if you met the challenge and

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Speaker 1: reach these standards, you could call yourself a more Houseman.

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Speaker 3: Even with the protests during you know what twenty twenty one.

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Speaker 3: A lot of those students were motivated because they felt

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Speaker 3: left out. They really felt left out, even if they

381
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Speaker 3: were just intellectual gymnastics for them, as in they've heard

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Speaker 3: about and now they want.

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Speaker 1: To welcome back to the A building. Here's more from

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Speaker 1: our conversation with doctor Eliot Davis.

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Speaker 3: And even that happened to me in nineteen ninety three

386
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Speaker 3: when Rodney King verdict came out and I was in

387
00:22:55,280 --> 00:22:59,240
Speaker 3: grad school, but over at Morehouse Belman Cau. You know,

388
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Speaker 3: they had we had our own little uprising where the

389
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Speaker 3: police came, State patrol came to campus. They were beating students.

390
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Speaker 3: They were shooting tear gas into the dorm rooms of Clark.

391
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Speaker 3: They came a Moorhouse class. I had never been burned

392
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Speaker 3: by tear gas until that day. They were shooting tear

393
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Speaker 3: gas bottles at us YadA, YadA, YadA. Students Morehouse started

394
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Speaker 3: covering their faces with bandanas, putting on hats, making Molotov cocktails.

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Speaker 4: Hunh wow exactly.

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Speaker 3: So as we were standing over in front of Sale

397
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Speaker 3: Hall and the police had covered the entire gate area

398
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Speaker 3: that led out, some of these students ran around the

399
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Speaker 3: back of them, got an Atlanta police car, flipped it

400
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Speaker 3: over and threw and blew it up with a Molotov contail.

401
00:23:48,080 --> 00:23:50,960
Speaker 3: And this is my point about wanting to feel like

402
00:23:51,720 --> 00:23:55,000
Speaker 3: I can do it partally. Yeah, I blew it out.

403
00:23:55,080 --> 00:23:57,440
Speaker 3: I blew it out. They were throwing we were throwing

404
00:23:57,520 --> 00:24:01,119
Speaker 3: rocks at the police. I mean they kept it off

405
00:24:01,160 --> 00:24:03,320
Speaker 3: television because had it been seen, it would have been

406
00:24:03,400 --> 00:24:06,679
Speaker 3: reupted in ways across black campuses. They weren't prepared for,

407
00:24:06,920 --> 00:24:09,479
Speaker 3: because I'm telling you there were probably two three hundred

408
00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:14,080
Speaker 3: state troopers on our campuses at Clark beating. I heard

409
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Speaker 3: the beat. They literally were beaten. One guy, stay down, nigga,

410
00:24:17,520 --> 00:24:20,720
Speaker 3: no beating them saying this right. All of this was

411
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Speaker 3: going on, and I was in grad school, the CAU

412
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Speaker 3: in African American Studies. I was the vice president of

413
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Speaker 3: the Graduate Students. I ran over the Heartness Hall back

414
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Speaker 3: to Hertness Hall. I running the Heartness Hall up to

415
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Speaker 3: the floor with the president's office and the provosts. I

416
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Speaker 3: knew them. I'm yelling I won't say here, come out

417
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Speaker 3: this dam. I'm cursing, like, get out of here.

418
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Speaker 4: Now.

419
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Speaker 3: The police are on our campus. They're beating our students.

420
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Speaker 3: The provost comes out or Elliot was wrong. I said, dude,

421
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Speaker 3: you need to get out of the president Cole. He

422
00:24:48,160 --> 00:24:50,360
Speaker 3: comes out, He was like, I am now, yeah, it's

423
00:24:50,400 --> 00:24:52,720
Speaker 3: tied down, sleeves rolled up. He goes out of the

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Speaker 3: middle of the street. Get them off my blank of

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Speaker 3: the blank campus. They had not been on our campuses.

426
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Speaker 3: Do you know in the sixties they always wanted to

427
00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:03,399
Speaker 3: have in roads and they never could. This was the

428
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Speaker 3: first time, yes, that they came on our campus. Because

429
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Speaker 3: our campus was supposed to be the safe haven.

430
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Speaker 4: It was the safe spot.

431
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Speaker 1: Yes, it's where the good crows are.

