[Music]
thank you that was so nice and you don’t
even know me thank you so much
remembering it’s not enough but it’s a
very good beginning in 1981 Michael
Donald was found hanging from a tree
1981 19 year old Michael Donald was a
student a son a brother a nephew he was
a victim he was abducted by two men who
belonged to a group called the United
Klans of America they tricked him pulled
him into the car took him to a remote
location beat him cut his throat then
brought him back and hung him from a
tree in a residential area in Midtown
Mobile Alabama 1981 the two men who
abducted Michael Donald were eventually
arrested and convicted but the founder
of the Southern Poverty Law Center more
STIs went at the Klan itself and in
particular its leader Grand Wizard
Robert Shelton to be held responsible so
the center endeavored on this new legal
strategy to sue the Klan in civil court
and hold them legally responsible
Michael’s mom mrs. Beulah McDonald
agreed to have the Southern Poverty Law
Center represent her is incredible
this black woman in Mobile Alabama suing
a Klan organization it was a remarkable
remarkable trial one of the killers one
of the convicted killers they had been
convicted in Criminal Court by then
served as a witness on our side he
cooperated everything that Morris said
he did and he asked the judge said me I
addressed mrs. Donald directly the judge
said yes and he looked at mrs. Donald
and he said I did what I did everything
Morris said I did everything I’m so
sorry
can you ever forgive me mrs. Donald
paused looked at him I said son I’ve
already forgiven you there wasn’t a dry
eye in the courthouse mrs. Donald
prevailed in a seven million dollar
judgment against the United Klans of
America bankrupting that organization
preventing them from killing someone
else not long after the the trial was
over Morris and mrs. Donald read an
n-double-a-cp event in Alabama talking
about the trial and Morrison in his talk
he mentioned some of the martyrs from
the Civil Rights Movement he said that
Michael Donald’s name would be
remembered like other civil rights
martyrs people like Emmitt Till Medgar
Evers James Chaney Andrew Goodman
Michael Schwerner Viola Liuzzo
after the talk some young people came up
to Morris and said hmm we had recognized
dr. King but who are these other people
so other young people just gathered
began to gather around and said yeah who
are these people
they had already been lost to history
and it till it’s 14 years old when he
was murdered in money Mississippi in
1955 and it was from Chicago his great
uncle had been visiting and he was about
to go back to Mississippi and Emmett
wanted to go with him and his cousin his
mother didn’t think that was the best
idea she tried to talk to him about the
difference between living in
middle-class Chicago on the south side
and money Mississippi but it’s hard to
explain that to a 14 year old boy so he
begged her and she let him go three days
after he was there in money Mississippi
he and his friends and cousins were went
to a store brian’s grocery they had been
picking cotton all day this was in
August it was hot
trying to get something to drink and
snacks they went into the store and
Carol Bryant was the clerk there that
day her husband owns the store the kids
bought their snacks and left sometime
thereafter soon thereafter we don’t know
exactly when mrs. Bryant accused Emmett
Till of flirting with her or whistling
at her or touching her hand we don’t
know but what we do know is four days
after that and it Till was kidnapped
from his uncle’s home at 2:30 in the
morning
mr. Bryant and his brother went into
their home and took that boy from his
bed took him out in the woods somewhere
and beat him beyond recognition it was
as if they were trying to deliver a
message couched out and I pulled out his
tongue
then shot him in the head tied his body
to a cotton gin fan weighed him down and
threw him in the Tallahatchie River the
uncle reported the kidnapping to the
authorities took them three days to find
Emmett’s body
the authorities tried to get him its mom
to bury him there to spare him just get
it over with let’s move on and she said
no this courageous woman this mother who
could barely recognize her son decided
that she was going to take his body back
to Chicago she did she had an open
casket and Emmett Till’s body lay in
state for five days over 10,000 people
walked in that church and saw Emmett
Till’s body mrs. Hill wanted them to see
she said I want you to face what has
happened to my son
see what they did to my son that
courageous act inspired thousands of
people to become involved in the civil
rights movement including Rosa Parks a
hundred days after Emmett Till’s murder
was when mrs. Parks refused to give up
her seat on a Montgomery City bus in her
biography she says you know I thought
about Emmett Till that day and I just
couldn’t move back been there people
like Viola Liuzzo viola Gregg Liuzzo a
white woman from Detroit she was a
mother of five five children but she had
a burning desire to help to make things
right so one night on the evening news
she saw my move on my side sorry
one night on the evening news she saw
