WEBVTT

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(thoughtful piano music)

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- In the Americans Who Tell
the Truth Portrait series

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I was thinking about
using art as therapy.

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(thoughtful piano music)

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So I'd never painted
a portrait in my life

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and I believed entirely
in ambiguity and mystery.

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(thoughtful piano music)

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Years ago I thought if I
ever paint didactic art,

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that's just the last
thing I want to do.

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However, you don't choose
the times you live in.

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You know, each painting
is not just a painting.

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It's got a quote from
that person scratched

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into the surface of the painting.

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I almost always
begin a conversation

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talking about Sojourner Truth.

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Sojourner Truth's quote says,

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"Now I hears talking
about the Constitution

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"and the rights of man, and
I comes up and I takes hold

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"of this Constitution
and it's mighty big

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"and I feels for my rights,
but there ain't any there.

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"And then I says, 'God, what
ails this Constitution?'

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"And he says to me,
'Sojourner, there is

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"a little weasel in it.'"

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So you might be
wondering what it is

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about telling the truth
that I'm interested in.

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So I'm just going to tell you
a little bit about why I'm

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painting these pictures, and
then why I think these people

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who are in these
portraits are so important

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in all of your lives,
as well as my life.

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Let's go over and
look at Sojourner.

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I'll tell you why, as an example.

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'Cause it said we're
gonna make justice,

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but it allowed
slavery to continue.

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It said we're gonna have justice,

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but it didn't give
any rights to women,

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or Native Americans
or freed Black people.

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The chasing of that weasel
has been the work of activists

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ever since the
Constitution was written.

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That to me is essential
in understanding

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the nature of power,
and then the nature

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of how important it is for
those who were marginalized,

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like Sojourner Truth,
then to do the work

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that makes the country honest.

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"And then I says, 'God, what
ails this Constitution?'

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"And he says to me,"

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- [Group] "'Sojourner, there's
a little weasel in it.'"

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(thoughtful piano music)

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- I remember how angry Dad was

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back when the Iraq
War was imminent.

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I remember how hard Dad was
to talk to during that point,

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because it was all
he could talk about.

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And then I remember him
painting Walt Whitman.

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And it was as if the
clouds had parted.

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When I painted the first portrait

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in the Americans Who Tell
the Truth portrait series,

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I was thinking one
thing I could do

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is try to do something
positive rather than just

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keep telling people how
angry I am or how sad I am.

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Why don't I try to
actually do something

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that makes a difference?

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You know, what I
was was very angry

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about where this country was
going as we were being led

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into another war that
didn't need to be fought.

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(thoughtful orchestral music)

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The first step was to
begin to surround myself

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with people who have made
a difference in the past.

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I had to find some way
to take that energy

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and turn it to doing
something positive.

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Well, here it is.

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(soft contemplative music)

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"If we want human dignity, we
cannot get it on our knees."

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(soft contemplative music)

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I am about to begin painting
the portrait of Bayard Rustin,

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one of this country's
most important

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and least known Civil
Rights activists.

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Bayard Rustin, he
was the organizer

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of the March on Washington.

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♪ I'm on my way ♪

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♪ And I won't turn back,
and I won't turn back ♪

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♪ I'm on my way ♪

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And if you watch the
documentary film work

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of the March on Washington,
the last speaker

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of the day was Bayard Rustin.

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- The executive director
of the March on Washington,

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the man who organized this
whole thing, Mr. Bayard Rustin.

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(crowd cheering)

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- Ladies and gentlemen,

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(crowd cheering)

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- Bayard Rustin, he
had been involved

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with all kinds of
issues that made him

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pretty unpopular in
the mainstream culture.

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You know, he was a peace activist.

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He went to jail for two years too,

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When he refused the draft
in World War II.

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He was in favor of economic
justice and equity, you know,

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paying people a decent
wage for their jobs,

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and so he worked a lot
with the labor movement.

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He worked a lot with the
Civil Rights movement.

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So he was involved in
all the major movements

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in this country, and one
of the interesting things

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about that time and
those movements,

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and it's still true today,
is that people involved

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in these various things, you know,

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economic fairness, civil
rights and peace work,

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don't always work with each other.

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And he spent a huge part
of his life trying to bring

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all those issues
and people together,

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like Martin Luther King did.

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These are all related issues.

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The thing about him
though, which made his life

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much more difficult than
just balancing issues

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was that he was gay at a
time when being gay was,

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in most circles you were
considered perverse.

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I mean he made no secret
of it, but the leaders

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were afraid of him
because if their movement

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got identified with Bayard Rustin,

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it might bring the
whole movement down.

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It was Rustin who said,

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"This is a march about
jobs and freedom."

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The march wasn't really
so much about civil rights

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as it was about economic rights.

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Rustin was making the
case to King all along

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that we're not gonna
have civil rights

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until we have economic rights.

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Black people have
to get decent jobs,

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and unless that happens,

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Civil rights really
aren't gonna matter.

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The other thing that's
so important about Rustin

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and behind the scenes with
the Civil Rights movement

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was he was the one
who taught King about

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militant, peaceful non-violent
civil disobedience.

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He was a huge advocate
of using non-violent

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civil disobedience to, you
know, change people's behavior,

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to appeal to the conscience
of the power structure.

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Here he was, one of
Martin Luther King's

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most trusted advisors,
the person they tried

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to keep in the
background quite a bit,

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but was actually,
you know, the brains

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behind many of the
things that happened.

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Rustin, who was trying
to fight for peace,

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for economic justice,
for civil rights

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and then
later for gender rights,

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at a time when it wasn't popular.

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It's important to know is
that a lot of these rights

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that we have, the
freedoms we have,

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the equality that we
acknowledge and feel proud of,

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was delivered to us by gay men,

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by people who had been
in the communist party,

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by socialists, by pacifists,

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you know, people who believed
in economic equality.

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People, you know,
who in terms of the,

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the Founding Fathers
were anathema.

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You know, that's what's so
incredible is that it took,

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you know, this deep, deep
courage by the people

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who were the marginalized
at the beginning.

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You know, the people
who were left out,

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to actually make the ideals,
the promise and the language

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of those Founding
Fathers come to life.

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(soft gentle music)

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- I'm gonna give
you Bill McKibben,

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who is currently occupying
the Chase Bank.

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(crowd cheering)

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- Bill McKibben said,
"Climate change is

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Bill McKibben became
the kind of popular face

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of this movement
before most people

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even knew it was a problem.

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30 years ago wrote
The End of Nature,

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and he was already foreseeing

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that this is where we're
going, and he was seeing it

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in terms of pollution
and habitat loss

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and extinctions of
species and climate.

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- Hey everybody,
there's about 25 of us

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inside the Chase Bank,
the single biggest funder

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of fossil fuels on planet Earth.

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They've put $196 billion
into oil and gas

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over the last three years.

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That's why we're here today,
doing civil disobedience

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about the financial system
that's focused

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on the oil companies,
and now bring it to bear

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on the banks and the
insurance companies

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and the asset managers.

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If banks like Chase
Bank stopped funding

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the fossil fuel industry,

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they could not go on
building pipelines.

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The police have just arrived
here, and we wanna send

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a big message out
from here, everybody.

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(crowd cheering)

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Literally a hundred years
from now, it'll be 2120.

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None of us who are in
this room will be here,

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that's for sure.

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But what will be here will
be our fighting for justice.

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This is not about Republican
or Democrat or rich or poor.

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This is about humanity.

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- [Robert] You know what I
painted you with that hat

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that said Resist on it.
- Yeah.

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- [Robert] And now you've
got this one with 10 years,

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and to see you in
all these incarnations,

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every time you see you.
- Yeah.

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- You see, you see, oh you know,

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what's on the Rev.'s mind today?

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- [Lennox] Oh yeah, no the hat.

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- You see, it's right there.

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- Yes, and the hat,
this one is actually

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probably one of the, also
one of the saddest ones

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because it's obviously from
the Intergovernmental Panel

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on Climate Change, you know,
when they made their findings,

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we have 12 years.

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So actually this is now the
third version of this hat.

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So now you have 12 years,
11, this is now 10 years.

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So it's actually like
a walking countdown

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so that when you see me
again, I have nine years.

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Let me first say to the
employees of this branch,

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we are here, not as adversaries.

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I'm here because I'm
originally from Louisiana

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and 14 and a half
years ago, almost 1900

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beautiful Americans,
predominantly Black people,

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drowned in the richest
country in the world.

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And I would hope
that post-Katrina,

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that we would be
doing things better

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than what we did 15 years ago,

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that we would use that time
to divest from fossil fuels

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and invest in clean energy.

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Listen, there are other
ways to make money.

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You can do better than this.

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This is not only about
equality, it's about existence,

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but if you continue
to fund projects

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that are literally putting
our existence on the line

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then you have left us no choice,

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that we must put our
bodies against the gears

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of the machine and bring
it to a grinding halt.