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Speaker 3: It was gone Cole. I loved him so much that

433
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Speaker 3: man stood out there in the middle of the street,

434
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Speaker 3: which was Fair Street.

435
00:25:21,359 --> 00:25:22,040
Speaker 4: Now now.

436
00:25:23,800 --> 00:25:27,280
Speaker 3: He was yelling, get off my campus. How dare you?

437
00:25:27,359 --> 00:25:30,720
Speaker 3: And Martin Portly, you didn't call me, you came on

438
00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:34,920
Speaker 3: my campus. So that protests just, oh my god. Everybody

439
00:25:34,920 --> 00:25:36,800
Speaker 3: felt good after that one because everybody got a little

440
00:25:36,800 --> 00:25:37,480
Speaker 3: piece of history.

441
00:25:37,600 --> 00:25:39,359
Speaker 4: Do you think that was part of some of the

442
00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:41,920
Speaker 4: tension in nineteen sixty nine at that lock in?

443
00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:44,120
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, that's why I told you. If you look

444
00:25:44,160 --> 00:25:47,040
Speaker 3: at the articles from sixty nine, they were merely acting

445
00:25:47,040 --> 00:25:49,679
Speaker 3: out what had been written about that whole year. They

446
00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:53,320
Speaker 3: are constantly saying, we need to do this. We're not radical,

447
00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:57,760
Speaker 3: gotta be radical. Where's the radicality? Dude? This is one

448
00:25:57,840 --> 00:26:03,159
Speaker 3: This is a student here, Drake, and he wrote an article,

449
00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:06,520
Speaker 3: as I see it, a deep injustice by the American

450
00:26:06,560 --> 00:26:09,359
Speaker 3: press has caused me to pin my final article of

451
00:26:09,400 --> 00:26:12,680
Speaker 3: the year. The American press has created monster which has

452
00:26:12,760 --> 00:26:16,240
Speaker 3: caused politicians and sociologists to toil night and day. I

453
00:26:16,359 --> 00:26:19,399
Speaker 3: call it the Hustler's carnival. Others call it a riot.

454
00:26:19,560 --> 00:26:23,320
Speaker 3: But again, this paper is from May nineteen sixty eight.

455
00:26:24,119 --> 00:26:28,480
Speaker 4: So okay, before yeah, yeah, but it's right after Martin Luther.

456
00:26:28,480 --> 00:26:32,080
Speaker 3: The King is dumb, Yes, April fourth, he's out.

457
00:26:32,320 --> 00:26:35,199
Speaker 4: So it really was this kind of a powdered keg

458
00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:40,359
Speaker 4: of emotions just in general. You have Malcolm assassination, you

459
00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:43,119
Speaker 4: have Doctor King's assassination, You're kind to have the end

460
00:26:43,119 --> 00:26:46,679
Speaker 4: of the sixties, you have this cultural shift happening, and

461
00:26:46,680 --> 00:26:50,760
Speaker 4: then it's like, okay, you have this again, this educated class,

462
00:26:50,840 --> 00:26:53,800
Speaker 4: and where's our role in this? What are we going

463
00:26:53,920 --> 00:26:57,600
Speaker 4: to do to affect the change in this A great

464
00:26:57,640 --> 00:27:00,440
Speaker 4: example of the complexities of this debate among the black

465
00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:03,320
Speaker 4: community can be found. I guess that since nineteen eighty

466
00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:07,080
Speaker 4: seven play The Meeting. This play is a fictitious account

467
00:27:07,119 --> 00:27:10,480
Speaker 4: of a historical meeting between Doctor King and Malcolm X

468
00:27:10,760 --> 00:27:14,160
Speaker 4: where they discuss their political differences. Here's an excerpt from

469
00:27:14,160 --> 00:27:20,040
Speaker 4: that play. Welcome. You want to free Bloods. I want

470
00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:22,520
Speaker 4: to free America. It is the only way any of

471
00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:23,440
Speaker 4: us can be free.

472
00:27:23,720 --> 00:27:25,960
Speaker 1: Martin kent to see what's happening to us.

473
00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:28,639
Speaker 6: Five years from our tenant, the most racists won't have

474
00:27:28,680 --> 00:27:29,560
Speaker 6: to do anything to.

