WEBVTT

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It was a direct.

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It was very important
that people know that.

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She was daydreaming.

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I used to tease Mrs Parks
because like all Black women

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and she thinks that she
fries the best chicken,

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and she thinks she
makes the best meatloaf.

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And she would say that,
Raymond loved my meatloaf.

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And I'd say, well,
Mrs Parks that's

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because he didn't have mine.

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[LAUGHTER]

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And she were like, no,
baby, mine is better.

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So I have her daydreaming
about the meal

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she's going to cook for Raymond
because he's been working late.

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And you can fry chicken quickly,
but you can't make a meal.

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It takes a minute.

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So she's daydreaming
about making

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a meatloaf when this man
comes on hollers at her.

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I have him bellowing, I
said give me those seats.

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But Mrs. Parks had no startle.

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I don't know what it is about
the water in Montgomery,

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neither did Martin Luther King.

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And if you recall, when
King was stabbed in Harlem,

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he didn't jump like
most of us would do.

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Somebody stabs you, you know.

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But he sat there, oh,
I have been stabbed.

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It saved his life because had
he sneezed, that knife would

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have moved and cut his heart.

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Mrs. Parks had no
startle either.

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And so she just looked up and
said, why do you pick on us?

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And he said, it's the law.

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Give me the seats.

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Well, she was, as you
know, on the the aisle.

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We know that there was
a man on the window.

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The bus was only 36 seats.

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It was a small bus.

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And we know that there were
two people on the other side.

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They decided-- and I
have no fault with them,

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they decided to
give up those seats.

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They didn't want to be bothered.

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Mrs. Parks got up
to let him out.

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And when he did, James Tate
thought that it was over.

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He goes back to drive the bus.

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And when he looked up in his
mirror, she was sitting there.

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And he said, I'm going to have
you arrested, and she said,

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you may do that.

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So now the bus is stuck,
and of course, the bus

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divided, not by race
really but by how

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people looked at justice.

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Some of the white
people said she

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had a right to be there because
she was in the neutral section.

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Some of the Black
people said she

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ought to move because it's
going to cause a lot of problems

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for everybody.

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It was no one way or the
other, but nonetheless, she

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was going to wait.

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If Bryan Collier
were here, he would

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say, because it fascinated
Bryan, the bus driver.

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He said, but, Nikki,
the bus driver had,

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and it's true, a billy club.

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He did.

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And the bus driver
had a gun, and he did.

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But something made him
have to call for backup.

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A little 42-year-old woman
and he had to call somebody

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to get her off the bus
because he couldn't handle it

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by himself.

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This is Claudette
Colvin, and she

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had been arrested nine months
earlier for the same thing,

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for refusing to get up her
seat, but she had pled guilty.

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And when she pled guilty,
it was a $25 fine.

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She paid it and
that was the end.

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We needed somebody who was
going to plead not guilty

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and be found guilty
so that we could then

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take it to the courts.

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We could work its way up.

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And so this is going to
take a lot of courage.

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Bryan wanted to show her
hands because she's just

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very calm with this.

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This is Dr. Jo Ann Robinson who
is just the newly elected head

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of the Women's Political
Caucus, because we forget

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that the Montgomery
bus boycott largely

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was the groundwork of women.

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You have to give women
credit for doing that.

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And she's in Piggly
Wiggly fixing her dinner,

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because I have all the women
in domestic situations.

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She bought dinner, she
went home and fixed it.

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She fed her two sons and her
husband, washed the dishes,

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dried them, put her two
boys to bed, and at 10

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o'clock that night, went out
to Alabama State, and ran off.

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Used Alabama State's
paper and ran off flyers.

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They ran off 35,000 flyers.

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So they ran off
pretty much all night.

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About 4 o'clock in the morning,
they called their husbands.

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I know some people say, well,
why didn't the husbands go out?

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Because it's still
Alabama, and if somebody

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had gone by and seen a
whole bunch of Black men,

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that there's going
to be bloodshed.

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And so the women were
betting that if somebody just

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saw a whole bunch of women,
they might let it go.

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And it was a good bet.

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But the men came
and got the flyers.

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You also have read, of
course, that the bus

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boycott, the ministers
announced it in church

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and that's what made it happen.

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But I know that you know that
not everybody goes to church.

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If you want something
to happen, you

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got to go to the juke joints.

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You do, because that's the
people that ride the bus.

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The ministers have cars.

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They live in detached housing.

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I mean, come on.

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And so that's what
we're going to have.

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The women are going to do that.

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And, of course, this
is Johnnie Mae Carr.

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And one of the great privileges
in my life and anybody

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was to watch Rosa
Parks and Johnnie Mae.

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As I said, she didn't let
her hair down with me.

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Not that she was unrelaxed,
it's just I was not

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that kind of friend,
but Johnnie Mae Carr

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was that kind of friend.

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And to sit with the two of them
sometimes because they always--

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older people talk about
death, and Johnnie Mae

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would say, well,
Rosa, you better

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get ready to eulogize me.

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You're going to have
to be doing that.

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And she would say,
no, no, Johnnie,

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you have to eulogize me.

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I'm not going to live.

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And Johnnie would say, no.

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And so there was
some back and forth.

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And one of the really more
difficult things for me

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personally was in Detroit,
it was Johnnie Mae Carr

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who had to eulogize Rosa Parks
because Mrs. Carr is older

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and never thought
that would happen.

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But as you can see, Bryan,
she's the only person

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in this book in real time
because Bryan fell in love.

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When Bryan went down
to Montgomery finally,

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he met Mrs. Carr
and she hugged him.

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And Bryan is a football player.

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He's a former linesman.

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And so he's a big guy.

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And of course, you know Southern
Black women love big men.

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And she was like,
well, come on in, baby.

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Let me fix you something to eat.

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And of course, Bryan
is always hungry.

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So he's sitting there,
eating her food.

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And she fell in love with him.

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It's like, oh, what
a nice young man.

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He's eating my food.

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So Bryan should be ashamed.

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Of course, that
Monday, we are going

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to meet Martin Luther King.

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But again, Bryan did
not want you to see King

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because it wasn't important.

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What he thought
was important was

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to look over King's
shoulders so that we

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could, in fact, see the people.

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And the people are
going to March.

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And we've got this lovely--

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the people are going
to march 381 days.

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And a lot of good came
out of the marching.

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Not only did we
fight segregation,

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but we forget, by walking, the
people improved their health.

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They lost weight.

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They did.

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Cholesterol went down.

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Domestic violence went
to 0 because instead

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of being mad at their
wives and children

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they were involved in
something righteous.

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This was a good
thing, the march.

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And of course, the Supreme
Court did rule absolutely

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that the 14th Amendment
applied to Black Americans

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and that we should have
equal rights under the law.

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And of course, what we had
in our book is the children

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are thanking Rosa Parks.

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Thank you.

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[APPLAUSE]

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