A White Man Killed The Mules And

I Remember, And I Will Never Forget, One Day - I Was Six Years Old And I Was Playing Beside The Road And This Plantation Owner Drove Up To Me And Stopped And Asked Me "could I Pick Some Cotton." I Told Him I Didn't Know And He Said, "yes, You Can. I Will Give You Things That You Want From The Commissary Store," And He Named A Huge List That He Called Off. I Picked The 30 Pounds Of Cotton That Week, But I Found Out What Actually Happened Was He Was Trapping Me Into Beginning The Work I Was To Keep Doing And I Never Did Get Out Of His Debt Again.

These People In Mississippi State, They Are Not "down"; All They Need Is A Chance. And I Am Determined To Give My Part Not For What The Movement Can Do For Me, But What I Can Do For The Movement To Bring About A Change In The State Of Mississippi.

[my Mother] Tried So Hard To Make Life Easy For Us. Those Are The Things That Forced Me To Try To Do Something Different And When This Movement Came To Mississippi I Still Feel It Is One Of The Greatest Things That Ever Happened Because Only A Person Living In The State Of Mississippi Knows What It Is Like To Suffer; Knows What It Is Like To Be Hungry; Knows What It Is Like To Have No Clothing To Wear.

It Is Only When We Speak What Is Right That We Stand A Chance At Night Of Being Blown To Bits In Our Homes. Can We Call This A Free Country, When I Am Afraid To Go To Sleep In My Own Home In Mississippi?... I Might Not Live Two Hours After I Get Back Home, But I Want To Be A Part Of Setting The Negro Free In Mississippi.

If I Am Truly Free, Who Can Tell Me How Much Of My Freedom I Can Have Today?