475
00:27:29,560 --> 00:27:30,919
Speaker 1: Us, will be doing it to ourselves.

476
00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:36,280
Speaker 7: So these these brothers who sit peacefully and your demonstrations

477
00:27:36,320 --> 00:27:38,400
Speaker 7: and allow their hair is to be split open, don't

478
00:27:38,440 --> 00:27:40,760
Speaker 7: you know, they come right back to their own.

479
00:27:40,560 --> 00:27:42,960
Speaker 3: Communities and come in violent access.

480
00:27:43,040 --> 00:27:47,439
Speaker 2: The rage, just the hurt that's all balled up.

481
00:27:47,440 --> 00:27:49,040
Speaker 1: A said, It makes them strike out and the only

482
00:27:49,080 --> 00:27:52,160
Speaker 1: way they can the only way that's acceptable. Now.

483
00:27:52,200 --> 00:27:54,800
Speaker 7: I cannot free us from that rage, but at least

484
00:27:54,800 --> 00:27:57,760
Speaker 7: I can direct it to the race, so us we don't.

485
00:27:57,760 --> 00:27:59,720
Speaker 4: We both want the same things.

486
00:28:01,400 --> 00:28:02,960
Speaker 1: You want us to be able to buy a cup

487
00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:05,320
Speaker 1: of coffee. I want us to sell it. You want

488
00:28:05,359 --> 00:28:07,760
Speaker 1: us to integrate a coffee shop. I want us to

489
00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:10,000
Speaker 1: own it. You want white people to hire us, I

490
00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:11,520
Speaker 1: want us to hire our own down self.

491
00:28:11,680 --> 00:28:12,960
Speaker 4: No, we know what the same thing.

492
00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:19,080
Speaker 12: I'm afraid that this quest that you have for integration

493
00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:22,320
Speaker 12: will wind up being a white man's solution for control.

494
00:28:22,760 --> 00:28:22,920
Speaker 4: Man.

495
00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:25,520
Speaker 5: Those of us that don't agree with your definition of

496
00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:30,240
Speaker 5: power and control, I suppose where to be called Uncle.

497
00:28:30,080 --> 00:28:34,119
Speaker 1: Tom's Here's more from doctor Michael Lomax.

498
00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:38,360
Speaker 2: What happened by going to Morehouse is that I encountered

499
00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:44,080
Speaker 2: an institution unlike any I'd ever encountered before. I met

500
00:28:44,680 --> 00:28:50,000
Speaker 2: students like me from all over the South by in

501
00:28:50,080 --> 00:28:52,600
Speaker 2: large because there weren't a lot of people from California

502
00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:58,160
Speaker 2: at Morehouse. When you walked onto that campus, you were

503
00:28:58,320 --> 00:29:02,640
Speaker 2: entering a community with which was safe, and there could

504
00:29:02,680 --> 00:29:05,360
Speaker 2: be all kinds of other things happening on the other

505
00:29:05,440 --> 00:29:10,600
Speaker 2: side of those gates that were hostile. If I went

506
00:29:10,680 --> 00:29:12,840
Speaker 2: off of the Moorhouse campus as I did, into the

507
00:29:12,880 --> 00:29:15,400
Speaker 2: west End, and there was a series Roebuck and that

508
00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:17,560
Speaker 2: was the first place I got called the N word

509
00:29:17,600 --> 00:29:22,000
Speaker 2: by a white person. When I went and protested in

510
00:29:22,080 --> 00:29:27,240
Speaker 2: behalf of the people who had been assaulted in Selma

511
00:29:27,680 --> 00:29:31,240
Speaker 2: by marching around the Federal building. The Atlanta police would

512
00:29:31,280 --> 00:29:34,720
Speaker 2: call you offline and take down your information and take

513
00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:38,800
Speaker 2: your photograph. I could be intimidated, but when I stepped

514
00:29:38,800 --> 00:29:42,800
Speaker 2: on that campus, where black and white, Christian and Jew.

515
00:29:43,040 --> 00:29:44,880
Speaker 4: Were all equal, you were safe.

