"Booker's Place: A Mississippi Story" Transcriptå
Directed by Raymond De Felitta
Produced by David Zellerford

Italicized = off camera

 
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    RAYMOND DE FELITTA: What did you expect to get out of Booker when you went to his place to shoot him?

FRANK DE FELITTA: Well, quite frankly, I didn't expect to get it at all. NBC didn't want me to use black people because we all know the black story and it's a terrible story.

BOOKER WRIGHT (Archive): Now that's what my customers, I say my customers, be expecting of me. When I come in, this is the way they want me to dress. Booker, tell my people what you all got. Some people are nice, some is not. Some call me Booker, some call me John, some call me Jim. Some call me nigger. All of that hurts, but you have to smile. If you don't, "What's wrong wit' you? Why you not smilin'? Get over there and get me so and so and so and so." There are some nice people. "Don't talk to Booker like that. Now his name is Booker." Then I got some other people come in real nice. "How you do, waiter? What's your name?" Then I take care of some so good, and I keep that smile. Always learn to smile. The meaner the man be, the more you smile, although you're crying on the inside.

TITLE:         Hangover Lounge presents

RDF: Ever since I saw your grandfather in the film that my father made, I was always curious about who he was, and what happened to him.

TITLE:         in association with eyepatch productions

YVETTE JOHNSON: When I first heard the story of my grandfather speaking to the news crew, I thought it was just that he was walking down the street, and someone approached him and asked him a question, and just sort of on the fly, he blurted out what he really felt, maybe without thinking about the consequences, because it was just- quick, you know?

TITLE:         a film by Raymond De Felitta

YJ: It was just- in the moment. And so, I always sort of referred to him as an accidental activist. You know, that he did this thing in his life that had an impact on his community and on himself without really realizing when he did it that it was significant

- that what he was doing had such meaning.      





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01:04:00    JOHN T. EDGE: Both black and white in Greenwood, when you ask them about race relations, when I ask them about the civil rights movement, almost without exception people told me that they

remembered Booker being interviewed on the NBC news, and that that was the moment that the civil rights movement came home for them, that was the moment of impact for them.

RDF: My father still carries guilt over his decision to use it, which is an interesting dilemma that I think everyone who makes a documentary faces.

At some point, as the filmmaker, you're eager to use something that's gonna be good for your movie, and frequently that collides with, ethically, should I be putting this on screen?

FDF: His wife and a waitress were there while we were filming.
I shot them on purpose.

I wanted to show that they were there. They could've stopped me, they didn't wanna. People change when they see misery and they see things happen that are terrible. They're suddenly, looking for someone to blame, and they, they blamed me. And I, I deserve it.

KATHERINE JONES: He spoke the truth.

VERA DOUGLAS:  He did.

KJ: And nobody wanted the truth to get out about what life was like down there.

VD: I mean, they were nothing but brainwashed-
 
KJ: ‘Cause some people wanted burned the house down or hang you, or you know, that was...

VD: ...the norm.

KJ: Yeah.

VD: And so, it was a dangerous time-

KJ: And knowing all of that, he still told the truth.

VD: He did.

KJ: And didn't hide from it.

VD: Mm, mmm.

KJ:  That tells you about his bravery, and what we saw in him as a dad.


RDF (to YJ): I didn't know that Booker had been murdered until I met you, months ago, and ever since then, I've been wondering whether his murder had something to do with his having been in my father's film.      
 


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TITLE:     BOOKER'S PLACE
                  a Mississippi story

FREDDIE BAINE: Good evening.

Audience: Good evening.

TITLE:             Screening of NBC documentary
                  Mississippi: A Self Portrait

                  Greenwood, Mississippi
                 June 23rd, 2011

FB: If I can have your attention, we'll go ahead and get started. My name is Freddy Baine, and, uh- I'm a member of the Bridge, and we're proud to have this opportunity to, to host this. Without anything else I'll introduce Frank-

RDF: Raymond.

FB: I'm sorry- Frank was your father.

RDF: That's my dad, yeah-

FB: Uh, yeah- I'm a bit confused, I'm sorry, Raymond De Felitta, sorry about that.

RDF: My father would be really happy to hear that though, so thank you. Thanks and, and, and on behalf of my father, thank you for attending. My father's in Los Angeles. He's 90 years old this summer and he's astonished that all of this is being looked at again. This is a film that he made in 1966, and he never really knew what impact it had, if any, and he went on to have a long life and career -- but a few weeks ago, I put this movie on the Internet and an extraordinary thing happened. All of the sudden we started hearing from people that this was something that people had been looking for, for years, and it had a good deal of impact on history and civil rights history. One of the people who got in touch with us is Booker Wright's granddaughter, Yvette Johnson.

YJ: I'd heard about his appearance in your father's film, but I had never seen it.

RDF: And did you ever try to find it?
      

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     YJ: I did. I did. I. I contacted NBC archives, and, and I found a website on the Internet that helps people find archived film footage and, but no,  I was unsuccessful in finding anyone who said they actually had a copy of it.

 So, I started a blog about my Booker Wright research, and, um, while you were working on archiving your father's documentaries,

I got home one day and I had lots of messages from people saying, someone's saying he has a film with your grandfather in it,

and of course I knew what the film had to be.

RDF: I grew up watching my father's movies,

because in a sense, we were the only audience for them. They aired on NBC two or three times. They were not ever broadcast again, and my father had the 16mm prints of them, so sometimes we'd thread them up and watch them, and that was really all that existed of their audience was us. And I was always interested in who he was

when he was making those films, ‘cause I was a little kid, I was

2, 3, 4 years old and of course I wanted to know what his life was like then.

He lived in an era and made those films in an era where you could actually live a quite luxurious life-

We had an apartment a block from Central Park, and he had an office at NBC at 30 Rock, and he could do this and make documentaries. That was New York, 1965.

I remember when you came over and met my father for the first time-

YJ: Mm-hm.

RDF: ...and we had brunch together.

YJ: Yes.

RDF: And you had a private talk with him.

YJ: Yes.

RDF: And I decided to leave you two alone.

YJ: Yeah.

RDF: And I still don't really know what you discussed.

YJ: He, he shared the story with me of why he wanted to make the film in the first place- why he wanted to make Mississippi: A Self Portrait.

And it's an amazing journey that he went on. He was in World War II, where he, he was a flyer. And at the end of the war he was asked to fly, you know, historians and people who needed to document what happened at the concentration camps. He flew them. Seeing what one human could do to another human being just- it just left a scar on him, and when he went back home, he was sorrowful about what happened to the Jews. It really- it just disturbed him. After he'd had the experience in the concentration camps,

he travelled through some of the southern states, and he was really struck by the way the blacks were being treated. It sort of reawakened that feeling of, ‘How can one human treat another human like this?'

FDF: One- Sunday morning I picked up the New York Times,

and in the Magazine section, I read a very stimulating article by Hodding Carter. It was just soon after, the three young Civil Rights guys were killed

in Neshoba County by a- rabid group of people.
      












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     TITLE:             From Frank De Felitta's
                  "Mississippi: A Self Portrait"

NBC ANCHOR (V.O.; Archive): His paper has spoken out against violence, against the corruption of law enforcement officers, in favor of fair treatment of the Negroes.

TITLE: Hodding Carter II
     Journalist/Publisher

Hodding Carter II (Archive): There's still something else that I believe is spiritually meaningful, and that is the new mood of self-examination that you can find among many Southerners.

Frank De Felitta: I said I wanted to go down there, and I want to talk to the white people and do a portrait of them to see if they ever can be reconciled with the blacks. I says, "Uh, I'm gonna go down on a tour now, just to be- spend a couple of weeks there feeling the place out. I know I've done some research and found that the great town that we want to avoid is the one I want to go to, and that's Greenwood, Mississippi,

and they're constantly lynching a black man." Judah said, "Okay, godspeed, go ahead."

 He said, "Try to come back alive." I said,

"Okay." So we went down and in two weeks we came up with nothing. Nothing of interest. People weren't talking to us. They'd see us, and they'd just- I'd try to introduce myself, and it didn't work. Whatever charm I'd try to use, did not happen.

So we came back and I says, "They don't believe us. What I have to do is bring the crew down. Big truck, NBC news." I said, "They'll understand that."

1966 TITLE (Archive):     NBC NEWS Presents

1966 TITLE (Archive):     MISSISSIPPI: A SELF PORTRAIT

1966 TITLE (Archive):     PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY
                  FRANK De Felitta

TITLE:             To understand the world,
                  you must first understand
                  a place like Mississippi.
                          -William Faulkner

DAVID JORDAN: When I saw a black man touch the back of a, a white person car, I was waiting down at the store.

He was- had been drinking alcohol, because the store did sell illegal whiskey. And he just touched the back of it- he and his family was on the way home. He had three children.

A man got out and kicked him down to the ground. And the children was hollerin', "Don't kill my daddy." And the lady was hollerin', "Don't kill my husband."

TITLE: David Jordan
      Mississippi State Senator

They had their groceries, and the man got out of his car and went in the store, and he asked the man owned the store to give him a gun, so he could kill that black son of a bitch. And ‘bout that time I saw the, the children's and their mother running across the road through the fields trying to get out of the way- they dropped their groceries, and they was running trying to get him out of harms way.