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We can't win as a siloed,
even segregated,

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progressive movement.

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How is this movement
going to win when,

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if they're dealing with the
antiwar and it's all White,

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and if I go to immigration,
it's all Brown.

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I go to something regarding
Black lives, it's all Black.

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You go to the gay rights movement,

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it's just supposed to be
people who are gay.

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I want a movement that
breaks down those silos,

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that brings together a movement

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that is all of us
together, because I think

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you just realize
that you just can't

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live with yourself
if you don't act.

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And I would tell anybody
that if you're in a position

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to be a truth teller, man,
tell that truth

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and speak truth to power.

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- Kelsey Juliana
started being involved

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in the environmental
and climate movement

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when she was in middle school.

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Teamed up with a bunch
of people who are all

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under 20 years old, and
sued the US government

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under the public trust doctrine,

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in other words saying
the common good.

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- I feel old.

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I'm 23 years old,
I've been doing this

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for more than half my lifetime.

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And as an older plaintiff,

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I certainly feel a responsibility

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to look out for their
lives because that

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is truly what is at stake.

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We are asking those
individuals who seem to be

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putting guns to the
foreheads of all youth,

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to not only not pull the
trigger, but remove your weapon.

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- I am submitting this
report as my testimony,

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because I don't want you
to listen to me.

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I want you to listen
to the scientists.

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- The story of the past
is already written.

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So it's time to move
aside and let young people

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write the story of the future,

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since we're gonna be the ones

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most impacted by that story.

00:14:26.750 --> 00:14:31.129
You know, we're all on this
case because in our lifetimes,

00:14:31.129 --> 00:14:34.758
again, the youngest is
11, I'm the oldest at 22.

00:14:34.758 --> 00:14:39.179
And yet we're coming
in testifying that

00:14:39.179 --> 00:14:42.432
the government's actions in
perpetrating climate change

00:14:42.432 --> 00:14:46.228
have personally done
harm to our lives.

00:14:46.228 --> 00:14:48.396
I think that it is important
for all of us

00:14:48.396 --> 00:14:52.818
to be able to sink into
those feelings of shock and,

00:14:52.818 --> 00:14:56.071
and anger and devastation
because in a lot of ways,

00:14:56.071 --> 00:14:58.365
I think that does
propel us to act.

00:14:58.365 --> 00:15:00.492
We just need to be able to
make sure our actions

00:15:00.492 --> 00:15:03.537
are going to be
able to be longterm

00:15:03.578 --> 00:15:05.956
because they're coming from
a place of love and vision

00:15:05.956 --> 00:15:11.419
- Your case, the Juliana
versus United States case,

00:15:11.419 --> 00:15:16.133
calls upon our government
to do something about it.

00:15:16.133 --> 00:15:21.471
This is the national security,
healthcare, economic,

00:15:21.471 --> 00:15:24.516
environmental and moral issue
of our time

00:15:24.516 --> 00:15:28.562
and these young people are the
moral leaders of our time.

00:15:28.562 --> 00:15:30.981
We have your back, we will be

00:15:30.981 --> 00:15:32.941
in this fight with
you all the way.

00:15:32.941 --> 00:15:33.984
Thank you all so much.

00:15:33.984 --> 00:15:37.112
(crowd applauding)

00:15:37.112 --> 00:15:40.532
(soft thoughtful music)

00:15:42.951 --> 00:15:45.704
- We are going from
my home in Brooksville

00:15:45.704 --> 00:15:48.623
to the Deer Isle high school.

00:15:48.623 --> 00:15:51.376
The main thing is to
talk with a bunch

00:15:51.376 --> 00:15:55.297
of ninth grade art students
who have made

00:15:55.297 --> 00:15:57.674
artwork about climate change.

00:15:57.674 --> 00:16:00.927
You know, Deer Isle
is a predominantly

00:16:00.927 --> 00:16:05.098
fishing community and
their lives and culture

00:16:05.098 --> 00:16:08.518
are being affected
directly by climate change,

00:16:08.518 --> 00:16:11.146
particularly by the warming
of the Gulf of Maine

00:16:11.146 --> 00:16:12.981
and what's gonna happen
to the lobster population,

00:16:12.981 --> 00:16:16.067
which is the primary
thing that is fished here.

00:16:16.067 --> 00:16:17.861
So tell me about your
feeling about that.

00:16:17.861 --> 00:16:21.239
- I painted the
lobster Going My Way.

00:16:21.239 --> 00:16:24.451
I feel like we've
been seeing a decline

00:16:24.451 --> 00:16:26.661
in the catch here because
of warming waters.

00:16:26.661 --> 00:16:30.040
I think they're moving
more up the coast.

00:16:30.040 --> 00:16:32.167
- [Robert] So what's going
on that's causing this?

00:16:32.167 --> 00:16:36.171
- Lobsters thrive in cold
waters, and that's why

00:16:36.171 --> 00:16:39.841
we had such good lobster
fishing here in the first place.

00:16:39.841 --> 00:16:40.842
- How does this make you feel

00:16:40.842 --> 00:16:43.929
about your own future in
this, in this community?

00:16:43.929 --> 00:16:46.598
- [Student Artist] Well I,
I think no one wants to see

00:16:46.598 --> 00:16:48.934
lobsters really crash here

00:16:48.934 --> 00:16:53.230
because it's such a
big industry here.

00:16:53.230 --> 00:16:55.106
- As a community
you've said something

00:16:55.106 --> 00:16:57.025
about almost everything
that's important.

00:16:57.025 --> 00:16:59.611
And I find that really
impressive, that this is a,

00:16:59.611 --> 00:17:02.197
the wisdom of you guys as a class

00:17:02.197 --> 00:17:05.533
is way beyond what any
one of us could do alone.

00:17:05.533 --> 00:17:09.371
(soft thoughtful music)

00:17:17.295 --> 00:17:20.048
And because of the work
I do as an artist

00:17:20.048 --> 00:17:24.344
and as an activist, I spend
a lot of time actually

00:17:24.344 --> 00:17:28.056
being disappointed, being
upset, being angry, being sad

00:17:28.056 --> 00:17:31.017
about things that are happening
which I can't control.

00:17:31.017 --> 00:17:33.228
Being, wishing I could do more.

00:17:33.228 --> 00:17:38.566
And when I get really wrought
up about that kind of thing,

00:17:38.566 --> 00:17:42.612
where I come to take
care of myself is here.

00:17:42.612 --> 00:17:45.323
I come to the garden, I
get my hands in the dirt.

00:17:45.323 --> 00:17:50.161
I dig my potatoes, I harvest
my tomatoes and I feel better.

00:17:50.161 --> 00:17:52.038
Not only to make a statement
to the world,

00:17:52.038 --> 00:17:55.250
but to heal myself
at the same time.

00:17:55.250 --> 00:17:59.212
Maybe my favorite thing
about gardening is,

00:17:59.212 --> 00:18:01.089
digging potatoes.

00:18:01.089 --> 00:18:04.426
To me it's like I'm
three years old again

00:18:04.426 --> 00:18:06.219
on a treasure hunt.

00:18:06.219 --> 00:18:10.348
I love just spreading the soil
out and seeing what's there.

00:18:10.348 --> 00:18:12.392
Do you have enough potatoes?
- No.

00:18:12.392 --> 00:18:14.686
- Take some potatoes. (laughing)

00:18:14.686 --> 00:18:17.230
- I remember when
there were 10 portraits

00:18:17.230 --> 00:18:19.524
and then there were 20 portraits

00:18:19.524 --> 00:18:22.277
and then there were 50 portraits

00:18:22.277 --> 00:18:25.530
and you kept thinking,
when's this going to end?

00:18:26.906 --> 00:18:31.161
And it took a long time
for people other than Dad

00:18:31.161 --> 00:18:35.081
to realize that this
wasn't about ending.

00:18:35.081 --> 00:18:37.375
(waves splashing)

00:18:37.375 --> 00:18:39.878
Our relationship with, with nature

00:18:39.878 --> 00:18:44.466
is based in the reality
of who's in charge here.

00:18:44.466 --> 00:18:46.843
The Earth is in charge,
the cosmos is in charge,

00:18:46.843 --> 00:18:50.555
nature's in charge, we
aren't. Thank goodness

00:18:50.555 --> 00:18:53.183
our attempts at genocide
of Native people

00:18:53.183 --> 00:18:54.893
were not successful,

00:18:54.893 --> 00:18:56.978
that enough have survived
and enough have survived

00:18:56.978 --> 00:18:59.856
with their traditional values,

00:18:59.856 --> 00:19:01.983
that they can still
be our teachers.