516
00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:49,280
Speaker 2: The only purpose that that institution was there for was

517
00:29:49,320 --> 00:29:54,520
Speaker 2: to prepare you and give you the credentials, the capabilities,

518
00:29:54,880 --> 00:29:59,480
Speaker 2: the confidence to become what was an emerging concept, a

519
00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:03,520
Speaker 2: Morehouse man, and take your place as a leader in

520
00:30:03,560 --> 00:30:04,000
Speaker 2: the world.

521
00:30:04,760 --> 00:30:07,760
Speaker 4: Historically, Black College has essentially missed the protest era of

522
00:30:07,760 --> 00:30:10,480
Speaker 4: the nineteen sixties. In this context, it was time for

523
00:30:10,520 --> 00:30:14,120
Speaker 4: a revolt. It was time for a protest, It was

524
00:30:14,160 --> 00:30:17,320
Speaker 4: time for a heist. But this heights had to be

525
00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:20,480
Speaker 4: more than about one thing. At this point, two great

526
00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:23,160
Speaker 4: civil rights icons have been murdered in the prime of

527
00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:27,240
Speaker 4: their lives in front of the world. The Black experience

528
00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:28,760
Speaker 4: was literally on trial.

529
00:30:29,440 --> 00:30:33,080
Speaker 1: It's April ninth, nineteen sixty eight. Doctor King has a

530
00:30:33,120 --> 00:30:37,000
Speaker 1: small funeral at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.

531
00:30:37,640 --> 00:30:42,840
Speaker 1: Mostly friends and family aren't attendants. After the private service,

532
00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:46,280
Speaker 1: a three mile procession led to Morehouse College for the

533
00:30:46,320 --> 00:30:50,800
Speaker 1: public memorial. Several Morehouse students serve as ushers for the event.

534
00:30:51,320 --> 00:30:54,120
Speaker 1: One of the ushers on that day was future superstar

535
00:30:54,400 --> 00:30:55,080
Speaker 1: Samuel L.

536
00:30:55,160 --> 00:30:55,560
Speaker 4: Jackson.

537
00:30:55,760 --> 00:30:58,880
Speaker 1: You were usher, It is few well what was that daylight?

538
00:31:00,800 --> 00:31:06,040
Speaker 4: Wow? Pretty solemn. More House, like many historic GUBAC cologies,

539
00:31:06,120 --> 00:31:09,600
Speaker 4: was a socially conservative space with limited services and access

540
00:31:09,640 --> 00:31:13,480
Speaker 4: to academic freedom. This serves as a sharp contrast to

541
00:31:13,560 --> 00:31:17,520
Speaker 4: the resistance scene at predominantly white cologies during the sixties.

542
00:31:17,760 --> 00:31:20,800
Speaker 1: Doctor King's death would serve as an extreme reminder of

543
00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:24,480
Speaker 1: how much work was left a true American progress. After

544
00:31:24,560 --> 00:31:27,760
Speaker 1: the service, the students at Morehouse would approach the Administration

545
00:31:27,960 --> 00:31:31,040
Speaker 1: for reform. Morehouse would have to be the center of

546
00:31:31,080 --> 00:31:34,360
Speaker 1: this new wave of resistance. Malcolm and Martin.

547
00:31:34,240 --> 00:31:35,120
Speaker 4: Both lie dead.

548
00:31:35,640 --> 00:31:41,280
Speaker 1: Their eulogies represent great pieces of oratory, legend, history, and storytelling.

549
00:31:41,800 --> 00:31:45,760
Speaker 1: Here is the eulogy of Malcolm X, delivered by screen

550
00:31:45,800 --> 00:31:48,480
Speaker 1: actor Assi Davis Pierre.

551
00:31:49,720 --> 00:31:56,440
Speaker 7: At this final hour, in this quiet place, Harlem has

552
00:31:56,520 --> 00:32:01,240
Speaker 7: come to bid farewell to one of the brightest hopes,

553
00:32:02,800 --> 00:32:10,800
Speaker 7: extinguished now and gone from us forever. For Harlem is

554
00:32:10,840 --> 00:32:17,200
Speaker 7: where he worked and where he struggled and fought. There

555
00:32:17,240 --> 00:32:20,960
Speaker 7: are those who will consider it their duty as friends

556
00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:25,160
Speaker 7: of the Negro people to tell us, to revile him,

557
00:32:26,120 --> 00:32:30,320
Speaker 7: to flee even from the presence of his memory, to

558
00:32:30,440 --> 00:32:34,200
Speaker 7: save ourselves by writing him out of the history.