some peaceful protesters being beaten on
a bridge turned out to be Bloody Sunday
you may not know about that it’s when
about six hundred peaceful protesters
attempted to march from Selma to
Montgomery and were met by state
troopers and beaten back she saw that on
TV and got very upset she told her
husband I’ve got to go I need the help
he said no no just stay here a couple
days later on the evening news she saw
that Reverend Reap
a white minister from Boston had gone
down to Selma to help and was killed and
she said I have to go she got in her car
drove by herself
from Detroit to Alabama she got there
she began to help everyone with the with
the March that the next March that they
were planning she was shuttle people
back and forth and once the judge
announced that the people had a
constitutional right to march from Selma
to Montgomery with the protection of the
US Army and National Guard file that was
marching right with them four days later
they ended up in Montgomery dr. King
delivered that beautiful speech he said
how long not long the arc of the moral
universe is long but it bends towards
justice viola was there she was so happy
that night after the March she was still
helping people getting people back home
getting driving people back to Selma and
she was driving a black man another one
of the civil rights workers back to
Selma and driving she noticed someone
was following her this car kept
following her she tried to go faster the
car pulled up right right alongside her
they looked at her
she looked at them and they shot her
turns out the car was full of members of
the United Klans of America the same
Klan group that killed Michael Donald
killed Viola Liuzzo these are the names
that Morris was trying to lift up a
compared to Michael Donald so after that
speech he was driving home he decided
you know southern probably Law Center
needs to do something to bring these
names forward so the young people would
understand the sacrifices that were made
so he thought let’s create him let’s
create a memorial a monument called on
Mile End
the artisan architect who did the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial and she was
surprised that there wasn’t one already
but she said yeah I’ll do it I’ll create
a memorial she did in 1989 the civil
rights memorial was dedicated in
Montgomery Alabama 6,000 people were
there the Morial is beautiful it’s a
black granite has water flowing over it
it chronicles the major events of the
civil rights movement beginning in 1954
‘the brown v board and continues on a
timeline to 1968 an assassination of dr.
King all along that timeline it names 40
individuals who were killed
we call them martyrs to the movement
regular people as Julian Bond said at
the dedication ordinary people who
exhibited extraordinary courage
some were active in the civil rights
movement some were not someone like
Emmett Till whose deaths or murders
inspired others to be a part of the
movement in some work victims of direct
terrorism they came from all walks of
life students farmers homemakers a Nobel
laureate and dr. King a few years later
in the year 2000 someone had found out
about the civil rights memorial his name
is Shelton Chappell and he thought of
his mother and he wanted the center to
add his mother’s name to the civil
rights memorial turns out she had been
murdered in 1964 in Jacksonville I
believe Jacksonville Florida to shot
walking home now of course you can’t add
names to the memorial but we decided
we’re gonna honor her so we rededicated
the Moore memorial in 2000 in the honor
of Johnnie Mae Chappell and all the
Forgotten others because you see there
are more than 40 individuals who were
killed during that time the memorial
brings back these names these stories
these histories so that history is not
lost on the wall behind the table Maya
Lin ketched a quote from a speech that
dr. King delivered actually he delivered
the speech during the march on
Washington but it was something somewhat
of a mantra for him he also said it
during the during the Montgomery bus
boycott when people think of dr. King
they think of the I have a dream speech
and that was part of the march on
Washington but in 1963 he was upset
people were upset and he started off his
speech saying no we are not satisfied
and we will not be satisfied until
justice rolls
like waters and righteousness like a
mighty stream
on the memorial table mile in left a
space between the beginning and the end
between 54 and 68 open timeline she
calls it and when you visit the memorial
in or interact with that you look down
at the water and see yourself reflected
back up it was Maya Lin’s hope that as
you look down you contemplate what
you’re doing to forward the cause of
social justice what would be said about
you if your name was etched on the
memorial what are you doing to make
justice roll down like waters and
righteousness like a mighty stream
remembering is not enough we must
dedicate ourselves to the goals for
which the civil-rights martyrs died
justice is not rolling down like waters
and righteousness like a mighty stream
not for all of us so we remember and we
move forward thank you
[Applause]
thank you that was so nice and you don’t