00:19:01.983 --> 00:19:05.403
(soft thoughtful music)

00:19:06.780 --> 00:19:10.033
Their survival now hinges on ours

00:19:10.033 --> 00:19:12.952
because we're the ones with the
power and the dominant ones,

00:19:12.952 --> 00:19:16.247
and our decisions are
destroying the planet.

00:19:16.247 --> 00:19:19.667
(soft thoughtful music)

00:19:25.131 --> 00:19:29.427
for creating a world where
that demand can be met.

00:19:30.011 --> 00:19:31.596
- [Robert] We're at
a moment now though

00:19:31.596 --> 00:19:34.557
when the climate movement
has a different kind

00:19:34.557 --> 00:19:38.436
of urgency to it, it
can't really be put off.

00:19:38.436 --> 00:19:43.691
- It's the galvanizing
moment for human history,

00:19:43.691 --> 00:19:48.696
that we have arrived
at a place where

00:19:48.696 --> 00:19:52.158
all of our individualized rights

00:19:52.158 --> 00:19:56.413
are colliding with
environmental justice,

00:19:56.413 --> 00:19:59.416
you know climate change,
and survival on the planet.

00:19:59.416 --> 00:20:01.918
Water is life and life is water.

00:20:01.918 --> 00:20:06.089
That's a clear warning that if
we do not protect the water,

00:20:06.089 --> 00:20:08.466
that we're not gonna
survive on the planet.

00:20:08.466 --> 00:20:11.094
And so if we can't survive
for more than a few days

00:20:11.094 --> 00:20:14.013
without water, and we
have one or two companies

00:20:14.013 --> 00:20:15.932
around the world who
own all the water,

00:20:15.932 --> 00:20:18.726
they get to decide
who lives and who dies.

00:20:18.726 --> 00:20:22.897
You know, this whole concept
of rugged individualism,

00:20:22.897 --> 00:20:25.775
this mythology that's been
driven into the minds of people

00:20:25.775 --> 00:20:31.114
in the Western world is one
of the, the greatest lies

00:20:31.114 --> 00:20:34.993
that we've ever been told,
where everybody believes

00:20:34.993 --> 00:20:37.787
that what they're doing is
only about the amplification

00:20:37.787 --> 00:20:39.581
and the elevation of themselves.

00:20:39.581 --> 00:20:43.585
And so if we can't have
that solid foundation

00:20:43.585 --> 00:20:48.673
of this universal principle
of equality, that I,

00:20:48.673 --> 00:20:51.926
I only have enough when
everyone else has enough.

00:20:51.926 --> 00:20:54.846
And so what I wanna
challenge people to do

00:20:54.846 --> 00:20:57.348
is to find the fire
within their own gut

00:20:57.348 --> 00:21:01.352
and to ignite their power
to be part of the solution.

00:21:01.352 --> 00:21:03.146
Because if we're gonna
wait for somebody else

00:21:03.146 --> 00:21:05.732
to solve these problems,
we're all gonna die.

00:21:05.732 --> 00:21:09.152
(soft thoughtful music)

00:21:23.541 --> 00:21:26.961
(soft thoughtful music)

00:21:27.420 --> 00:21:30.840
- These are Native
earrings and they symbolize

00:21:30.840 --> 00:21:34.385
the four directions
of the compass.

00:21:36.304 --> 00:21:39.390
What's remarkable is
that people like Maulian

00:21:39.390 --> 00:21:41.267
or Sherri Mitchell, or, you know,

00:21:41.267 --> 00:21:43.311
a lot of their
great Native leaders

00:21:43.311 --> 00:21:45.772
have learned to get
beyond their own anger,

00:21:45.772 --> 00:21:49.901
realizing that there's a
larger significance here.

00:21:50.151 --> 00:21:53.821
- The first kind of
imagery that I had

00:21:53.821 --> 00:21:56.324
from dominant society, I guess,

00:21:56.324 --> 00:21:57.867
of how my people were seen

00:21:57.867 --> 00:22:01.037
was the Disney movie Peter Pan.

00:22:01.037 --> 00:22:03.540
They find like an Indian
camp in Neverland,

00:22:03.540 --> 00:22:08.294
and the Indians are all very
red and they have big noses.

00:22:08.294 --> 00:22:10.380
They're very much the caricature.

00:22:10.380 --> 00:22:12.674
You see the classic stereotypes

00:22:12.674 --> 00:22:17.053
of the promiscuous woman,
Tiger Lily princess type thing.

00:22:17.053 --> 00:22:18.388
♪ Red ♪

00:22:18.388 --> 00:22:21.808
There was a proclamation
written by the government

00:22:21.808 --> 00:22:24.811
that set bounties on
the scalps of Penobscot

00:22:24.811 --> 00:22:26.729
men, women, and children.

00:22:26.729 --> 00:22:30.984
"Hunt them all, kill as many
as you can, bring them in."

00:22:30.984 --> 00:22:32.527
The plan was to wipe us out.

00:22:32.527 --> 00:22:35.321
And they had trading posts
where you would bring your furs

00:22:35.321 --> 00:22:38.449
for different animals
and Penobscot people.

00:22:38.449 --> 00:22:40.285
And these were people,
these were colonists

00:22:40.285 --> 00:22:42.245
that were out starving
in the winter.

00:22:42.245 --> 00:22:44.539
And this probably, you know, they,

00:22:44.539 --> 00:22:45.790
they may have been
very desperate people

00:22:45.790 --> 00:22:48.793
and this seemed
like a good answer.

00:22:48.793 --> 00:22:52.672
So when you see people
as less than human,

00:22:52.672 --> 00:22:55.717
it makes it easy to treat
them as less than human.

00:22:55.717 --> 00:22:57.677
And what we don't
talk about as much

00:22:57.677 --> 00:23:00.138
is kind of the second
wave of genocide.

00:23:00.138 --> 00:23:02.390
- Through the agencies
of the government,

00:23:02.390 --> 00:23:05.935
they are being rapidly
brought from their state

00:23:05.935 --> 00:23:09.105
of comparative
savagery and barbarism

00:23:09.105 --> 00:23:11.441
to one of civilization.

00:23:13.109 --> 00:23:16.195
- So they had government-run
boarding schools

00:23:16.195 --> 00:23:18.948
that would come and remove
children from families

00:23:18.948 --> 00:23:21.576
as young as five years
old, and these children

00:23:21.576 --> 00:23:23.453
were picked up from their houses.

00:23:23.453 --> 00:23:25.330
They were beaten for
speaking their language.

00:23:25.330 --> 00:23:28.708
Their hair was cut short,
it's just traumatic.

00:23:28.708 --> 00:23:31.961
So what we are left
with are people

00:23:31.961 --> 00:23:34.589
who are still victims of genocide.

00:23:34.589 --> 00:23:37.175
They're still living with
those traumatic effects.

00:23:37.175 --> 00:23:40.053
They've had something
killed in them,

00:23:40.053 --> 00:23:42.430
even if it's not
their physical body.

00:23:42.430 --> 00:23:46.309
And when you see us as
equals and as humans,

00:23:46.309 --> 00:23:48.936
we can better advocate
for our rights

00:23:48.936 --> 00:23:51.230
to clean air and water.

00:23:51.230 --> 00:23:54.484
(audience applauding)

00:23:58.446 --> 00:24:00.365
- Think of the amazing resilience

00:24:00.365 --> 00:24:02.367
of people who've been
treated like that

00:24:02.367 --> 00:24:05.244
to go on living, to go on hoping.

00:24:05.244 --> 00:24:08.831
I mean, just look at what
people have gone through and,

00:24:08.831 --> 00:24:10.333
and hope has survived.

00:24:11.834 --> 00:24:13.586
Oren Lyons, who I
painted years ago,

00:24:13.586 --> 00:24:16.673
was a faithkeeper of
the Onondaga tribe.

00:24:16.673 --> 00:24:21.135
He says that your spirituality
has to be in relationship

00:24:21.135 --> 00:24:24.514
and an outgrowth
of your deepest reality.

00:24:24.514 --> 00:24:26.474
And your deepest
reality is nature,

00:24:26.474 --> 00:24:29.602
and that's where your
spirituality has to come from.

00:24:29.602 --> 00:24:32.939
And I think that we
need to understand that.

00:24:32.939 --> 00:24:35.316
That's what the Native
people offer us now.

00:24:35.316 --> 00:24:38.695
They offer us a way to
actually live spiritually

00:24:38.695 --> 00:24:41.280
in relationship to the
Earth and mean it, you know,

00:24:41.280 --> 00:24:43.616
and really mean it, 'cause
we've got to mean it.

00:24:43.616 --> 00:24:47.328
(soft thoughtful music)

00:24:47.453 --> 00:24:49.956
Long before I was even
conscious of anything

00:24:49.956 --> 00:24:51.541
to do with white privilege,

00:24:51.541 --> 00:24:53.126
I was a product of
white privilege.