MARIE TRIBIT: One time my husband working with a man had a brother who was kinda retarded.
      






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    TITLE: Marie Tribit
      Booker's Childhood Friend

Marie Tribit: And he went- he worked at the Crystal,

and he touched a white lady's foot with a wet mop and they shot him down on- in the Crystal Grill. He was a monglin'-

YJ: How long after the incident was he shot?

MT: Shot the same day.

TITLE: Benton Johnson
     Greenwood Resident

BENTON JOHNSON: You know like blacks stood mostly together, you know- Like, uh-

if you made it home if the police didn't catch you in the streets, you made it home, they wasn't hardly comin' up in your house, ‘cause your parents would

stop 'em at the gate and everything, and say, "He here and he gonna stay here." You know, ‘cause people scared to let the police take their kid to jail.

Now they would tell them, "I'll bring him, or we'll bring him in, but we ain't gonna let him in the car with y'all," you know, because blacks was scared to let their kid just get in the car with white police.

NBC Anchor Frank McGee (Archive): This is the Tallahatchie. Emmett Till, a 15 year-old Negro boy visiting from Chicago, whistled at a white woman. His body was found in the Tallahatchie. Trussed with wire and weighted down with the pulley from a cotton gin. Cotton and Negroes. White fiber and black labor. Both have enriched the state and left a curse upon it.

YJ: Well, the story begins when Booker's about 2, maybe 3 years old. And he's living with his mother in the home of a white family, the Russell's.

MARGURITE BUTLER: And the Russell's were moving up North. They told my mother,

TITLE: Margurite Butler
      Booker's Half Sister

MB: You need to find a family member to leave Booker with, because,
 you know, we'll have all this work to do, and you know,

you'll come back and get him in a couple of months.

DJ: Sharecropping is kind of, kind of like a feudal system. It's supposed to be half and half, but all the expense plus interest came from out of our 20 bails. All of the seeding and all of the harvest of crops plus interest.

So we end up clearing a little money, but the person who owned the plantation had his 20 bails without any expense.

WALTER WILLIAMS: We all worked the whole year round...

TITLE: Walter Williams
      Greenwood Resident

WW: ...and the end of the year, what they call settlin', you almost come out.

Almost. You'da made 4 more bails you'da broke even. So you owe me. And if you a good worker and they wanna keep ya, he says I'mma tell you what I'm gonna do. At Christmas, I'mma let you have $75 to do your Christmas. And that's gonna make
you owe me that, plus what

you owe me now. If you was not a good worker, he'd say, "Well, I want you to move. See if you can find

 somebody to take ya and pay me your bills." And then you go off and try to find another farmer who would hire you and pay your bill off and move you to him.

That's the way it was. Yessir.

YJ: His mother took a train to the city where the plantation was, and she was met at the train station by a guy who worked for the plantation owner, and he said to her,

‘If you want Booker back, you're gonna have to pay for him.'

MB: She needed money, they said, and she went back, and the Russell's gave her the money. And she made another trip, and she still- was not able to bring Booker with her.      

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DJ: I was weaned in the field. I went to the field when I was, still nursing. Everything went to the field; even the dogs went to the field.

WW: Farming in those days was just like-

 It wasn't no 8 to 5. You worked from when you could see until you could not see. And that's what a days work was.

LEROY JONES: I had to tote water from about a mile away at least twice a day. Then there was-

We had a pump the other way,

TITLE: Leroy Jones
     Yvette's Father

but the pump used to bring up hair and teeth from the graveyard, so my mom never wanted me to go that way. So I had to walk the furthest to the mile and a half to get the water.

YJ: The man who lives in that house comes to Rosie, comes to Booker's mom, and says to her,

‘The plantation owner is coming to whip you. You're never gonna get your son back, the want him for the fields.'

GRAY EVANS: I was friends of all of the blacks that lived on our place...

TITLE: Judge Gray Evans (Retired)
      Leflore County Circuit Court

and had nothing but respect for them and their hard work.

WILLIAM WINTER: Most of the people with whom I lived and, and whom I knew were African Americans,

TITLE: Governor William Winter
     State of Mississippi 1980-1984

they were tenants on my father's farm. Most of my playmates when I grew up were young, black fellows.

HIRAM C. EASTLAND JR. (Audience member): I can totally identify with that.

I have a black mother just like I have a white mother, and

she was always determined she was goin' to the cotton fields to compete with her sisters when it came cotton picking time.

 And she took me with her.

Some of my fondest memories were- are being there in the cotton field with her and her sisters and singing gospel songs, and her making me take a nap on the back of her cotton sack.

MT: We didn't have a good living place then. You know, you could stand up inside and look down through the outside.

YJ: Did you have, um- a toilet in your home

MT: Mmm-mmm, we had to go outside
      





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01:22:20    YJ: Did you have electricity?

MT: We had wood to make fires-

WILLIAM L. WARE (Audience member): Let me talk about the hostility I have after hearing this gentleman talk about black
 
women who neglected me to raise him. That's an awful, awful experience. Especially if you a little black boy running round the
streets of Greenwood.

HCE, JR. (Audience member): I just wanted to say I'm really sorry that it offended you that I was talking about my black mother,

but that's just the way it was, and, and that's the way it is. I, I would in no way take anything from that relationship from, from my perspective. I understand what, what you were saying but, and I would in no way wish that I never had that relationship, because I love her just like my own mother. I was there when she passed away. She specifically requested to ask that my brothers and my sister and I be put on the services that day as, as her children.

FDF: Every Mississippian talked about how much they loved their blacks. That was the first thing they'd say, "They raised me. Black People raised me! I had a bl- white mother, but I had a black mother too. She raised me!" They were always trying to put that across. How they treated them like family. Beloved people. But then, they didn't act that way to them.

Mr. LeLouis came to us at breakfast, a little gnarled old man. He said, "You're telling lies. You're coming here to tell lies. I could tell you the truth, but you listen to me. You wouldn't want me, would you? You wouldn't want the truth. You're here from NBC- they're liars." I says, "No, I want the truth. Will you tell it to me?" "You mean that?" I says, "Right."  He said, "Okay. Come to my plantation tomorrow, and I'll show you what I mean about our loving our Negroes."

A.L.LELOUIS (Archive): ...and he's uh- he's a taxpayer, he pays income tax. Mo, these men wanna look through your house.

MOSE STEWART (Archive): Come right in.

ALLL (Archive): This's Mo Stewart.

MS (Archive): Yessir, come right in.

ALLL (Archive): Which room, you wanna run this room first?

MS (Archive): You can just go right in here.

ALLL (Archive): Open the door.

MS (Archive): Just come on in.

ALLL (Archive): Open the door.

MS (Archive): Yessir, come right in.

ALLL (Archive): Come right on in. Now ya'lls see inside.

MS (Archive): Shut up, shut up (to barking dog).

ALLL (Archive): Get outta here, get out (to barking dog).

MS (Archive): Shut up (to barking dog)

ALLL (Archive): Come on in. I wanna show you through the house. Mo's- this is Mo's mother right here. She doesn't pick cotton anymore, she's gettin' too old. We come on back through here and Mose's fixed it up pretty nice- we're gonna fix him up a little more, though. He's a good worker. Here's another one of his bedrooms and utility pantry. Open it up. Stuff you have put away for win- that you put away through the wintertime. He, he put this in in the winter, but wife cooked some pies yesterday, put those in there.

MS (Archive): My mother cooked 'em. My wife, she's gone.

ALLL(Archive): Wife is gone, well-

MS(Archive): Yeah.

A.L. LeLouis (Archive): Now- Talk louder.      














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MS (Archive): Yessir-

ALLL(Archive): Uh, we, we, uh, tryin' to show these people, uh, how you can live-

MS (Archive): Yessir-

ALLL(Archive): If you work for it.

MS (Archive): Yes.

ALLL(Archive): And, now I think you work for yours.

MS (Archive): Yessir, I do.

ALLL(Archive): And we want to keep the locker full. We're gonna put a bathroom in here.

MS (Archive): Yessir-

ALLL(Archive): And, uh, we, we gonna put 'em in all the houses that are like this.

MS(Archive): Yessir.

A.L. LeLouis (Archive): And we puttin' ‘em in every deservin' tenant-

MS (Archive): Yes.

ALLL(Archive): That gonna do that.

MS (Archive): Yessir.

ALLL(Archive): But we can't do it to some, because if they- if they come up and-

MS (Archive): Yes.

ALLL(Archive): And these others, I imagine, then we can always fix 'em up. We, we never denied you anything, have we?

MS (Archive): Yes- no sir. That's right

ALLL (Archive): When- when do you ever asked for anything that you uh-

MS (Archive): I, uh, I ain't never had denied me, because I always would try to work to

ALLL(Archive): You always work to find it, yeah. And I, and I, uh, have plenty more on the place that I don't deny,

MS (Archive): Yeah

ALLL (Archive): but there are some that I just can't go too far with, because they're not deservin' of the work.