even know me thank you so much
remembering it’s not enough but it’s a
very good beginning in 1981 Michael
Donald was found hanging from a tree
1981 19 year old Michael Donald was a
student a son a brother a nephew he was
a victim he was abducted by two men who
belonged to a group called the United
Klans of America they tricked him pulled
him into the car took him to a remote
location beat him cut his throat then
brought him back and hung him from a
tree in a residential area in Midtown
Mobile Alabama 1981 the two men who
abducted Michael Donald were eventually
arrested and convicted but the founder
of the Southern Poverty Law Center more
STIs went at the Klan itself and in
particular its leader Grand Wizard
Robert Shelton to be held responsible so
the center endeavored on this new legal
strategy to sue the Klan in civil court
and hold them legally responsible
Michael’s mom mrs. Beulah McDonald
agreed to have the Southern Poverty Law
Center represent her is incredible
this black woman in Mobile Alabama suing
a Klan organization it was a remarkable
remarkable trial one of the killers one
of the convicted killers they had been
convicted in Criminal Court by then
served as a witness on our side he
cooperated everything that Morris said
he did and he asked the judge said me I
addressed mrs. Donald directly the judge
said yes and he looked at mrs. Donald
and he said I did what I did everything
Morris said I did everything I’m so
sorry
can you ever forgive me mrs. Donald
paused looked at him I said son I’ve
already forgiven you there wasn’t a dry
eye in the courthouse mrs. Donald
prevailed in a seven million dollar
judgment against the United Klans of
America bankrupting that organization
preventing them from killing someone
else not long after the the trial was
over Morris and mrs. Donald read an
n-double-a-cp event in Alabama talking
about the trial and Morrison in his talk
he mentioned some of the martyrs from
the Civil Rights Movement he said that
Michael Donald’s name would be
remembered like other civil rights
martyrs people like Emmitt Till Medgar
Evers James Chaney Andrew Goodman
Michael Schwerner Viola Liuzzo
after the talk some young people came up
to Morris and said hmm we had recognized
dr. King but who are these other people
so other young people just gathered
began to gather around and said yeah who
are these people
they had already been lost to history
and it till it’s 14 years old when he
was murdered in money Mississippi in
1955 and it was from Chicago his great
uncle had been visiting and he was about
to go back to Mississippi and Emmett
wanted to go with him and his cousin his
mother didn’t think that was the best
idea she tried to talk to him about the
difference between living in
middle-class Chicago on the south side
and money Mississippi but it’s hard to
explain that to a 14 year old boy so he
begged her and she let him go three days
after he was there in money Mississippi
he and his friends and cousins were went
to a store brian’s grocery they had been
picking cotton all day this was in
August it was hot
trying to get something to drink and
snacks they went into the store and
Carol Bryant was the clerk there that
day her husband owns the store the kids
bought their snacks and left sometime
thereafter soon thereafter we don’t know
exactly when mrs. Bryant accused Emmett
Till of flirting with her or whistling
at her or touching her hand we don’t
know but what we do know is four days
after that and it Till was kidnapped
from his uncle’s home at 2:30 in the
morning
mr. Bryant and his brother went into
their home and took that boy from his
bed took him out in the woods somewhere
and beat him beyond recognition it was
as if they were trying to deliver a
message couched out and I pulled out his
tongue
then shot him in the head tied his body
to a cotton gin fan weighed him down and
threw him in the Tallahatchie River the
uncle reported the kidnapping to the
authorities took them three days to find
Emmett’s body
the authorities tried to get him its mom
to bury him there to spare him just get
it over with let’s move on and she said
no this courageous woman this mother who
could barely recognize her son decided
that she was going to take his body back
to Chicago she did she had an open
casket and Emmett Till’s body lay in
state for five days over 10,000 people
walked in that church and saw Emmett
Till’s body mrs. Hill wanted them to see
she said I want you to face what has
happened to my son
see what they did to my son that
courageous act inspired thousands of
people to become involved in the civil
rights movement including Rosa Parks a
hundred days after Emmett Till’s murder
was when mrs. Parks refused to give up
her seat on a Montgomery City bus in her
biography she says you know I thought
about Emmett Till that day and I just
couldn’t move back been there people
like Viola Liuzzo viola Gregg Liuzzo a
white woman from Detroit she was a
mother of five five children but she had
a burning desire to help to make things
right so one night on the evening news
she saw my move on my side sorry
one night on the evening news she saw
some peaceful protesters being beaten on