00:24:53.126 --> 00:24:56.254
And you know, like
most people who are,

00:24:56.254 --> 00:24:59.507
you're totally unaware of it
until, you know, years later,

00:24:59.507 --> 00:25:02.552
when you look back and say, you
know, "Oh my God," you know,

00:25:02.552 --> 00:25:04.137
"almost everything that
happened in my life

00:25:04.137 --> 00:25:06.139
"was based on that
kind of privilege."

00:25:08.099 --> 00:25:11.018
But rather than thinking
about it as something

00:25:11.018 --> 00:25:15.189
to be ashamed of, or you
know, something you wanna

00:25:15.189 --> 00:25:17.692
tiptoe around and not talk about,

00:25:17.692 --> 00:25:20.611
instead I have for many
years thought about it

00:25:20.611 --> 00:25:24.949
as a call to responsibility.

00:25:25.867 --> 00:25:29.912
(soft thoughtful music)

00:25:29.912 --> 00:25:32.874
- Our job is to excite
students about the world,

00:25:32.874 --> 00:25:35.042
to help them see the
role that they can play

00:25:35.042 --> 00:25:38.129
in making society more
equal and more just.

00:25:41.257 --> 00:25:44.051
Columbus is the one who
began the transatlantic

00:25:44.051 --> 00:25:49.015
slave trade, and it was
Columbus in February of 1494,

00:25:49.015 --> 00:25:53.603
who sent the first enslaved
Tainos back to Spain.

00:25:53.603 --> 00:26:01.819
And then a year later, a
massive round up of 1600 Tainos,

00:26:01.819 --> 00:26:04.155
and Columbus ordered
his men to choose

00:26:04.155 --> 00:26:08.242
the 500 or the 550
best, best specimens,

00:26:08.242 --> 00:26:11.120
to send back to Spain
and told his men that,

00:26:11.120 --> 00:26:14.207
that they could help
themselves to the rest.

00:26:14.207 --> 00:26:19.212
And then in 1501, the King and
Queen gave the first permit

00:26:19.378 --> 00:26:25.134
to Columbus to bring enslaved
Africans to the Caribbean.

00:26:25.134 --> 00:26:29.222
So it's the original
sin insofar as

00:26:29.222 --> 00:26:31.516
it's the beginning of
European colonialism.

00:26:31.516 --> 00:26:35.853
It's the appropriation of
indigenous peoples' land,

00:26:35.853 --> 00:26:38.898
but it's also the beginning
of the slave trade.

00:26:38.898 --> 00:26:42.360
And that's an, absolutely
essential that those are paired

00:26:42.360 --> 00:26:44.904
and you cannot separate those.

00:26:44.904 --> 00:26:46.697
And so if we wanna
talk about Columbus,

00:26:46.697 --> 00:26:49.659
we have to talk about
slavery at the same time.

00:26:49.659 --> 00:26:53.788
- Well it seems to me that
also woven into that,

00:26:53.788 --> 00:26:55.957
you know, that nature
was to be exploited

00:26:55.957 --> 00:26:58.334
just like these people
were to be exploited, and--

00:26:58.334 --> 00:27:00.294
- Well that's a great point, Rob,

00:27:00.294 --> 00:27:03.256
that, he introduced sugar cane.

00:27:03.256 --> 00:27:05.299
There were entire forests

00:27:05.299 --> 00:27:10.471
cut down for this crop, and
so the destruction of nature

00:27:10.471 --> 00:27:14.016
and the destruction of
culture go hand in hand.

00:27:14.016 --> 00:27:16.394
The destruction of Taino culture,

00:27:16.394 --> 00:27:18.896
but also the destruction
of African culture

00:27:18.896 --> 00:27:20.690
because ultimately
it will be Africans

00:27:20.690 --> 00:27:24.151
who will be enslaved to
come and work in the crops

00:27:24.151 --> 00:27:29.657
that Columbus brought from
Europe to plant in the Americas.

00:27:29.657 --> 00:27:33.828
- If we have or want to
have a democratic society,

00:27:33.828 --> 00:27:37.540
what is the role of education in,

00:27:37.540 --> 00:27:40.293
you know, maintaining democracy?

00:27:40.293 --> 00:27:43.337
- If we have a curriculum
that is singing the praises

00:27:43.337 --> 00:27:45.840
of Generals and
industrialists and Presidents

00:27:45.840 --> 00:27:49.844
and the accomplishment through
war and through capitalism.

00:27:49.844 --> 00:27:52.930
That is, you know,
implicitly sending a message

00:27:52.930 --> 00:27:54.849
to students about what
matters in the world.

00:27:54.849 --> 00:27:57.977
- Today we make a change!

00:27:57.977 --> 00:28:00.563
- The enormity of
what's unfolding,

00:28:00.563 --> 00:28:04.150
and they're not encouraged
to see themselves

00:28:04.150 --> 00:28:05.860
as acting on that

00:28:05.860 --> 00:28:08.571
unless millions of students

00:28:08.571 --> 00:28:11.699
are not coming to see
themselves as activists

00:28:11.699 --> 00:28:14.702
for climate justice,
then we're doomed.

00:28:17.955 --> 00:28:22.001
- I'm at very early
stages of this painting

00:28:22.001 --> 00:28:25.922
of Zyahna Bryant from
Charlottesville,

00:28:25.922 --> 00:28:30.843
a liberal Southern city
with a great university,

00:28:30.843 --> 00:28:33.971
that all over town,
these figures who fought

00:28:33.971 --> 00:28:35.556
against the North in the Civil War

00:28:35.556 --> 00:28:37.183
fought for state's rights,

00:28:37.183 --> 00:28:40.019
but it was more the
right to own slaves and,

00:28:40.019 --> 00:28:43.105
and everything that
follows from, you know,

00:28:43.105 --> 00:28:47.526
what that means when you
justify owning other people,

00:28:47.526 --> 00:28:50.988
and being able to do
whatever you want with them

00:28:50.988 --> 00:28:53.783
and extract whatever
you want from them

00:28:53.783 --> 00:28:56.035
for your own benefit.

00:28:56.035 --> 00:28:58.621
(soft thoughtful music)

00:29:06.003 --> 00:29:09.173
I wrote the petition,
a letter to the editor

00:29:09.173 --> 00:29:11.384
and City Council
calling for the removal

00:29:11.384 --> 00:29:15.012
of the Robert E. Lee statue
and the renaming of the park,

00:29:15.012 --> 00:29:17.765
formerly known as
Robert E. Lee Park.

00:29:17.765 --> 00:29:22.728
When I was 15, it was
recommended that I turn my paper

00:29:22.728 --> 00:29:24.939
into a letter to City Council

00:29:24.939 --> 00:29:28.025
asking them to remove the statue.

00:29:28.025 --> 00:29:31.070
When we learn about the Civil War,

00:29:31.070 --> 00:29:32.947
we just don't learn
the full history.

00:29:32.947 --> 00:29:36.409
And so for me, there's
like this tension

00:29:36.409 --> 00:29:38.160
because we see statues like this,

00:29:38.160 --> 00:29:42.373
but we don't see any statues
of any Black figures, right?

00:29:42.373 --> 00:29:47.003
I was just ready for our public
spaces to be more inclusive.

00:29:47.003 --> 00:29:49.296
You must've gotten an enormous
response to the petition.

00:29:49.296 --> 00:29:51.132
- We did, it went, it went viral.

00:29:51.132 --> 00:29:52.508
- The quote that's gonna
be on your portrait

00:29:52.508 --> 00:29:55.261
is that you were
actually quite scared.

00:29:55.261 --> 00:29:58.014
(crowd yelling)

00:29:58.973 --> 00:30:01.767
Why was that so scary?

00:30:01.767 --> 00:30:03.686
- It was scary because
at first, again,

00:30:03.686 --> 00:30:05.980
I didn't realize just
how big the issue was.

00:30:05.980 --> 00:30:07.732
So I thought that
we could remove it.

00:30:07.732 --> 00:30:08.816
I thought that this was something

00:30:08.816 --> 00:30:11.318
that localities controlled,
and so I didn't think

00:30:11.318 --> 00:30:14.488
that this would turn into a
larger national conversation.

00:30:14.488 --> 00:30:16.532
It was really just me
trying to change something

00:30:16.532 --> 00:30:17.950
in my own backyard, right?

00:30:17.950 --> 00:30:19.535
If this goes to a museum,

00:30:19.535 --> 00:30:23.706
the story of cross burnings
and Anglo-Saxon clubs

00:30:23.706 --> 00:30:25.583
have to also be told.

00:30:25.583 --> 00:30:28.502
So for me, it's really a
conversation about agency

00:30:28.502 --> 00:30:31.922
and who has the power
to tell their own story.

00:30:31.922 --> 00:30:32.965
- This was an earlier version

00:30:32.965 --> 00:30:34.550
of Americans Who Tell the Truth.