559
00:32:34,160 --> 00:32:35,640
Speaker 4: Of our turbulent times.

560
00:32:37,120 --> 00:32:43,960
Speaker 7: Many will ask what Harlem finds to honor in this stormy, controversial,

561
00:32:44,440 --> 00:32:48,520
Speaker 7: and bold young captain, And we will smile.

562
00:32:50,480 --> 00:32:54,280
Speaker 4: Many will say, turn away away from.

563
00:32:54,080 --> 00:32:57,640
Speaker 7: This man, for he is not a man but a demon,

564
00:32:58,400 --> 00:33:02,040
Speaker 7: a monster, a wider, and an enemy of the black man,

565
00:33:03,680 --> 00:33:07,280
Speaker 7: and we will smile. They will say that he is

566
00:33:07,320 --> 00:33:11,680
Speaker 7: of hate, a fanatic, a racist, who can only bring

567
00:33:11,760 --> 00:33:16,920
Speaker 7: evil to the cause for which you struggle, And we

568
00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:22,080
Speaker 7: will answer and say, unto them, did you ever talk

569
00:33:22,400 --> 00:33:26,760
Speaker 7: to brother Malcolm? Did you ever touch him or have

570
00:33:26,880 --> 00:33:32,640
Speaker 7: him smile at you? Did you ever really listen to him?

571
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:34,880
Speaker 4: Did he ever do a mean thing?

572
00:33:35,320 --> 00:33:39,720
Speaker 7: Was he ever himself associated with violence or any public disturbance?

573
00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:45,440
Speaker 7: For if you did, you would know him, And if

574
00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:49,480
Speaker 7: you knew him, you would know why we must honor him.

575
00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:54,600
Speaker 7: Malcolm was our manhood, our living black manhood.

576
00:33:55,320 --> 00:33:57,360
Speaker 4: This was his meaning to his people.

577
00:33:57,760 --> 00:34:02,120
Speaker 7: And in honoring him we are another best in ourselves.

578
00:34:03,240 --> 00:34:06,640
Speaker 7: However much we differed with him or with each other

579
00:34:06,840 --> 00:34:10,239
Speaker 7: about him and his value as a man, let his

580
00:34:10,360 --> 00:34:15,600
Speaker 7: going from us serve only to bring us together. Now

581
00:34:15,640 --> 00:34:20,640
Speaker 7: consigning these mortal remains to earth, the common Mother of all,

582
00:34:21,680 --> 00:34:25,719
Speaker 7: secure in the knowledge that what we place in the

583
00:34:25,760 --> 00:34:33,520
Speaker 7: ground is no more now a man, but a seed, which,

584
00:34:34,760 --> 00:34:39,719
Speaker 7: after the winter of discontent, will come forth again to

585
00:34:39,840 --> 00:34:41,200
Speaker 7: meet us.

586
00:34:41,239 --> 00:34:44,120
Speaker 13: And we shall know him then for what he was

587
00:34:44,480 --> 00:34:52,040
Speaker 13: and is, a prince, our own, black, shining prince, who

588
00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:56,120
Speaker 13: did not hesitate to die because he loved us.

589
00:34:56,520 --> 00:35:12,840
Speaker 4: So Minister Benjamin May's cave, Doctor King's ulithy. He was

590
00:35:12,840 --> 00:35:15,520
Speaker 4: a president of Moorhouse College while doctor King was a student.

591
00:35:15,920 --> 00:35:18,360
Speaker 4: His word was speak to the moment and the weight

592
00:35:18,600 --> 00:35:19,520
Speaker 4: of his death.

593
00:35:20,480 --> 00:35:23,960
Speaker 12: My dearest friend is now in the hands of the

594
00:35:23,960 --> 00:35:31,520
Speaker 12: eternal God. We therefore commit his body to the ground.

595
00:35:33,520 --> 00:35:39,759
Speaker 12: The cemetery is too small for his spirit, but we

596
00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:46,560
Speaker 12: commit his body to the ground. The grave is too

597
00:35:46,680 --> 00:35:51,720
Speaker 12: narrow for his soul, but we commit his body.

598
00:35:52,800 --> 00:35:53,759
Speaker 4: To the ground.