a bridge turned out to be Bloody Sunday
you may not know about that it’s when
about six hundred peaceful protesters
attempted to march from Selma to
Montgomery and were met by state
troopers and beaten back she saw that on
TV and got very upset she told her
husband I’ve got to go I need the help
he said no no just stay here a couple
days later on the evening news she saw
that Reverend Reap
a white minister from Boston had gone
down to Selma to help and was killed and
she said I have to go she got in her car
drove by herself
from Detroit to Alabama she got there
she began to help everyone with the with
the March that the next March that they
were planning she was shuttle people
back and forth and once the judge
announced that the people had a
constitutional right to march from Selma
to Montgomery with the protection of the
US Army and National Guard file that was
marching right with them four days later
they ended up in Montgomery dr. King
delivered that beautiful speech he said
how long not long the arc of the moral
universe is long but it bends towards
justice viola was there she was so happy
that night after the March she was still
helping people getting people back home
getting driving people back to Selma and
she was driving a black man another one
of the civil rights workers back to
Selma and driving she noticed someone
was following her this car kept
following her she tried to go faster the
car pulled up right right alongside her
they looked at her
she looked at them and they shot her
turns out the car was full of members of
the United Klans of America the same
Klan group that killed Michael Donald
killed Viola Liuzzo these are the names
that Morris was trying to lift up a
compared to Michael Donald so after that
speech he was driving home he decided
you know southern probably Law Center
needs to do something to bring these
names forward so the young people would
understand the sacrifices that were made
so he thought let’s create him let’s
create a memorial a monument called on
Mile End
the artisan architect who did the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial and she was
surprised that there wasn’t one already
but she said yeah I’ll do it I’ll create
a memorial she did in 1989 the civil
rights memorial was dedicated in
Montgomery Alabama 6,000 people were
there the Morial is beautiful it’s a
black granite has water flowing over it
it chronicles the major events of the
civil rights movement beginning in 1954
‘the brown v board and continues on a
timeline to 1968 an assassination of dr.
King all along that timeline it names 40
individuals who were killed
we call them martyrs to the movement
regular people as Julian Bond said at
the dedication ordinary people who
exhibited extraordinary courage
some were active in the civil rights
movement some were not someone like
Emmett Till whose deaths or murders
inspired others to be a part of the
movement in some work victims of direct
terrorism they came from all walks of
life students farmers homemakers a Nobel
laureate and dr. King a few years later
in the year 2000 someone had found out
about the civil rights memorial his name
is Shelton Chappell and he thought of
his mother and he wanted the center to
add his mother’s name to the civil
rights memorial turns out she had been
murdered in 1964 in Jacksonville I
believe Jacksonville Florida to shot
walking home now of course you can’t add
names to the memorial but we decided
we’re gonna honor her so we rededicated
the Moore memorial in 2000 in the honor
of Johnnie Mae Chappell and all the
Forgotten others because you see there
are more than 40 individuals who were
killed during that time the memorial
brings back these names these stories
these histories so that history is not
lost on the wall behind the table Maya
Lin ketched a quote from a speech that
dr. King delivered actually he delivered
the speech during the march on
Washington but it was something somewhat
of a mantra for him he also said it
during the during the Montgomery bus
boycott when people think of dr. King
they think of the I have a dream speech
and that was part of the march on
Washington but in 1963 he was upset
people were upset and he started off his
speech saying no we are not satisfied
and we will not be satisfied until
justice rolls
like waters and righteousness like a
mighty stream
on the memorial table mile in left a
space between the beginning and the end
between 54 and 68 open timeline she
calls it and when you visit the memorial
in or interact with that you look down
at the water and see yourself reflected
back up it was Maya Lin’s hope that as
you look down you contemplate what
you’re doing to forward the cause of
social justice what would be said about
you if your name was etched on the
memorial what are you doing to make
justice roll down like waters and
righteousness like a mighty stream
remembering is not enough we must
dedicate ourselves to the goals for
which the civil-rights martyrs died
justice is not rolling down like waters
and righteousness like a mighty stream
not for all of us so we remember and we
move forward thank you
[Applause]
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