00:30:34.550 --> 00:30:35.676
It's just a very different truth

00:30:35.676 --> 00:30:37.678
than the one I wanna tell.

00:30:37.678 --> 00:30:40.473
A few years ago Zyahna
did the same thing

00:30:40.473 --> 00:30:42.933
that many of the young
people that we've honored

00:30:42.933 --> 00:30:45.603
in Americans Who Tell the Truth
have done.

00:30:45.603 --> 00:30:47.438
They're pointing out that
we're living in,

00:30:47.438 --> 00:30:51.358
in a society that
allows these messages

00:30:51.358 --> 00:30:56.072
to continue to be washed
over us, you know,

00:30:56.072 --> 00:30:59.700
again and again and again,
and often, you know it's,

00:30:59.700 --> 00:31:02.495
it's up to a young person.

00:31:02.495 --> 00:31:04.288
Somebody has to finally say,

00:31:04.288 --> 00:31:07.083
"Enough, this has got to change."

00:31:07.083 --> 00:31:09.293
If we ever wanna be the
society we claim to be,

00:31:09.293 --> 00:31:10.795
and of course this, this is right

00:31:10.795 --> 00:31:13.422
in the hometown of
Thomas Jefferson.

00:31:13.422 --> 00:31:16.092
You know, just up on the
hill there is Monticello.

00:31:16.092 --> 00:31:21.097
And it's, it just reinforces the,

00:31:21.097 --> 00:31:25.309
the hypocrisy that's
been there forever.

00:31:25.309 --> 00:31:28.020
There have been certainly
lots of people who objected

00:31:28.020 --> 00:31:32.191
to the fact of those statues,
but it took a petition

00:31:32.191 --> 00:31:38.614
of a 15-year-old girl to
suddenly crystallize the moment.

00:31:38.614 --> 00:31:41.450
One thing I really like
to do is get to a point

00:31:41.450 --> 00:31:44.537
towards completing the eyes more.

00:31:44.537 --> 00:31:47.832
I mean, already you can see
the strength of her gaze

00:31:47.832 --> 00:31:51.710
looking at you with
seriousness, deep seriousness.

00:31:57.049 --> 00:31:58.676
I mean, in order to
do what she's done

00:31:58.676 --> 00:32:00.302
and take the heat that she's had,

00:32:00.302 --> 00:32:01.887
she has to have that demeanor.

00:32:01.887 --> 00:32:04.140
She has to have
that quality in her

00:32:04.140 --> 00:32:06.809
of toughness and fierceness.

00:32:06.809 --> 00:32:10.980
You know, there's something
incredible about young people,

00:32:10.980 --> 00:32:14.441
the clarity of what they are
saying and asking and demanding

00:32:14.441 --> 00:32:18.445
and their failure
to feel compromised

00:32:18.445 --> 00:32:21.657
by a lot of the compromises
that a lot of adults feel.

00:32:21.657 --> 00:32:24.451
And in the way that can
all spur us to action.

00:32:24.451 --> 00:32:25.995
When I was growing up in the '60s,

00:32:25.995 --> 00:32:29.832
I was very much under
the sway of the words

00:32:29.832 --> 00:32:31.876
of Reverend William Sloane Coffin,

00:32:31.876 --> 00:32:34.003
who was a pastor at Yale
and, you know,

00:32:34.003 --> 00:32:36.672
a great Civil Rights
and antiwar activist

00:32:36.672 --> 00:32:40.050
for many, many years, and
was prosecuted, you know,

00:32:40.050 --> 00:32:42.595
by this country for
doing those things.

00:32:42.595 --> 00:32:44.680
And he said one time,

00:32:51.312 --> 00:32:53.814
All the things that we say
we believe in, you know,

00:32:53.814 --> 00:32:58.194
compassion, integrity,
honesty, democracy,

00:32:58.194 --> 00:33:02.740
and even spirituality, without
courage they do not exist.

00:33:02.740 --> 00:33:04.491
It's the foundational
thing that makes

00:33:04.491 --> 00:33:07.870
all other things
of value possible.

00:33:07.870 --> 00:33:11.457
And we have with us
today Zyahna Bryant,

00:33:11.457 --> 00:33:14.919
whose petition several years ago

00:33:14.919 --> 00:33:19.340
to take down these monuments
started a ongoing discussion.

00:33:19.340 --> 00:33:21.383
So Zyahna and I are going to stand

00:33:21.383 --> 00:33:23.093
on either side of her portrait,

00:33:23.093 --> 00:33:25.888
we're gonna unveil
it and then, I mean,

00:33:25.888 --> 00:33:27.223
hopefully she's gonna like it.

00:33:27.223 --> 00:33:28.849
(audience laughing)

00:33:28.849 --> 00:33:32.102
(audience applauding)

00:33:33.938 --> 00:33:36.440
One of the major
goals of this project

00:33:36.440 --> 00:33:40.110
is just to tell a simple
truth about our history.

00:33:40.110 --> 00:33:41.946
We're never gonna be
the country we wanna be

00:33:41.946 --> 00:33:44.865
unless we tell the truth
about what we've done.

00:33:44.865 --> 00:33:47.743
And this doesn't mean
that you teach children

00:33:47.743 --> 00:33:51.664
to hate the United States,
quite the opposite.

00:33:51.664 --> 00:33:54.625
You teach children to love the
ideals of the United States

00:33:54.625 --> 00:33:57.002
so much that they
won't allow themselves

00:33:57.002 --> 00:33:59.213
to go on perpetrating the crimes

00:33:59.213 --> 00:34:00.547
that the country's been committing

00:34:00.547 --> 00:34:02.883
in defiance of those ideals.

00:34:02.883 --> 00:34:06.136
You know, we have to
be teaching the truth.

00:34:08.430 --> 00:34:11.267
- He has a lot to give
back to the world

00:34:11.267 --> 00:34:16.272
and has had to find his voice
and his way of giving back.

00:34:16.272 --> 00:34:18.065
And I think that's
what's so powerful

00:34:18.065 --> 00:34:19.483
about Americans
Who Tell the Truth,

00:34:19.483 --> 00:34:21.902
and where all that
energy comes from

00:34:21.902 --> 00:34:26.657
and why it keeps going
is because he's found

00:34:26.657 --> 00:34:29.660
his most authentic
way for doing that.

00:34:29.660 --> 00:34:32.621
So I think that's a huge part

00:34:32.621 --> 00:34:36.500
of his search for
meaning in the world,

00:34:36.500 --> 00:34:39.336
and then his ability to
articulate that meaning

00:34:39.336 --> 00:34:41.880
is in those paintings.

00:34:43.465 --> 00:34:48.137
- In 1787, there should
have been a moment there

00:34:48.137 --> 00:34:49.847
when a whole lot of people said,

00:34:49.847 --> 00:34:53.058
"Whoa, whoa, we've got
something wrong here.

00:34:53.058 --> 00:34:55.394
"We said equality and
justice and freedom,

00:34:55.394 --> 00:34:59.815
"and we only gave it to,
you know, rich white men."

00:34:59.815 --> 00:35:02.943
Let's paint another
picture, basically.

00:35:04.069 --> 00:35:08.073
I mean, if Jefferson and
Madison and, you know,

00:35:08.073 --> 00:35:12.077
Washington had said, you know,

00:35:12.077 --> 00:35:12.911
"If we're gonna be honest,

00:35:12.911 --> 00:35:15.414
"we've got to give up
our slaves,"

00:35:15.414 --> 00:35:18.667
whoa, think how
different, you know,

00:35:18.667 --> 00:35:20.419
the picture of this
country would appear

00:35:20.419 --> 00:35:22.379
if they'd had that courage.

00:35:24.131 --> 00:35:27.176
(soft gentle music)

00:35:28.385 --> 00:35:30.971
I removed the flag,
not only in defiance

00:35:30.971 --> 00:35:34.183
of those who enslaved
my ancestors,

00:35:34.183 --> 00:35:36.101
but also in defiance
of the oppression

00:35:36.101 --> 00:35:39.772
that continues against
Black people globally.

00:35:42.900 --> 00:35:46.111
The turning point for me
was really 2013.

00:35:46.111 --> 00:35:47.529
There were two key
things that happened

00:35:47.529 --> 00:35:49.365
in the summer of 2013.

00:35:49.365 --> 00:35:52.493
One, the Supreme Court
pretty much gutted

00:35:52.493 --> 00:35:56.830
the Voting Rights Act, and my
home state of North Carolina

00:35:56.830 --> 00:35:59.333
went to work right
away trying to pass

00:35:59.333 --> 00:36:02.044
new laws to suppress the vote.

00:36:02.044 --> 00:36:04.296
And then of course we had
the Trayvon Martin case.