599
00:35:55,280 --> 00:36:03,680
Speaker 12: No coffin, no crip, no vault, no stone can hold

600
00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:10,520
Speaker 12: his greatness, but we commit his body to the ground.

601
00:36:11,560 --> 00:36:17,600
Speaker 12: We commend his deeds to all mankind, his services and

602
00:36:17,800 --> 00:36:25,880
Speaker 12: sacrifices to all generations. We commend his legacy of courage

603
00:36:25,920 --> 00:36:31,920
Speaker 12: and love to ourselves, our children, and our children's children.

604
00:36:33,560 --> 00:36:39,480
Speaker 12: We commend his life to the universe. We give thanks

605
00:36:39,520 --> 00:36:43,600
Speaker 12: to God who gave us a leader to heal the

606
00:36:43,680 --> 00:36:50,960
Speaker 12: white man's sickness and the black man's slavery. We give

607
00:36:51,080 --> 00:36:57,879
Speaker 12: thanks to God who gave us a peaceful warrior, who

608
00:36:57,960 --> 00:37:03,719
Speaker 12: built an army and a movement that is mighty without missiles,

609
00:37:05,320 --> 00:37:14,719
Speaker 12: able without anatomic arsenal ready without rockets, real without bullets,

610
00:37:16,320 --> 00:37:22,440
Speaker 12: an army tutored in living and loving and not in killing.

611
00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:27,960
Speaker 12: We thank God forgiving us a leader who was willing

612
00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:33,600
Speaker 12: to die but not willing to kill. Peace be to

613
00:37:33,719 --> 00:37:37,840
Speaker 12: his ashes, and rest to his soul.

614
00:37:39,280 --> 00:37:42,000
Speaker 4: How do you plan a heist when the stakes are

615
00:37:42,040 --> 00:37:43,840
Speaker 4: the future of black America?

616
00:37:44,920 --> 00:37:48,160
Speaker 1: The students weren't just asking for change, they were making it.

617
00:37:48,600 --> 00:37:52,319
Speaker 1: But what happens when you hold a college hostage? Next

618
00:37:52,360 --> 00:37:53,440
Speaker 1: time on the A Building?

619
00:37:53,760 --> 00:37:56,160
Speaker 3: Would you love to see one of these NFL owners

620
00:37:56,960 --> 00:38:00,680
Speaker 3: when somebody disrespects our flag to say, get that son

621
00:38:00,719 --> 00:38:04,200
Speaker 3: of a bitch off the field right now out. He's fired.

622
00:38:05,440 --> 00:38:06,320
Speaker 3: He's fired.

623
00:38:08,239 --> 00:38:12,000
Speaker 1: The A Building is produced by Imagine Audio for iHeart Podcasts.

624
00:38:12,400 --> 00:38:15,440
Speaker 1: It is written and hosted by me Hans Charles and

625
00:38:15,520 --> 00:38:17,320
Speaker 1: my co host menelike La Mumba.

626
00:38:18,200 --> 00:38:21,600
Speaker 4: It is executive produced by Karral Welker and Nathan klok Me,

627
00:38:21,920 --> 00:38:24,000
Speaker 4: menelik Wamomba and Hans Charles.

628
00:38:24,160 --> 00:38:29,000
Speaker 1: Executive producers at iHeart Podcasts ar Katrina Norville and Nikki Torre.

629
00:38:29,440 --> 00:38:31,239
Speaker 1: Marketing lead is David Wasserman.

630
00:38:31,840 --> 00:38:35,160
Speaker 4: It is produced, directed, and edited by Timothy Fernara with

631
00:38:35,280 --> 00:38:39,560
Speaker 4: producer John Asanti, Sound design and music by Alloy.

632
00:38:39,280 --> 00:38:43,680
Speaker 1: Trex and special thanks to April Ryan, Doctor, Elia Davis,

633
00:38:43,920 --> 00:38:47,840
Speaker 1: Kim vc Ada, Bobby Know and James Early. If you

634
00:38:47,920 --> 00:38:50,880
Speaker 1: enjoyed this episode, be sure to rate and review the

635
00:38:50,960 --> 00:38:54,640
Speaker 1: A Building on Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.

636
00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:00,239
Speaker 5: Yuh