MS (Archive): Yes

ALLL (Archive): And now I just wanna show you the house right here- the difference. I wanna show you the contrast in the, the good tenant, and the one that doesn't stay at home and take care of his family. Luella?

Luella (Archive): Yes?

ALLL (Archive): Uh, come out here, I wanna show 'em inside your house. How are you this mornin'?

Luella (Archive): All right, how are you?

ALLL (Archive): All right. Uh, well, I'm gonna show 'em the difference in the house over here and your house, and how it's like for them, to hear you say just why, why you don't have the chickens and all them cows and the yard and the butane gas and, and things like that that the others have. Now you just tell ‘em your own words.

Luella (Archive): Well the reason, I think, that we don't, you know, be in good shape like the rest of ‘em-

ALLL (Archive): Talk loud.

Luella (Archive): ...because there's no one to just go and stay at home to help. Just- and I stay here doin' the very best that I can. I have a desire to have those chickens and hogs and what have you-

ALLL(Archive): But you haven't.

Luella (Archive): ...things that is convenient, convenient to my home, but I just don't have a husband that's gonna help. He don't have the mind to help me.

ALLL(Archive): And you've been under me for close to 30 years.

Luella (Archive): Yessir.

ALLL(Archive): And I knew your dad.

Luella (Archive): Yessir.
      











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    ALLL(Archive): And I been tryin' to, have I ever tried to help ya?

Luella (Archive): Yes, you really try to help me. Ya believe in folks tryin' to have somethin' - it's weird.

ALLL (Archive): I underst-  You can tell ‘em about whether I instruct you right or not, can't ya? Can you tell ‘em about how well I- what I do about tryin' to get your- gettin' your men folk to help you?

Luella (Archive): Yessir.

ALLL (Archive): I'm trying. I think I'ma try to bear down a little harder-

Luella (Archive): Yessir, that's right-

ALLL (OC: Archive repeat): ...your men folk to help you?

IOLA MCDONALD: Look at me!

Man : It's you. It's you. Who is that?

IM: Vera.  That's Vera

Man: Yeah.

LJ: I didn't realize it.

IM: Yeah.

LJ: I didn't realize it. I didn't- I was coming home, and I said, that was Iola in that picture.

Man: You didn't think about it even.

LJ: Yeah, I said, that was Iola McDonald in that picture.

RDF: Yeah, that's her. Do you remember the, do you remember the white guy?

IM: Yeah.

RDF: Do you know what his name was?

IM: The one who's doing the talking?

RDF: Yes.

IM: Yeah, that was the rider, Louis. People called him old man Louis.

RDF: Yeah

IM: All I know was Louis.

RDF: Ok.

IM: He was ready. He was tough-

LJ: He was a redneck? No don't even say it, he was a redneck.

RDF: Yeah-

IM: He sure was a redneck. He was a bad little man. Man! I remember back then when they did it, but I didn't know. I lost contact of it, but I remember when they came out and filmed us. I forgot about it until Leroy mentioned it last night. And it dawned on me, I said, yeah, I remember that.      
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FDF: As you see in the picture that I have quite a few people who are- very fine and understanding people.

They still have their- druthers about the black people.

Had to get permission from Julian Goodman, who was our leader. He says, well- you know, there are a lot of rednecks there.

I wouldn't want that. I said, no, nor neither would I. He says, well, if you mean to go talk to serious,

well-disposed white people who are willing to talk to you good. Go. Fred Ramsey, my associate down there, came to me and said I got a guy.

I know you don't wanna do black people, but if you'll listen to him, go

to Doe's Eat Place or no, no, no, it was another one.

David Zellerford (OC): Lusco's-

RDF (OC): Lusco's.

FDF: Lusco's, Lusco's, yes. When we go there tonight, have a steak- most gorgeous steaks in the world. They're really fabulous. And ask him, say,

Please, I've heard so much about your wonderful greeting to white people, and I'm a white person. I'd like to be greeted by you. I did,

and he started this thing that had me absolutely rolling.

BW (Archive): Glad to see ya'll. We don't have a written menu. I'll be glad to tell you what we gonna serve tonight. Everything we serve is a la carte. We have fresh shrimp cocktail, Lusco's shrimp, fresh oysters in a half shell, baked oysters, Oyster Rockefeller, Oyster Almadine, stewed oysters...

Yvette Johnson: Booker moved up to Greenwood, and he started working at Lusco's when he was 14 in 1940.

JOHN T. EDGE: It's like being a bookstore that hand sells you the book. Waiters, like Booker,

hand sold you that T Bone.

TITLE: John T. Edge
      Author

JTE: Hand sold you that Pompano-

BW (Archive): ...Oyster Rockefeller, Oyster Almadine, stewed oysters, fried oysters, Spanish mackabraw, Salon steak, Club steak, T-bone steak, Porterhouse steak, Ribeye steak

CHARLOT RAY: You went in to this place that from the outside did not look like it was gonna be anything special. And, you walked in and there were the booths where...

TITLE: Charlot Ray
      Greenwood Resident

...and of course this came from prohibition time,

when you weren't allowed to drink, so therefore you drank in the booths behind the curtains that were pulled.

ALLEN WOOD JR.: Daddy used to go to Lusco's ,and uh- they used to make wine in the back. Homemade,...

TITLE: Allen Wood, Jr.
      Greenwood Business Owner

...homemade wine, they called it Dago Red.

KP: They worked here and they made a very good livin'. And there's not another job out there, probably, that they could've worked and made that kind of money.

YJ: Yeah, they could pick cotton or they could be waiters

KP: Right, right. And they made good money.

BW (Archive): ...Salon steak, Club steak, T-bone steak, Porterhouse steak, Ribeye steak, Lusco's special steak, broiled mushrooms flavored with garlic, tight spaghetti and meatballs, soft shell crab...

CR: The waiters were there reciting the menu.

Nothing was written down. If you had a friend from out of town that came in and said where's the menu? What do you mean there's no menu? How do I know what things cost? Well, you find that out when you go to the cash register.

JTE: Lusco's didn't have menus. You could go in there, and if you were black, conceptually,  what they could do is say, that cup of coffee you just had, that was $20. So that was the implicit threat.
      






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01:35:20    TITLE: Karen Pinkston
      Lusco's Restaurant

KAREN PINKSTON: When he recited the menu, he had a melody.

YJ: Yes, yes, he sure did

KP: He did it in a melodious manner, and

I think everybody loved to hear him recite the menu.

YJ: Mhm

KP: That was part of his charm

BW (Archive): ...Lusco's special steak, broiled mushrooms flavored with garlic, tight spaghetti and meatballs, soft shell crab, french fried onions golden brown doughnut style. Best food in the world is served at Lusco's.


 

YJ: I get the impression that he just always wanted to be his own man, and that he sort of, you know, enjoyed his work at Lusco's and endured some of the things that he talked about in your father's film so that he could open his own place. I think that he always knew that he, he wanted to be- he wanted to own his own business.


MT: Well he was pretty smart, though- but I didn't give him any thought that he'd be owning his own business. He was a real smart guy.

Mhm. A good businessman.

ALIX SANDERS: He kind of functioned between the two societies. On the one hand he was highly respected in the black community.

TITLE: Alix Sanders
     Greenwood Attorney

And yet he worked in a menial- capacity- in the white community.

NBC Anchor Frank McGee (Archive): This is Booker Wright. He has his own place in the Negro district where he works by day. But at night he waits on white folks.

David Jordan: So he opened up his own place called Booker Place, and it was a very powerful place. A place that BB King

 would go if he was in Greenwood playing at the Elks' Hall. After it was over he'd go to Booker's Place, and they'd eat chitlins and stuff until 4 o'clock the next morning.

KJ: Welcome to Booker's. I don't care how many people walked in through that door.

VD: Mhm.

KJ: Welcome to Booker's.

VD: Welcome to Booker's place.

KJ: And he had that smile.

VD: He did, he did.

KJ: He knew all the customers. He knew all their families, their children.

TITLE: Vera Douglas & Katherine Jones
     Booker's Daughters

VERA DOUGLAS: Cause we would always laugh and say, well maybe daddy can't read but he sure can count money. (Laughter)

KATHERINE JONES: Yeah.

VD: Yeah, I mean he sure can count that money, we're going, yeah... (Laughter)

JTE: The distance between Lusco's and Booker's Place is about 8 blocks. There's a train track between the two-

Um, you know, and that, um, is a very simplistic way of defining, um, Greenwood, um, but it works.


 
VD: Everybody knew him

KJ: Mhm-

VD: and whenever you walked in you felt at home.

Man in Barber Shop: That was like, uh, the place to be. All kind of sandwiches, fish- mostly fish sandwich and hamburgers and steak sandwiches. Bring a little beer. Play the musics. Dance with the girls.

Sometimes he even dance with us.

VD: He would sit down with 'em and talk with 'em, laugh with 'em, dance with 'em!.





Frank De Felitta: We had to go down to Washington, Fred and I, and talk to them and tell them what we wanted to do. And uh, we spoke to Deke DeLoach, who was the right hand of, of Hoover. And he said, well,

you gotta be crazy, if you think you're gonna go there and get what you want. He says, do you understand that we've had 64 negro churches burned down there in this past summer? 64. He says, and they're still raging.