00:36:04.296 --> 00:36:06.423
We had the acquittal
of George Zimmerman

00:36:06.423 --> 00:36:08.342
in the killing of Trayvon Martin,

00:36:08.342 --> 00:36:11.220
and those two events
happening as they did

00:36:11.220 --> 00:36:14.056
at that same time,
it felt to me like

00:36:14.056 --> 00:36:16.266
all of a sudden we
were back in 1954.

00:36:16.266 --> 00:36:19.019
And then of course, in 2015,

00:36:19.019 --> 00:36:22.981
we had this incident where
a young white supremacist

00:36:22.981 --> 00:36:25.943
went from Columbia,
South Carolina,

00:36:25.943 --> 00:36:29.071
where the state had been
flying the Confederate flag

00:36:29.071 --> 00:36:33.242
at its Capitol since
1961, and shot and killed

00:36:33.242 --> 00:36:35.327
nine Black parishioners
during a prayer meeting,

00:36:35.327 --> 00:36:37.704
including the pastor of the church

00:36:37.704 --> 00:36:40.165
who was also a state Senator,

00:36:40.165 --> 00:36:43.710
who just days before being
gunned down in his own church,

00:36:43.710 --> 00:36:46.046
had succeeded in getting
body camera legislation

00:36:46.046 --> 00:36:48.424
passed in response to
the Walter Scott case,

00:36:48.424 --> 00:36:51.343
another high profile case
of an unarmed Black man

00:36:51.343 --> 00:36:53.971
being shot and killed by police.

00:36:53.971 --> 00:36:56.640
So there we were in
the summer of 2015,

00:36:56.640 --> 00:36:59.059
in the context of all of
this that was happening,

00:36:59.059 --> 00:37:02.855
the United States flag
was lowered to half-staff,

00:37:02.855 --> 00:37:04.815
but the Confederate flag
in South Carolina

00:37:04.815 --> 00:37:07.776
was still at the top of its pole.

00:37:07.776 --> 00:37:10.237
And so we had this whole
visual of Clementa Pinckney

00:37:10.237 --> 00:37:13.449
having his casket process
through the capitol,

00:37:13.449 --> 00:37:15.492
and there's the, you know,
United States flag lowered

00:37:15.492 --> 00:37:18.203
and there's the Confederate
flag at the top of the pole.

00:37:18.203 --> 00:37:20.622
All of that was just so
deeply offensive for me,

00:37:20.622 --> 00:37:24.001
but that, I decided if
we can figure out a way

00:37:24.001 --> 00:37:27.921
to take that down, I'm willing
to go to jail for that.

00:37:27.921 --> 00:37:31.425
- [Officer] Ma'am, come down
off the pole, ma'am, ma'am.

00:37:31.425 --> 00:37:34.303
- We are not waiting on
the state of South Carolina

00:37:34.303 --> 00:37:37.306
to tell us that our lives
matter, and to regard us

00:37:37.306 --> 00:37:39.433
with a measure of human dignity.

00:37:39.433 --> 00:37:43.729
You come against me with hatred
and oppression and violence.

00:37:43.729 --> 00:37:45.397
I come against you
in the name of God.

00:37:45.397 --> 00:37:49.109
This flag comes down today.

00:37:49.109 --> 00:37:51.153
Courage is really not
about the absence of fear.

00:37:51.153 --> 00:37:52.779
I can attest to that, right?

00:37:52.779 --> 00:37:54.531
Courage is about the
belief that there

00:37:54.531 --> 00:37:56.825
is something greater
than your fear.

00:37:56.825 --> 00:37:59.495
It is about staring down
fear and having faith

00:37:59.495 --> 00:38:01.038
that we can make a better world.

00:38:01.038 --> 00:38:03.874
(crowd cheering)

00:38:05.459 --> 00:38:08.462
And we also definitely
did it in the same spirit

00:38:08.462 --> 00:38:10.923
of civil disobedience that
Martin Luther King argued

00:38:10.923 --> 00:38:13.342
through Letter in
a Birmingham Jail,

00:38:13.342 --> 00:38:15.761
that there are times when
we have to take action

00:38:15.761 --> 00:38:19.181
to create a tension
that forces a community

00:38:19.181 --> 00:38:22.935
that has refused to confront
an issue to confront it.

00:38:22.935 --> 00:38:24.811
So by taking the flag down,
we then forced

00:38:24.811 --> 00:38:27.147
the state of South
Carolina to make a decision

00:38:27.147 --> 00:38:29.650
whether to leave the flag
down or raise it back up.

00:38:29.650 --> 00:38:32.486
(crowd cheering)

00:38:37.449 --> 00:38:39.618
I just don't think that
anything that I have done

00:38:39.618 --> 00:38:42.454
up to this point in
time can be as dangerous

00:38:42.454 --> 00:38:45.415
as the type of situation that
a Fannie Lou Hamer faced.

00:38:45.415 --> 00:38:47.793
♪ This little light of mine ♪

00:38:48.126 --> 00:38:49.753
- [Robert] "To tell
the truth today

00:38:49.753 --> 00:38:52.464
"is to run the risk
of being killed.

00:38:52.464 --> 00:38:54.550
"I'm not backing off."

00:38:54.550 --> 00:38:56.385
♪ This little light of mine ♪

00:38:56.385 --> 00:38:57.761
♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪

00:38:57.761 --> 00:39:00.806
It was in the early
1960s, was when

00:39:00.806 --> 00:39:02.057
the great Civil Rights movement

00:39:02.057 --> 00:39:04.810
in this country really got going.

00:39:04.810 --> 00:39:07.354
She became one of the
leaders of that movement.

00:39:07.354 --> 00:39:10.732
After she'd registered
to vote in 1962,

00:39:10.732 --> 00:39:14.111
she was arrested by some white
cops and taken to a jail cell

00:39:14.111 --> 00:39:16.196
and they beat her and
beat her and beat her.

00:39:16.196 --> 00:39:20.826
And she was so sore from
the beatings and so swollen

00:39:20.826 --> 00:39:23.245
that she couldn't lie down or
she couldn't even sit down,

00:39:23.245 --> 00:39:24.830
she had to stand up.

00:39:24.830 --> 00:39:27.874
After she'd stood like
that for almost 12 hours

00:39:27.874 --> 00:39:30.085
she started to sing.

00:39:30.085 --> 00:39:32.462
Fannie Lou Hamer
was a great singer,

00:39:32.462 --> 00:39:35.090
and when she started to
sing, there were women

00:39:35.090 --> 00:39:37.259
who had also been
beaten by these cops

00:39:37.259 --> 00:39:38.969
in the other jail cells.

00:39:38.969 --> 00:39:43.807
And when she started to sing,
the other women sang with her.

00:39:43.807 --> 00:39:47.019
At that moment, she said, she knew

00:39:47.019 --> 00:39:48.729
that they couldn't scare her,

00:39:48.729 --> 00:39:50.314
that she was stronger
than they were.

00:39:50.314 --> 00:39:51.898
And if they were
gonna get rid of her,

00:39:51.898 --> 00:39:53.859
they were gonna have to kill her.

00:39:53.859 --> 00:39:56.320
And that, yeah, I guess
the toughest times for me

00:39:56.320 --> 00:39:58.280
about her is when they organized

00:39:58.280 --> 00:40:00.782
the Freedom Democratic
Party in Mississippi,

00:40:00.782 --> 00:40:04.703
and then were denied
at the 1964 convention.

00:40:04.703 --> 00:40:10.292
- Mr. Chairman, and to
the credentials committee,

00:40:10.292 --> 00:40:13.587
my name is Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer.

00:40:13.587 --> 00:40:18.383
If the Freedom Democratic
Party is not seated now,

00:40:18.383 --> 00:40:22.179
I question America,
is this America,

00:40:22.179 --> 00:40:26.099
the land of the free and
the home of the brave,

00:40:26.099 --> 00:40:31.104
where we have to sleep with
our telephones off of the hook

00:40:31.104 --> 00:40:34.566
because our lives
be threatened daily

00:40:34.566 --> 00:40:39.655
because we want to live as
decent human beings in America?

00:40:39.655 --> 00:40:42.658
♪ Oh in the jailhouse ♪

00:40:42.658 --> 00:40:45.327
- I'm fully conscious
of the betrayal

00:40:45.327 --> 00:40:49.122
of the ideals of the country,
and it's the people of color

00:40:49.122 --> 00:40:51.917
who have embraced those ideals.

00:40:51.917 --> 00:40:53.710
And instead, you know, insisted

00:40:53.710 --> 00:40:55.754
that they become real for them.

00:40:55.754 --> 00:40:57.756
And in doing so,
they're the people

00:40:57.756 --> 00:41:00.092
who keep those ideals alive.

00:41:00.092 --> 00:41:03.178
(soft gentle music)

00:41:08.892 --> 00:41:14.564
It's a very exciting thing to
see portraits of John Lewis,

00:41:14.564 --> 00:41:20.237
Frederick Douglass, and Fannie
Lou Hamer at Monticello.