 I said, I want your help; I want to be able to count on you in case we get into some serious trouble. And by that I mean, if we find our lives are in danger. He says,

Well, in every city in Mississippi and even small towns, we have a person who is- represents the FBI. He's hidden,, no one knows who he is. We keep our information extremely covert. We're not going to let you know who they are.

But what we can do is give you some phone numbers. If you lose them, or let them- or they get 'em, they'll kill those people. He says, We can't have that.

Robert Shelton (Archive): And how can you look in these stripes of red and this flag knowing bear well that your forefathers- yes yours, not mine, yours, all of them- that that stripe represents that blood that they spilled on this soil, American soil, something that you have never

had to do -- To give you this god given right

of racial purity and a heritage.



RDF: Did you ever have to use the phone numbers the FBI gave you?
      



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    FDF: Yes, once. We used the number at Natchez, at the ballpark, where there's a huge crowd, and, uh, the wizard,

top man of the Ku Klux Klan, was talking. We were shooting him, filming him, I should say.

Typical Ku Klux Klan rant on how they're being put upon by white America, uh, for feeling the way they do. As he talked people in the stand kept throwing things at us. They were throwing soft things. Then a couple of hard things came across, and it knocked into one of the cameras.

And Vadala said, Hey listen- I said... He said, I'm gettin', I'm gettin' -- this stuff's hitting me- one hit me. He said I'm getting out of here. I said don't. I says, Well, we'll take care of it. And, uh, Fred had a, a field phone, and we called the number, and the woman- I called her-

I, she, I said is your husband an FBI man? She says, yes. She says, I knew you'd call. Look she says, handle it the best you can. He's in the audience. He's there. And he's protecting you. And he's stopping them from doing these things. He's doing it in a way that won't injure anybody. He's making fun of them. They don't know him though. If they did, they'd kill him. So please, don't call us again. I said, Okay.



AWJ.: I was a member of the Citizen's Council. I thought it was rather ironic by the way that Delay Beckwith, who was convicted of, uh, murdering, uh, Medgar Evers, uh, uh- signed me up for the, uh Citizen's Council in Goldberg's shoe store, which is a Jewish owned shoe store.

NBC Anchor Frank McGee (Archive): This is Carnaggio's Restaurant. Gathered here are 5 men. Representative leaders who speak for Greenwood. They voice the orthodox liturgy. Hardy Lott, the attorney who defended Delay Beckwith. Mayor Charles Samson. Noel Davis. Stanley Sanders. Robert Wingate.

Hardy Lott (Archive): It troubles me that people in other sections of the country are thoroughly convinced that we are prejudiced against colored people on account of the color of their skin.

Robert Wingate (Archive): I think you're absolutely right, as a matter of fact there's a very warm feeling on the part of most Southerners toward the colored people...

NBC Anchor Frank McGee (Archive): This is a private club. Greenwood avoided integrating it's public accommodations by converting public eating places into private clubs for whites only. No Negroes enter here except as servants.

WW: Let me say that first of all I was never a member of the Citizens Council. But I attended one of the first meetings, in fact perhaps the really, the main organizational meeting of the Citizen's Council in the City Hall of Greenwood in the summer of 1954, a few weeks after the brown decision in May of 1954.
That decision immediately set off a wave of hysteria, uh, among many white people in Mississippi. And so there began an effort to thwart that decision in every possible way. Among those plans was the organization of a group of white people

not ordinarily given to violence, but committed to maintaining racial segregation, in every possible way short of violence.

Hardy Lott (Archive): But what they would come back with always, and say, If that's true, and you're not prejudiced against them, why do you want to keep your separates schools? Uh, isn't that prejudiced?

Course it's not. The average colored child is not gonna keep up with the average white child, uh, in an integrated school. And it's gonna give 'em an inferior, uh, a feeling of inferiority, and it's not gonna be good for them at all.

AWJ: I got out of that after a while, because I, it was a little, little more right wing then I- I'm pretty conservative I'm just a little bit to the right of Genghis Kahn, but, but uh, really it was a little more virulent than I- I wasn't proud of it and I got out.

Charles Samson (Archive): In Greenwood I think we have wonderful relations between the colored people, and it's been demonstrated through the years in all the businesses- type of businesses. The colored people are very happy- extremely happy in Mississippi-

Robert Wingate (Archive): And I think they feel just as warmly toward us,

Hardy Lott (Archive): That's fact. You know anybody that disagrees with that?

SILAS McGHEE: Might as well put it plain and clear, every last one of 'em that was at that table, was a member of the Klan.

Every last one of 'em.

TITLE: Silas McGhee
     Civil Rights Activist

YJ: Wow- How did you know that they were members of the Klan?

SM: Oh, please. Please don't, don't, don't, don't ask me that! How did I know? I mean, I lived in this town all my life. I know white folks. The White Citizen's Council was nothing but a front for the Klansmen in Greenwood, and every last one of 'em was a member.

Unidentified Citizen's Council Leader (Archive): But I'mma tell you just one thing I've learned...

TITLE:             "The Streets of Greenwood" 1963

...about the nigger. When you think he is, he ain't.

These niggers, they're not bad folks; they're good folks. That is, provided, you keep treatin' negro like a nigger.

HODDING CARTER III: These were guys who were fervent racists. They were snout in pigs, and they didn't mind being seen snuffling around saying it.


TITLE: Hodding Carter III
      Journalist

They only cared about one audience, and they were talking constantly from, to,

and for that audience, and that was the conforming white segregationist. It was for the monolith that had been fashioned in that state

 from Reconstruction on. It was for a point-of-view, which was, 'You do what you want to do where you are.

We're running this place the way we want to here, and you'll pay hell in getting us to change.'

'Cause as far as they were concerned, they were saying God's truth, and it's the way it aughta be. If you guys don't understand it, take your Yankee ass, and go somewhere else, back to a place where you love it. We're gonna run this place this way.


VD: My grandmother was so afraid for us that she would say, 'If you're walking downtown, and you meet a white person

 you hold your head down. Don't look at them. You hold your head down.'

But then dad would always say, 'Hold your head up. Be proud of who you are. Hold your head up. You look them straight in the eye.' I said, 'Well if we speak, they won't speak back.' He said, ‘It doesn't matter.' He said, ‘You look 'em straight in the eye, and you can say good morning, and you can say good evening, and it doesn't matter if they don't speak. But you hold your head up.'

YJ: People who came from different parts of Mississippi, who were traveling through Greenwood, would stop at Booker's Place.

 It was well known for being clean and having really good food, so, um- Booker would often ask these people if they knew anything about his mother. He would tell them what he knew OF his story- that he was left on a doorstep and just asked them if they knew anything about her.
      


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01:50:00    VD: Now he could never really, at first, grasp that, because he would just say, 'I was given away, and that's why I'm gonna always see after you all.

Nobody's-you know I'm not giving you to anybody, nobody's gonna take you. You know. You're mine, you, you, you're mine.' That's what he would tell us.

KJ: He hired this man who had who had knowledge of finding people- knew how to find people.

VD: I can recall when, uh, he got the call

 that they had found her. I remember tears streamed down his face when he was on the phone.

YJ: When he finally gets to speak to her on the phone, he, he says to her, 'I thought you threw me away. I thought you didn't want me.' And- She finally, after all these years, gets to explain to him that she did want him, and that she, that she wanted him desperately, and that she tried all of these different ways to get him back, but she just wasn't able to. That, that the plantation owner was never gonna let her have him back.

KJ: She had a whole different life, and she had other children, and they all came down, and, as I said he bought, he bought us white dresses.

VD: And had our hair done.

KJ: And had our hair done. He wanted us to be just perfect to meet our grandmother for the first time.

Yvette Johnson: Many, many people in my family have told me that he talked about being abandoned. It was a- it was a central theme of his life until he found her.

RDF: To me, that's really interesting because he learns about how essentially the people stole him and deprived him of his natural mother, and he learns about it three years before he goes on TV and upends his whole life.
 









1966 TITLE (Archive): NBC NEWS PRESENTS


FDF: I told Fred, ‘I want that guy-I want to do him.'

I spoke to him

about that he says, ‘Well I have a bar. I can do it at my place.'

 I didn't know how I'd use the menu. It's far apart from what we wanted to do, but anyway, I said yes.

 So we went to his place the next day, and he put on his white apron,

and he gave us a show that just rocked me.
 
BW (Archive): Glad to see y'all. We don't have a written menu; I'd be glad to tell you what we're going to serve tonight. Everything we serve is à la carte. We have fresh shrimp cocktail, Lusco's shrimp, fresh oysters on the half-shell, baked oysters, Oysters Rockefeller, Oysters Almadine, stewed oysters, fried oysters, Spanish Mackabraw, Salon steak, Club steak, T-bone steak, Porterhouse steak, Ribeye steak, Lusco special steak, broiled mushrooms flavored with garlic, tight spaghetti and meatballs, soft shelled crab, French-fried onion golden brown donut style. Best food in the world is served at Lusco's.
 
FDF: But then something happened that was so unusual and so fantastic: He went on.
 
RDF: And you didn't know he was going to-
 
FDF: No, I never thought that he would do that. And, and yet I couldn't stop it; I didn't want to.
 