00:41:20.237 --> 00:41:24.366
When you take the words
of Jefferson literally,

00:41:24.366 --> 00:41:28.370
and ignore for a
moment his hypocrisy,

00:41:28.370 --> 00:41:30.497
these are the people
who should be there,

00:41:30.497 --> 00:41:34.459
'cause these are the people
who were really fighting

00:41:34.459 --> 00:41:36.420
the real American Revolution,

00:41:36.420 --> 00:41:40.632
which is to fight and stand
up for our real ideals.

00:41:40.632 --> 00:41:46.430
To see them there at Monticello
is very exciting for me

00:41:46.430 --> 00:41:48.724
and I hope for other people.

00:41:48.724 --> 00:41:50.851
- I wonder where so
many of the people

00:41:50.851 --> 00:41:54.980
represented in your
series found such courage?

00:41:54.980 --> 00:41:58.483
They took risks,
they risked their lives.

00:41:58.483 --> 00:42:04.364
- Every one of them was
beaten unmercifully.

00:42:04.364 --> 00:42:07.534
I love the irony of the fact that

00:42:07.534 --> 00:42:10.620
a white kid like me from
Ohio gets his courage

00:42:10.620 --> 00:42:12.456
from Frederick Douglass
or gets his courage

00:42:12.456 --> 00:42:16.042
from Fannie Lou Hamer or
John Lewis, you know that's,

00:42:16.042 --> 00:42:18.420
that's important for me.

00:42:18.420 --> 00:42:21.006
And if you consider
democracy a virtue,

00:42:21.006 --> 00:42:22.632
it's completely
appropriate to say,

00:42:22.632 --> 00:42:24.092
without courage there
is not democracy.

00:42:24.092 --> 00:42:26.219
- [Gayle] There is no
democracy, I agree with that.

00:42:26.219 --> 00:42:27.971
Yeah. I think that's right.

00:42:44.321 --> 00:42:48.241
- When John Lewis in 1955
was 15 years old

00:42:48.241 --> 00:42:52.412
and growing up on a
sharecropper's farm in Alabama,

00:42:52.412 --> 00:42:54.873
the Montgomery bus
boycott was going on,

00:42:54.873 --> 00:42:57.834
and his family had a radio.

00:42:57.834 --> 00:43:01.171
And when the first broadcasts
were coming out of Montgomery

00:43:01.171 --> 00:43:02.672
and Martin Luther King's voice

00:43:02.672 --> 00:43:06.176
from the Dexter Avenue
church was being broadcast,

00:43:06.176 --> 00:43:08.136
young John Lewis was listening.

00:43:08.136 --> 00:43:13.558
- [Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.]

00:43:22.901 --> 00:43:26.112
- And he was just thrilled,
and they could see

00:43:26.112 --> 00:43:27.864
what was happening to him.

00:43:27.864 --> 00:43:30.283
And they said, "John," you know,

00:43:30.283 --> 00:43:31.993
"don't listen to this," in a way.

00:43:31.993 --> 00:43:36.706
"Don't stand up against the
man, it'll only bring trouble."

00:43:36.706 --> 00:43:41.127
Inside he was thinking,
"I've got to do this.

00:43:41.127 --> 00:43:42.796
"I understand now what trouble is,

00:43:42.796 --> 00:43:45.340
"but this is gonna be good
trouble, and I've gotta

00:43:45.340 --> 00:43:48.885
"dedicate my life to
getting into good trouble."

00:43:50.053 --> 00:43:51.680
- [A. Philip Randolph]
Brother John Lewis.

00:43:51.680 --> 00:43:54.683
(crowd applauding)

00:44:02.148 --> 00:44:03.441
- We'll march through the South,

00:44:03.441 --> 00:44:05.068
through the streets of Jackson,

00:44:05.068 --> 00:44:06.152
through the streets of Danville,

00:44:06.152 --> 00:44:08.071
through the streets of Cambridge,

00:44:08.071 --> 00:44:10.115
through the streets of Birmingham.

00:44:10.115 --> 00:44:12.868
(crowd cheering)

00:44:15.245 --> 00:44:19.124
But we will march
with the spirit of love,

00:44:19.124 --> 00:44:20.125
and with the spirit of dignity

00:44:20.125 --> 00:44:22.127
that we have shown here today.

00:44:23.503 --> 00:44:26.840
So wake up America, wake
up, for we cannot stop

00:44:26.840 --> 00:44:29.509
and we will not and
cannot be patient.

00:44:29.509 --> 00:44:32.387
(crowd cheering)

00:44:49.362 --> 00:44:54.117
- [Robert] Every one of
them was beaten unmercifully

00:44:54.117 --> 00:44:56.745
to teach them to be subservient,

00:44:56.745 --> 00:45:00.665
to teach them that they
were wrong for standing up

00:45:00.665 --> 00:45:06.046
for the legitimacy
of their own humanity.

00:45:06.046 --> 00:45:09.090
- Can we have somebody
take her to a doctor?

00:45:09.090 --> 00:45:11.927
(crowd shouting)

00:45:14.095 --> 00:45:16.181
- If you really
believe in justice,

00:45:16.181 --> 00:45:17.724
if you really believe in equality,

00:45:17.724 --> 00:45:20.268
you've got to then
admire enormously

00:45:20.268 --> 00:45:22.354
the people who have
tried the hardest

00:45:22.354 --> 00:45:24.856
to make them real for everybody.

00:45:24.856 --> 00:45:27.150
So if you love those values,

00:45:27.150 --> 00:45:29.110
you've got to love
and admire the people

00:45:29.110 --> 00:45:31.947
who stood up for
them, who sacrificed,

00:45:31.947 --> 00:45:34.532
who gave their lives at
times for those values.

00:45:34.532 --> 00:45:36.242
They become your heroes.

00:45:36.242 --> 00:45:38.244
I mean, that's why, you
know, when I'm painting

00:45:38.244 --> 00:45:40.664
these portraits, they're the
people I've got to paint.

00:45:40.664 --> 00:45:42.374
They become my heroes because

00:45:42.374 --> 00:45:44.459
they have made those values real.

00:45:44.459 --> 00:45:46.378
They, they are the ones
who have answered

00:45:46.378 --> 00:45:48.505
the curse of this country.

00:45:48.505 --> 00:45:51.841
- [Voiceover] Though I may
not be here with you,

00:45:51.841 --> 00:45:56.179
I urge you to answer the
highest calling of your heart

00:45:56.179 --> 00:45:59.516
and stand up for what
you truly believe.

00:45:59.516 --> 00:46:02.727
I have done all I
can to demonstrate

00:46:02.727 --> 00:46:07.607
that the way of peace, the
way of love and non-violence

00:46:07.607 --> 00:46:10.276
is the more excellent way.

00:46:10.276 --> 00:46:15.448
So I say to you, walk with
the wind, brothers and sisters,

00:46:15.448 --> 00:46:19.327
and let the spirit of peace
and the power

00:46:19.327 --> 00:46:22.914
of everlasting love be your guide.

00:46:22.914 --> 00:46:27.919
♪ We shall overcome some day ♪

00:46:27.919 --> 00:46:30.005
♪ We shall overcome ♪

00:46:30.005 --> 00:46:35.010
♪ We shall overcome ♪

00:46:35.010 --> 00:46:36.219
♪ We shall overcome ♪

00:46:36.219 --> 00:46:39.806
- [Dr. King] Non-violence is
a powerful and just weapon

00:46:39.806 --> 00:46:42.100
that cuts without wounding

00:46:42.100 --> 00:46:44.853
and ennobles the
man who wields it.

00:46:44.853 --> 00:46:48.523
It is a sword that heals.

00:46:51.192 --> 00:46:59.159
I have a dream that my
four little children

00:46:59.159 --> 00:47:02.829
will one day live in a nation
where they will not be judged

00:47:02.829 --> 00:47:04.414
by the color of their skin,

00:47:04.414 --> 00:47:06.624
but by the content
of their character.

00:47:06.624 --> 00:47:09.669
I have a dream today.

00:47:09.669 --> 00:47:12.756
(audience cheering)

00:47:14.382 --> 00:47:17.302
We'll be able to join
hands and sing in the words

00:47:17.302 --> 00:47:19.721
of the old Negro spiritual,

00:47:19.721 --> 00:47:22.057
free at last, free at last,

00:47:22.057 --> 00:47:25.101
thank God almighty,
we're free at last.

00:47:25.101 --> 00:47:25.935
(crowd cheering)

00:47:25.935 --> 00:47:31.775
[Singer] ♪ Deep in my heart ♪

00:47:31.775 --> 00:47:36.112
♪ I will be free ♪

00:47:36.112 --> 00:47:42.952
♪ We shall overcome some day ♪

00:47:44.954 --> 00:47:49.042
(uptempo acoustic guitar music)

00:47:49.042 --> 00:47:50.752
- All you have to do
is sing back to me

00:47:50.752 --> 00:47:52.712
what I sing to you.