BW (Archive): Now that's what my customers, I say my customers, be expecting of me. When I come in, this is the way they want for me to dress. ‘Booker, tell my people what to look at.' Some people's nice, some is not. Some call me Booker, some call me John, some call me Jim. Some call me nigger. All that hurts, but you have to smile. If you don't, "What's wrong with you? Why you not smiling? Get over there and get me so and so and so and so." There are some nice people, "Don't talk to Booker like that; his name is Booker." Then I got some more people come in, real nice "How you do waiter? What's your name?" Then I take care of some so good and I keep that smile. Always learn to smile. The meaner the man be, the more you smile. Although you're crying on the inside, while you're wondering, ‘What else can I do?' Sometimes they tip you, sometimes they say "I'm not going to tip that nigger. He don't look for no tip." Yes sir, thank you. "What'd you say?" Come back, be glad to take care of ya'. "Don't talk to him like that. That's a good nigger! That's my nigger!" Oh yes sir boss, I'm your nigger. I'm trying to make a living.

"Why?" I got three children. I want them to get an education.

I wasn't fortunate enough to get an education, but I want them to get it. And they are doing good. Night after night, I lay down and I dream about what I had to go through. I don't want my children to have to go through with that. I want them to be able to get the job that they feel qualified for. That's what I'm struggling for. I don't want this and I don't want that. I just don't want my children to have to go through what I go through with. "Hey tell the nigger to hurry up with that coffee." I'm on my way. So that's what you have to go through with. But remember, you have to keep that smile.      


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FDF: Then I had a talk with Booker. And I said are you sure you want to do this? I said do you know what's going to happen? First of all, this picture is going to play all over the South. Mississippi included. And there are people going to watch it and they're going to watch you, in a sense, ridicule them- as being fools, not knowing how you hurt inside. And he says I- I understand and I thank you, but, no. He said, "The time has come. Don't you understand? The time has come. I got to talk the way I feel. I've been hurting all my life and I'm gonna finally have something to say to a lot of people. And I want that."
 

YJ: I got to see the film for myself, and I realized that he was not an accidental activist. He-he knew what he was doing. He knew what he was going to say. He knew- who he was going to implicate and he knew, he knew the gravity of what he was doing. It was bold and it was brave and it wasn't an accident.
 
BW (Archive): Glad to see y'all. We don't have a written menu; I'd be glad to tell you what we're going to serve tonight. Everything we serve is à la carte. We have fresh shrimp cocktail, Lusco's shrimp, fresh oysters on the half-shell, baked oysters, Oysters Rockefeller, Oysters Almadine, stewed oysters, fried oysters, Spanish Mackabraw, Salon steak, Club steak, T-bone steak, Porterhouse steak, Ribeye steak, Lusco special steak, broiled mushrooms flavored with garlic, tight spaghetti and meatballs, soft shelled crab, French-fried onion golden brown donut style. Best food in the world is served at Lusco's.
Now that's what my customers, I say my customers, be expecting of me. When I come in, this is the way they want for me to dress. ‘Booker, tell my people what to look at.' Some people's nice, some is not. Some call me Booker, some call me John, some call me Jim. Some call me nigger. All that hurts, but you have to smile. If you don't, "What's wrong with you? Why you not smiling? Get over there and get me so and so and so and so." There are some nice people, "Don't talk to Booker like that; his name is Booker." Then I got some more people come in, real nice "How you do waiter? What's your name?" Then I take care of some so good and I keep that smile. Always learn to smile. The meaner the man be, the more you smile. Although you're crying on the inside, while you're wondering, ‘What else can I do?' Sometimes they tip you, sometimes they say "I'm not going to tip that nigger. He don't look for no tip." Yes sir, thank you. "What'd you say?" Come back, be glad to take care of ya'. "Don't talk to him like that. That's a good nigger! That's my nigger!" Oh yes sir boss, I'm your nigger. I'm trying to make a living. "Why?" I got three children. I want them to get an education. I wasn't fortunate enough to get an education, but I want them to get it. And they are doing good. Night after night, I lay down and I dream about what I had to go through. I don't want my children to have to go through with that. I want them to be able to get the job that they feel qualified for. That's what I'm struggling for. I don't want this and I don't want that. I just don't want my children to have to go through what I go through with. "Hey tell the nigger to hurry up with that coffee." I'm on my way. So that's what you have to go through with. But remember, you have to keep that smile.

 
HC3: When I saw it, I thought to myself: You're a dead man. You're a dead man. If that comes out publicly, in that town, in this time, they are going to kill you. And then I thought, he knows that. He's not a fool. He understands exactly what he's saying.
 
DJ: Now, after he said he said what he said on NBC News, then all of his years and years of relationship with the white community went to naught.
 
JTE: By way of appearing on NBC, Booker lost his job.  And he lost his job from pressure from the white community.
 
AWJ: Some people didn't want him serving them anymore. So they would request other waiters.
 
JTE: Doesn't matter if someone told him "Get out of here, boy," or Booker said, "I know I have to leave." Doesn't matter. Pressure from the white community cost him his job.
 
KP: The people that were here the night that that show was aired, from what I understand, were very upset and they refused to let Booker wait on them. And Booker, out of respect, walked over to Marie and said "Ms. Marie, I think it's time for me to leave." And she said, "I think--I think so, Booker."
 
FDF: They destroyed his store. They came and practically bombed it. They set it aflame

 and they put him in the hospital and he was there, seriously injured. And I said I wanted to go see him. And he said, "Tell him stay away from me. I don't want to see him."
      


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02:07:00     JGE : One of the policemen met Booker, or overtook him somewhere over out on Carrollton Avenue and, uh, just beat the hell out of him with a pistol. I believe put Booker in the hospital. Nothin' was ever done about it.
 


HON. JOHNNIE E. WALLS: It was well known in Greenwood that police officers,

 you know, carried the day.
 
TITLE: Willie Bailey
            Mississippi State Representative
 

TITLE: Hon. Johnnie E. Walls
  Former Mississippi State Senator

 

JGE : No, he did not try to press charges, because if he had come to me, I would have charged, uh- Curtis... No, I don't believe we did. I don't believe we ever had a conversation about it. Sure don't.
 
RDF : Curtis was the policeman?
 
Judge Gray Evans: Yeah.
 
RDF: So you even know who did it-everyone knew who did it?
 
JGE: Yeah, yeah. Of course he knew Curtis. He knew who had attacked him and, uh- gave him the beating.
 
WW: No one really pretended that justice was meted out on an absolutely equal basis

between whites and blacks. There were really two forms of justice in--in Mississippi.
 
Brother JC Brown (Archive): The communists are using the beatniks, the homosexuals, the harlots, the whores, the whoremongers, the dope addicts, the drunkards and the misfits in life as tools through which to stir up trouble among peaceful God fearing people of the South.
 
Mary Cain (Archive): I think Mississippi has done wonders with our race relations. I think it has been a marvelous thing that our Nigras have come as far as they have. And I feel no sense of guilt, and I do not feel that we need to apologize for what we have done for them.
 
HC3: Mary Kane was a formidable battle-axe of a right-wing crazy, ran a weekly newspaper down in outside McComb, Mississippi.

She ran a terrible newspaper. She gave a fiery speech and she traveled widely being a spokesman for the segregationist right-wing agenda.
 
Mary Cain (Archive): Now I feel that God had a purpose in creating the races separately. I am so proud of Nigras who are proud of being Nigras. They are what God made them. And I am proud of being white because I am what my- white race has made me. I am white today because my parents practiced segregation. And I wouldn't be anything but white and I love Nigras who wouldn't be anything but Negroe.
 
Edward C. McDaniel (Archive): And it the Bible it tells us that, uh, God will put hooks in the jaws of the enemy and turn them back. Now we do not know what course

 or who God will use to do this. But it very--it may be that God will use Klansmen. People that believe in calling a spade a spade,

and if our people believe that God was some...lil' ol' sissy runnin'-- walking around on this Earth, I disagree with them.



CALVIN E. COLLINS: David gave his last statement to his son when he said,

TITLE: New Zion Missionary Baptist Church
 Father's Day, 2011


TITLE: Calvin E. Collins
     Pastor

 'Be strong my son, and show thyself a man.'

And the amazing thing is that David never told Solomon how to run the kingdom. He only gave him a blueprint of who to appoint for various positions, but he told Solomon simply how to handle himself.

And if Solomon would be strong and be a man, then the kingdom

 would be in good hands.



WW: 98% probably of white people in Mississippi were segregationists. My family was, my father was, I was, everybody was.

Everybody that I knew was for segregation. I think we really believed that most black people really wanted to maintain segregation.

Stanley Sanders (Archive): It's difficult for me to believe, the American people, being as we know them as fair minded people, would want to impose on any area of this nation a situation in which illiterates

 would be allowed to vote.

WW: But we found out that we were wrong, and we found out that we were

 attempting to defend the indefensible.


Mabry Anderson (Archive): This land is composed of two different cultures. A white culture and a colored culture.

And I've lived close to them all my life. But I'm told now that we've mistreated them and we must change. And these changes are comin'

faster than I expected. A new way of thinking and it's difficult. It's difficult for me;

 it's difficult for all Southerners. 

YV: I think being in the film gave him a sense that he could do something about his ideas.

That he could do more. That he could reach more people.

KJ: He started

doing the Head Start bus because he left Lusco's, right?

YJ: My grandfather purchased a bus and started working for Head Start, and would

drive to these sort of outlying communities and would pick up children and take them to school.

KJ: Dad was one of the "first"

 to think of the idea

that the children had to be picked up to go to school. And when he said, 'I'm gonna get a bus', and in my mind I'm thinking a little cargo van or something, or a station wagon, or something. He drove up with that big bus and I don't think he had a CD or a license!

VD: And we were riding on it for the first time, just a bumpin' and a ridin'! (Laughter)

KJ: And we were wonderin', how in the world does Dad know how to drive a bus?

VD: He didn't. (Laughter)

KJ: But, I mean, he could do anything he wanted to.

BJ: He was for real about education.

He was really sincere about you doing the best for yourself, and getting the best, you know-

KJ: He would pick them up in the mornings and drop them off in the afternoons.

And he loved it.


RDF: Did you know that Booker was murdered?

JGE: No.



YJ: One of Booker's half-sisters shared a story with me

that just-  I found it disturbing.

Margurite would often come down to Greenwood to visit Booker, she lived in Chicago at the time, and she would work in the cafe. And after Booker left Lusco's, a white police officer came in and walked through the restaurant,

back to the kitchen, into the kitchen, and there was food cooking on the stove, with some sort of ham hock.

MB: He didn't order

anything or didn't say 'can you give me tastes of something,' somebody could have served it up in a bowl. He went into the pot with his hand.

YJ: He just stood there and ate it making kind of mess as juices dripped onto the floor. And when he was finished, he turned around and he left, and never said a word.

MB: But my brother still looked like a big man when he walked out of that kitchen and that man went out that door

and went to that kitchen and threw that pot of greens in the trash. He was still a man.

YJ: That officer was trying to send a message to my grandfather

and to his family. And... I think maybe the message was: You're still under my thumb.

HEJW: The police had no respect for us. They were there as part of the enemy, they were the enemy.

They were just not Boy Scout leaders, and they were not just the nice officer down the street to the average black person.

Benton Johnson: If they wanted you, they just come and got you. Come and got you.

NBC Anchor Frank McGee (Archive): His newspaper has spoken out against violence. Against the corruption of law enforcement officers, in favor of fair treatment for the Negro.

SM: I saw this figure of this man's hand pointed like that and before I could do anything else, the shot went off.

YJ: Where were you hit?

Silas McGhee: Right there. (Pointing to scar on face)

YJ: Wow. Do you have any idea who shot you?

SM: Uh, sure-

David Jordan: Logan was one in the 60's that was rough on African Americans.

YJ: Silas McGhee says that that's the person who shot him, Roy Logan.

DJ: It coulda very well been.

 Coulda been Underwood. It was tense.

SM:  I'd go to my grave sayin' it was Roy Logan.
      
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02:15:00    WB: That time, Logan came up and said

'What you niggers want?' And I said, 'We're lawyers.' And he said, 'I don't care what...you're a lawyer but you're a nigger lawyer, you're a nigger.' And I said, 'All right man, you don't have no right to call me nigger.'

 He said, 'You niggers get out of here!' I think Johnnie being kind, said, "No, we ain't no niggers and we ain't got to get out of here. This is a public place and we want to see our client." And at that time, Shaw gets up

unstraps his gun and walks around and said, "You niggers gettin' out of here." And Johnnie, that was no finger in my back, that was a pistol. And he kept on pushing me and jigging me and I turned around, and I was prepared to die today, and I said, 'Now look, you're not going to degrade me like that. I'm not no nigger, don't do me like that,

and don't treat me like that.'

BJ: I got a chance to see Curtis Underwood- I got a chance to see Big Smitty. But to my understanding, he was the top, he could come up and...

 400 blacks and say, "When I turn around all 400 of you better be gone."

They said that's why Chicago got so many blacks in it, cuz when they said that Big Smitty was looking for you, if they told you that at 9 o'clock that morning that Big Smitty was looking for you, you'd be on the bus that evening gettin' away from here.

SM: Curtis Underwood was low down.

 He was low down. 

YJ: How so?

SM: I mean just nasty! You know, I mean he didn't care anything for black people at all. If he had a problem with Curtis Underwood,

 he had enemies, that's all I can say.

VD: He said, there is something I want you to know.  And I said, 'What is it?' And he said,

'If anything ever happens to me, I want you to know one thing.' And I said, 'What's that?' He said, "Your daddy lived a good life.

I've had a good life. So if anything ever happens to me, I want you to remember that I had a good life."


When you have a feeling that something's going to happen to you, you might say something like that, you know? Who would want to do anything to him? He helped people. People would come to him. He would help people pay bills, like their phone bill, or something like that. He was just...I couldn't imagine anybody wanting to hurt my dad.

YJ: Well, one Saturday night my grandfather was working in his restaurant, Booker's Place, and Lloyd Cork, Blackie,

a young black kid from Greenwood came in and was bothering some people who were trying to eat there, and

 he and my grandfather argued about this, and my grandfather, who always carried a gun in the restaurant hit Blackie in the head with the butt of his gun and kicked him out. And about 15 minutes later, Blackie came back with a sawed off shotgun and he shot my grandfather.

Yvonne Wilson (Audience Member): I recall passing by him with the shotgun, on the way to kill your grandfather. And I was in the club that night, too young to be there but I was there.

VD: I don't know what time of day it was, I don't remember that. And I don't remember who I got the call from, saying that your dad has been shot.



YW (Cont'd): An altercation had come between the two of them. I don't know

 if it was a cover charge at the door and your grandfather said he couldn't come in because he didn't have the money. Something happened, I don't know.

RDF: Why do you think Booker carried a gun on him when he worked at his restaurant?

YJ: Who was he going to call if he had a problem? I mean it's clear blacks in Greenwood feared the all-white police force.

Henry Carpenter: Tommy Gibson was serving whisky and Blackie come to the place and tapped on the window with his shotgun.

And Tommy Gibson moved out of the way and Booker Wright saw him, and come around the counter, and when he made it to the screen door, that's when he met a round of double-ott buckshots.

TITLE: Jess Pinkston
            Booker's Friend

JESS PINKSTON: Booker chased him; he ran out and chased him down the street with that gaping hole in his stomach. So he collapsed on the sidewalk. They picked up in an ambulance and took him to the hospital.

Vera Douglas: He had shot through the door

so the pellets were all in and over. You could see the little...so I remember I leaned over and I kissed him and said, 'Daddy?' And he said, 'I'm alright.'

I said, 'Do you know you've been shot?!'

 My idea of it was, you know, he'll probably pull through. My daddy can pull through anything, so he'll  pull through this. He's told me he's gonna pull through, so I know he's gonna get through this. So I remember I was coming down the hall and the doctor asked for the family and he said, 'He's gone.' And it was like...I stood there and was like, it can't be because he got shot but he's fine. And he promised me that he was going to be okay...

WB: It doesn't matter, you know, that he had family. Didn't matter that he was loved. Didn't matter that he was cared for, or what. Blacks did not have value at all. I'm not talking about measurable,

 I'm talking about Mr. Wright's value, his life- had no value whatsoever. He was just another black man.

VD: You know the trial was like, it was like a blur.

What I do remember, that stood out to me more than anything, was the fact that

Blackie seemed so self-assured.

 He had so much confidence. It was like, 'I haven't done anything so,

 I don't know why I'm here.' You know, I'm thinking, "You murdered my dad."

 How can you sit there and be so....

he was just, I'm important. You know, I'm somebody

because I'm gonna be done with this, nothing is gonna happen to me. And I remember that, and I remember  thinking why does he think he's gonna get away with this?

HEJW: His demeanor indicates to me that he had some expectation that it would be better if he had gone to trial.

Because in a typical case like that, somebody would offer him a deal to plea to manslaughter and he would've been given

 20 years at the most.
      

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02:21:40
    YJ: I kept reading and rereading the Lloyd Cork murder trial transcripts and the more I read it, the more questions I had. There weren't any witnesses called in his defense

and there wasn't really a defense presented, there wasn't really an argument for why he committed that crime.

Whether it was self-defense, because Booker did hit him with the gun, we know that. Cork wasn't mirandized, which was not something that was a central argument of his case. I was really left with a question. Did someone encourage

 Lloyd Cork to murder my grandfather?

WB: If Mr. Wright was a kind of man who got

fed up and spoke out then he was singled out as a person they had to get rid of. And that was not unusual.

I've known several people who have met death under a strange situation because they spoke out.

KJ: What ultimately happened to him that I've always told her that I thought those two incidents were linked.

Because we know that white America in Greenwood does not forget.

TITLE: Erlene Smith
      Lloyd "Blackie" Cork's Mother


YJ: Were you there the morning Lloyd was arrested?

ERLENE SMITH:  Yeah, the police come, he come to the house.

YJ: Did it seem like those officers knew him already?

ES: Oh yeah, one of them know him I know, but I just can't think of his name. I don't know what he...still live or what.

WB: It is not unusual for one black to be used to kill another black.

I mean with a few dollars, whisky...

Erlene Smith: But he know'd him. he know'd him good. He saw him all the time, because you know he drank a lot.

WB: Just working in loyalty to your boss man...some of ‘em would do it.

ES: And he know'd him good. But I think he's dead though, that one.


Silas McGhee: If you think about the things

that Booker did here in Greenwood and what he stood for in Greenwood at that particular time,

you might say yeah, I don't think this dude would of did this on his own....

HJEW: For whatever reason, he had the expectation that he was going to be all right. Because if you shot a man through a door, and there were witnesses that proved that you did that,

that would almost be a certain murder conviction.

 And a certain murder conviction meant life.

So I don't know what would have given him the confidence other than the fact something else was planned to happen, do you follow what I'm saying? That favorable conditions didn't happen, but the way he acted during the trial, that indicates to me that he thought something else better was gonna happen for him

 because he had killed Booker Wright. That's the way I look at it.

TITLE:        Lloyd Cork is serving a life sentence for  the murder of Booker Wright in East Mississippi Correctional Facility.
Permission to film an interview with him was denied.

Hodding Carter II (Archive): I have seen too much happen, particularly in my own part of  Mississippi,

 the Yazoo Mississippi Delta, to be a pessimist today. Steps have been too broad that we have taken for there to be any setting back. But it's not going to change for a long time. But I wish anyone who has seen this program could be alive 50 years from now and come back and see us again, he'll see some profound and largely hopeful changes in our pattern.

BW (Archive): Night after night I lay down and I dream about what I had to go through with, I don't want my children to have to go through with that. I want them to be able to get the job they be qualified. That's what I'm struggling for. I don't want this, and I don't want that. But I just don't want my children to have to go through what I went through with.

"Hey, tell that nigger to hurry up with that coffee!" I'm on my way. So that's what you have to go through with. But remember, you have to keep that smile.

HC3 : In one person, in one interview, in one place, you had personified

what it was  Black Mississippi was saying to White Mississippi after all those years. 'Naw, I ain't shufflin' anymore,' and, ‘Naw, you ain't scarin' me out of this anymore.'



Dr. Curressia Brown (Audience Member): You talked about your grandfather's life and people here who shared that. He faced some challenges,

 but for him, he had to turn those around into an opportunity. Based on his determination,

 my children, my grandchildren, won't have to do this. We are laying the foundation for that next generation.

Troy Brown (Audience Member): Your granddaddy put up with that stuff-

But if your granddaddy were to come back here, I bet he'd be really pissed off about the way things are now. Because there

 are still some people who have to work those menial jobs because they don't have the education to do any better, to let alone own it.

 And we made cotton king.
      

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02:27:08   





David Jordan (Audience Member): I remember in the black community where most of the homes were rented homes, but they had flower yards.

They had pride. And they had swings. And they kept that place neat. Now that that generation is gone and they've  turned it over to the next generation, everything is rundown, torn completely up, cars parked up in the yard.

So it's a mindset.

William L. Ware (Audience Member): There were stores starting at New Zion Church down Johnson Street. We lost an economic clout when we integrated.


Dr. Anita Batman (Audience Member): I guess one thing that really touched me, and it's not what the film meant to do, but I saw people that I love. And I loved Booker.

And I loved Stanley Sanders, and I loved Hardy Lott, and I loved Charlie Samson, and his wife taught me fifth grade-

There were a lot of good people caught in a system that was flawed and they were with the best of will trying to work their way through it.



HC3: It was the most stunning, absolutely pitch-perfect, straight-on rendition of one humiliation that was his regular existence as a waiter in that place in Greenwood.

It was a straight-on statement of , 'Here's how I really feel, and this ain't right.'

FDF: People change when they see misery and they see things happen that are terrible. They suddenly are looking for someone to blame. And they blamed me. And I deserve it. Listen, I think that I should've just not used it. I really do.



RDF: I think when you make a film and you use real people you risk changing their lives. And I think he most certainly did change Booker's life.

I mean this was a defining moment for Booker Wright,

so I can't agree with my father that he shouldn't have used it. I think if he hadn't given Booker the stage and allowed him that moment to speak his mind and his heart, he'd have been doing the same thing that everyone else had been doing to Booker for all those years.

VD: It wouldn't have made a difference if I had said, ‘Daddy don't do that! They're gonna kill you if you do that. Don't do that.' He would say to me, 'Baby, this is something I got to do. This is something I'm gonna have to do because somebody has to stand up and tell the truth.'

TITLE:     Booker's daughter Katherine Jones became a           business woman.
His daughter Vera Douglas became a high school teacher.
     His granddaughter Yvette Johnson is a writer.

VD (Cont'd): So if that contributed to his death, do I hate that he did? Yes, I do. Yes, I do. I'd much rather have him here.

But then on the other hand, what he did at the time that he did it, was spectacular.


TITLE:     Booker's Place still stands at 211 West McLaurin Street in Greenwood, Mississippi.
      It remains vacant.


End TITLES:
     


Directed by
Raymond De Felitta

Produced by
David Zellerford

Co-producer
Yvette Johnson

Executive Producer
Steven C. Beer

Executive Producer
Lynn Roer

Photographed by
Joe Victorine

Edited by
George Gross

Original Score by
David Cieri

Production Manager
Moitri Ghosh

Associate Producer
Nicki Newburger

Post-Production Supervisor
Alessandra Bellizia

Featuring
Yvette Johnson
Frank De Felitta
Vera Douglas
Katherine Jones

and
Raymond De Felitta

with
John T. Edge
Senator David Jordan
Marie Tribit
Benton Johnson
Margurite Butler
Walter Williams
Leroy Jones
Judge Gray Evans
Governor William Winter
Charlot Ray
Allen Wood, Jr.
Karen Pinkston
Alix Sanders
Silas McGhee
Hodding Carter III
Representative Willie Bailey
Judge Johnnie E. Walls
Pastor Calvin E. Collins
Jess Pinkston
Erlene Smith

Research
Yvette Johnson
Dr. Kathryn Green

Additional Photography
Joe Russell
Michael Mayers
Graham Willoughby

2nd Unit Director
David Zellerford

Location Sound
Orion Gordon

DIT
Josh Boyd

Main Man
Dion Matthews

1st AC
Jonathan Nelson
Jared Ames

Still Photographers
Nicki Newburger
Danielle Andersen

Production Assistants
Danielle Andersen
Byron Keys

Editorial Consultant
John Wayland

Post-Production Facilities
eyepatch productions
Lone Outpost

Digital Media
Julio Martinez
Jorge Roman

Sound Mix
Ken Meyer

Surround Mix
audioEngine
Rex Recker

Music Supervisor
John Scheaffer

Music Licensing
Chris Robertson

Title Design and Animation by Bionic Media
Victor M. Newman
Luciano Tapia
Jim Johnson

Original Illustrations
Rani Laik

New York Unit

DP
Graham Willoughby

Gaffer
Korey Williams

DIT
George Gross

Sound
Matt Caulfield

Makeup
Jill Astmann

Office Intern
Justin Mackin

Production Assistants
Gary Lo Savio
Jacob Vogt
Eric Walston

Cameras and Lenses provided by Smash Camera

Equipment provided by Dean Film & Video, Memphis
Eastern Effects
Cinema-Vision
Matthew Shroeder

Film to HD Transfer
Laser Pacific
Du-All Camera

After Effects
Francis Oh
Vanessa Pyne


Colorist
Ron Sudul

Color Grade Facility
Nice Shoes

Graphic Design
Charlotte Strick

Web Design
Emily Wilbur

Social Media
Ana Kaczmarek Davis

Publicity by Falco Ink
Janice Roland
Shannon Treusch

Archival Footage courtesy of
NBC Universal Archives
The Streets of Greenwood, Jack Willis, John Reavis & Fred Wardenburg
Frank De Felitta
Getty Images
A Filmed Record, LLC
Iowa State University, Motion Picture Services
Prelinger Archives

University of Mississippi Libraries
Graham & Guest Collections
Southern Media Archive, Special Collections

Other Archival Material courtesy of
Les Lamb
Bob Fletcher
Sara Evans Criss
Frank McCormick
Sue (Lorenzi) Sojourner
Allan Hammons Collection
Museum of the Mississippi Delta
Greenwood-Leflore Public Library
AP Photo & Chicago Sun-Times
The Detroit News Photo Archives
The New York Times & PARS International Corp.
The Family of Milton Rogovin and The Rogovin Collection
Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
The Estate of Hubert Lowman and Lowman Publishing Company
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Mary Dickinson
and National Archives and Records Administration, College Park
United States Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division
Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection
New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection
TV Guide Magazine article courtesy TV Guide Magazine, LLC © 1966
The Estate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Intellectual Properties Management (IPM)
Corbis Images

Places of refreshment
The Alluvian Hotel
Crystal Grill
Doe's Eat Place
Iola's Fast Food
Lusco's Restaurant
Steven's BBQ

Catering by Veronica's Custom Bakery

Very special thanks
The William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation
The New Zion Missionary Baptist Church Congregation and Sanctuary Choir
Greenwood Community Concert Band
The Pinkston Family
R. Allan Hammons
Dr. Susan M. Glisson
Lindy Agrón
Fred and Ruby Baine
Dr. Anita Batman, M.D.
Troy & Dr. Curressia Brown & Family
Henry Carpenter
DatelineNBC
Noel Davis
Dorothy De Felitta
Hiram C. Eastland, Jr.
Arthur Floyd
Dick Gregory
Sarah Grey
Andrew C. Harper, Ph.D.
Benny and Nancy Harris
Mary and Sylvester Hoover
Timothy A. Kalich
Stephen C. LaVere
Isaac Leigh
Bryan Lott
Bob Lowman
Mary Dent Lucas
Jeremy Martino
Carolyn McAdams
Iola McDonald
Claud McGlothin
Leo Murphree, Jr.
Paradigm
Rhondalyn Peairs
James Poe
Bessie O. Scott
Charles Signa
Bessie O. Scott
Norman Smith
Jimmy Tindall
Nancy Valenti
Joyce Walter
William L. & Lottie H. Ware
Sean Weber-Small
Ben Weiss
Donny Whitehead
Aubrey and William M. Whittington
Dennis "Bo" Williams
Yvonne Wilson
Mildred Honey Wright






















Amanda Elzy High School
Anthology Film Archives
Center for the Study of Southern Culture
Delta Haze Corporation
The Episcopal Church of the Nativity
Friendship Missionary Baptist Church
Greenwood City Hall
The Greenwood Commonwealth
The Greenwood Film Office
The Greenwood Police Department
LeFlore County Court House
LeFlore County Police
Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church
Mississippi Film Office
Sheer and Sheen Barber Shop
Swan Lake Pavilion
Tallahatchie Flats
WABG Radio Station
Whittington Farms

Tia Angelos
John Ballas
Mike Ballas
Lauren Banquer
Marion Barnwell
Tim Beacham
Georgia Beck
Martha Bergmark
Carol Bond
Michael Bonner
Kevin Breheny
Dash Brown
Kim Burgas
Bridget Burns
Caroline Burns
Sandra Butler
Jerry Carver
Courtney Cooper
Amanda Danzy
Andy & Annette Dean
Theresa Dellegrazie
John Dellaporta
Ric Dispenseri
Rick Eisenstein
Preston Everett
Jennifer Farish
Bill Farris
Stacy Ferraro
Jennifer Ford, Ph.D.
Larry Griggs
Gloria Hall
James Holly
Mary Hartwell Howorth
Paige Hunt
Katie Jones
Nyle Kanda
Richard Kaplan
John Klacsmann
Marian Koltai-Levine
Haven Knight
Regina LaVere
Gloria Liggans
Doc Little
"Hump" Gene Logan
Joe Luman
Terry Lynn Malone
Ms. Margarita
George McConnell
Family of Ed McDaniel
Ron Meyer
Mary Miles
Mary Carol Miller
Dr. Owen Murray
Josephine Neill-Browning
Scott Norman
Lieutenant O'Bryant
Ted Ownby
Becky Peralta
John Perry
Carol Puckett
Ryan Purcell
Lucais Reilly
Bradley J. Ross
Judge Betty Sanders
Kelvin L. Scott
Joanne Shivers
Eric Simon
Suzanne Singletary
Charlie Smith
Stephanie Smith
Lucy Stille
Mary Stanton
Lucy Stille
Amy Evans Streeter
Barbara Strickland
Gary Unger
George Vasquez
Annie Wade
Ben Weiss
Milbertha West
Ethel White
Jeff Williams
Pamela Williamson
Robert Wingate
David Wolf
Lee Woodard
Cleveland Wright
Daniel Zapata



Greenwood, Mississippians


Mae Arterberry
Garrett Banks
Russell A. Baxter
Marcus Bemos
Jerry Billings
Ann Warner Bond
Christy Bond
Mary Shelton Bond
Charles Bowman
Rosebud K. Bowman
Charles M. Bowman, Jr.
John R. Branch III
Lindsi Breaux
Mary Key Britt
Hayley Brower
Hunter Brower
Rebecca Brower
Robert T. Bush
Ann Carpenter
Grady Carpenter
Mary Rose Carter
Michael Carter
Billy Carver
Keith Chapman
Annie Collins
Edward Collins
Eddie Mae Davis
Tateka Davis
Keith Dixon
Kenneth Echolson
Allen Erving
Andrew Erving
Lora R. Evans
Peggy Farrell
Kamaj Feurgson
Tae Feurgson
Henry Flautt
Maggie Foreman
Trevor Foreman
Walter Gatewood
Marilyn Gelman
Clarence Glover
Willie Bee Goings
Charlotte Gore
Terry Grantham
Maurice Gray
Willola B. Gray
Larry Green
Thomas Gregory
Charles Grittis
Benjamin Hair
Johnny Hammond
John Harris
Ariel Holmes
Joann Holmes
Mackensie Holmes
Mark Holmstetter
Arlee Holt
Virginia Hoyt
Lisa Idill
Mary Hannah Jarman
Mark Johnes
Connie C. Johnson
Edward Johnson
Elizabeth Johnson
Ann-Marie Jones
Ben Jones
Wilma B. Jones
Pastor E.L. Jones, Jr.
Christine Bell Jordan
Cassandra Junes-Taylor
Allan Laurie
Jimmy Lee
Thomas Lemley
Eddy Lemon
Mamie Lewis
Leonard Lindsay
Vicki Lubiani
Mary Deaton Lucas
Zach Marter
Christopher Massey
Keiko Mathis
Tom Mayee
Lawrence McDuke
Alford McGhee
Bobby Miller
Fran Miller
Mark Miller
Josh Mims
Jessie Mitchell
Susan Montgomery
Adella Moore
Fran-Keshia Moore
Jake Moore
Erin Mulligan
Elizabeth Munger
Whitman Munger
Patricke Nichols
Clements Odom
Sally Payton
Chandrouti Persaud
John Potts
Anthony Pritchett
Will Redmond
Sherod Reed
Johnny Reeves
Sheila Richardson
Elizabeth Rowe
Tremeris Sanders
Frances Self
Hank Shane
Willie Shepard
Barbara B. Short
Tyler Slott
Alex Smith
Beverly C. Smith
Nancy Smith
Virginia Smith
Francis Steel e
Gwen Stemage
Katherine Stuckey
Alicia Sullivan
Tristan Swinney
Tristan Swinney II
Billy F. Taylor
Bennie G. Thompson
Michael Turner
B. Julius Walls
Donald Welch
Curtis Westbrook
DeVanté Wiley
Johnnie Lee Williams
Clifton Williams, Jr.
Frank Willis
Jerry Willis
Sherron Wright
Princess Yarbrough
Johnny Young






"Mother and Child"
Composed and performed by David Cieri
Published by DGC Publishing (BMI)

"The Clockwise Bride"
Composed by David Cieri
Performed by David Cieri and Jay Frederick
Published by DGC Publishing (BMI)









"Cool Drink of Water Blues" (Traditional)
Arranged and performed by John Dudley
Published by Odyssey Productions, Inc.
On behalf of the Estate of Alan Lomax

"Lives and Labor"
Composed by David Cieri
Performed by David Cieri and Estelle Bajou
Published by DGC Publishing (BMI)



"Meridian Dream"
Composed and performed by David Cieri
Published by DGC Publishing (BMI)


"Clarksdale Mill Blues"
Arranged and performed by John Dudley
Published by Odyssey Productions, Inc.
On behalf of the Estate of Alan Lomax



"St. Louis Blues"
Composed by W.C. Handy
Performed by David Cieri


"Piano Boogie"
Performed by Memphis Slim
Published by Odyssey Productions, Inc.
On behalf of the Estate of Alan Lomax


"Five Smooth Stones"
Composed by David Cieri
Performed by David Cieri, Jay Frederick,
Josh Sinton and Gilad Ronen
Published by DGC Publishing (BMI)

"Wineglass, Sax, Bass"
Composed by David Cieri
Performed by David Cieri,
Rebecca Mahalek and Mike Brown
Published by DGC Publishing (BMI)




"Goodbye To All That"
Composed and performed by David Cieri
Published by ICM


"Hold On" (Traditional)
Performed by David Cieri
and Ageless Praise
Published by DGC Publishing (BMI)
 "Meditation 9"
Composed and performed by David Cieri
Published by DGC Publishing (BMI)


"Getting Ready To Move Up Stairs"
Published by Odyssey Productions, Inc.
On behalf of the Estate of Alan Lomax


"God is Good"
Arrangement by Chester D. T. Baldwin,
Performed by Rev. Kenneth Milton, Sr.,
Nathaniel Rosebur and Chris Davis
Vocals by Wanda Young and the New Zion Missionary Baptist Church Sanctuary Choir Published by CDT Baldwin Songs (BMI)

"The Silent Run"
Composed and performed by David Cieri
Published by DGC Publishing (BMI)


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Ownership of this motion picture is protected by copyright and other applicable laws. Any unauthorized duplication, distribution or exhibition of this motion picture could result in criminal prosecution as well as civil liability.

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