00:48:04.015 --> 00:48:06.267
- [Reggie singing with crowd]
♪ In the shelter ♪

00:48:06.267 --> 00:48:08.186
♪ In the shelter ♪

00:48:08.186 --> 00:48:10.355
♪ Of each other ♪

00:48:10.355 --> 00:48:12.482
♪ Of each other ♪

00:48:12.482 --> 00:48:14.943
♪ In the shelter ♪

00:48:14.943 --> 00:48:17.195
♪ In the shelter ♪

00:48:17.195 --> 00:48:19.697
♪ Of our lives ♪

00:48:19.697 --> 00:48:21.574
♪ Of our lives ♪

00:48:21.574 --> 00:48:26.162
♪ Yeah we are open ♪

00:48:26.162 --> 00:48:30.625
♪ We are dreaming ♪

00:48:30.625 --> 00:48:34.921
♪ We are hopeful ♪

00:48:34.921 --> 00:48:36.923
♪ We are wise ♪

00:48:36.923 --> 00:48:39.259
♪ We are wise ♪

00:48:39.259 --> 00:48:41.636
♪ We are wise ♪

00:48:41.636 --> 00:48:43.721
♪ We are wise ♪

00:48:43.721 --> 00:48:46.474
As James Baldwin once said,
"The role of the artist

00:48:46.474 --> 00:48:52.814
"is to show their society
what needs to be seen."

00:48:52.814 --> 00:48:56.234
And then he said, "Often
what you see is painful.

00:48:56.234 --> 00:48:58.778
"Often what you will
see is devastation.

00:48:58.778 --> 00:49:01.406
"You will often see things
in your society

00:49:01.406 --> 00:49:06.035
"that need to be fixed,
that need to be healed.

00:49:06.035 --> 00:49:09.622
"And that is what
you need to show.

00:49:09.622 --> 00:49:12.917
"You need to also show
joy, but many of the things

00:49:12.917 --> 00:49:14.586
"that you show your audience,

00:49:14.586 --> 00:49:18.131
"they will not love you for it,"

00:49:18.131 --> 00:49:21.801
and the room got very quiet.

00:49:21.801 --> 00:49:24.596
And then he said,
"They will not love you,

00:49:24.596 --> 00:49:27.182
"but it is not their
love you're after

00:49:27.182 --> 00:49:28.725
"if you are truly an artist.

00:49:28.725 --> 00:49:33.980
"It is your responsibility
to show what you see."

00:49:33.980 --> 00:49:35.648
- I've kinda take it as a motto,

00:49:35.648 --> 00:49:37.233
something that Arthur Miller said,

00:49:37.233 --> 00:49:39.527
as a matter of fact,
it's the quote that I put

00:49:39.527 --> 00:49:41.362
on his picture where he says,

00:49:48.286 --> 00:49:51.623
But do you take that
as your job in a way?

00:49:51.623 --> 00:49:54.292
- Yeah, I do.

00:49:54.292 --> 00:49:55.668
There's a combination
of telling people

00:49:55.668 --> 00:49:59.172
what they've chosen to
forget and what others

00:49:59.172 --> 00:50:02.217
have chosen for them not to know.

00:50:02.217 --> 00:50:05.094
- Ah.

00:50:05.094 --> 00:50:07.555
All these stories
about Woody Guthrie

00:50:07.555 --> 00:50:10.308
and that great song
you were singing,

00:50:10.308 --> 00:50:11.726
Roll On Woody.
- Yeah.

00:50:12.852 --> 00:50:14.771
- I go into a lot of
schools, as you all know,

00:50:14.771 --> 00:50:18.399
just like Reggie does,
and you say to kids

00:50:18.399 --> 00:50:20.151
all over this country really,

00:50:20.151 --> 00:50:21.569
doesn't matter what age, anything.

00:50:21.569 --> 00:50:23.988
You say, "Who's Woody Guthrie?"

00:50:23.988 --> 00:50:25.949
And I show them the painting,
"Do you know who this is?"

00:50:25.949 --> 00:50:29.369
And everybody says, there's
silence, total silence.

00:50:29.369 --> 00:50:32.121
And then you say, "Oh, can you
sing This Land is Your Land?"

00:50:32.121 --> 00:50:33.581
And of course they
can all sing it.

00:50:33.581 --> 00:50:34.040
- Yeah.

00:50:34.040 --> 00:50:35.250
- They can sing the
first three verses.

00:50:35.250 --> 00:50:37.377
- That's right.
- That's it.

00:50:37.377 --> 00:50:40.463
And I say, "Well okay,
come on, sing the rest."

00:50:40.463 --> 00:50:44.133
"What do you mean the
rest, there is any more?"

00:50:44.133 --> 00:50:45.551
And of course those
first three verses

00:50:45.551 --> 00:50:48.721
are the setup to the last verses.

00:50:59.899 --> 00:51:03.319
That's what the song was
about, that "if", you know?

00:51:03.319 --> 00:51:06.155
And who is the country really for?

00:51:06.155 --> 00:51:09.200
Is it for you, or is it for me?

00:51:09.200 --> 00:51:10.743
You know, is it for both of us?

00:51:10.743 --> 00:51:13.705
Maybe not, you know,
and that's, you know,

00:51:13.705 --> 00:51:14.580
this guy had just come out

00:51:14.580 --> 00:51:16.165
of the Dust Bowl
of the Depression.

00:51:16.165 --> 00:51:18.418
- Right, and when you see
the films of those people

00:51:18.418 --> 00:51:20.878
in the Dust Bowl and
in, in that time,

00:51:20.878 --> 00:51:24.007
and they're holding on
with all that they have

00:51:24.007 --> 00:51:27.343
while others have so much.

00:51:27.343 --> 00:51:31.806
And that is a reality that
is not conveyed to students.

00:51:31.806 --> 00:51:33.182
- When you were talking
about the Depression though

00:51:33.182 --> 00:51:36.936
I was thinking of Dorothea
Lange, and then also thinking

00:51:36.936 --> 00:51:40.273
about how art can do so much.

00:51:40.273 --> 00:51:41.607
You know she was,
of course you all know,

00:51:41.607 --> 00:51:44.235
the great photographer
of the Depression,

00:51:44.235 --> 00:51:48.656
and that photograph
she took of the,

00:51:48.656 --> 00:51:52.535
in the pea pickers' camp
of the migrant mother,

00:51:52.535 --> 00:51:55.705
I mean, she was on the way
somewhere else,

00:51:55.705 --> 00:51:58.541
passed this road that
said "Pea Pickers' Camp",

00:51:58.541 --> 00:52:00.168
went down there, you know,

00:52:00.168 --> 00:52:02.170
and it was raining, it was cold,

00:52:02.170 --> 00:52:04.714
and these people were
starving to death.

00:52:04.714 --> 00:52:06.966
And she started taking
pictures as she approached

00:52:06.966 --> 00:52:09.385
this one woman and there were,

00:52:09.385 --> 00:52:11.637
these kids were unsure
about what to do.

00:52:11.637 --> 00:52:14.349
And they came up
and hugged their mother,

00:52:14.349 --> 00:52:16.809
and then boom, she
had her picture.

00:52:16.809 --> 00:52:18.978
And she sent it out
back to Roy Stryker

00:52:18.978 --> 00:52:20.813
at the Farm Security
Administration

00:52:20.813 --> 00:52:22.523
and then he got it published.

00:52:22.523 --> 00:52:27.070
That camp was flooded
with blankets, food.

00:52:27.070 --> 00:52:30.073
A image, one image,
you know, it makes,

00:52:30.073 --> 00:52:32.116
can make such a difference.

00:52:32.116 --> 00:52:35.953
That's what the arts can do,
you know they, and that's,

00:52:35.953 --> 00:52:38.164
you know, in my little
way, just, you know,

00:52:38.164 --> 00:52:41.376
painting these pictures was
a necessity to save myself,

00:52:41.376 --> 00:52:44.170
you know, and then the rest
just happened, you know?

00:52:44.170 --> 00:52:46.089
And, and I know
from talking to you

00:52:46.089 --> 00:52:49.008
that the singing does
the same thing for you.

00:52:49.008 --> 00:52:52.095
♪ This joy that I have ♪

00:52:52.095 --> 00:52:54.555
♪ The world didn't give it to me ♪

00:52:54.555 --> 00:52:57.517
♪ This joy that I have ♪

00:52:57.517 --> 00:52:59.936
♪ The world didn't give it to me ♪

00:52:59.936 --> 00:53:03.439
♪ Oh this joy that I have ♪

00:53:03.439 --> 00:53:05.775
♪ The world didn't give it to me ♪

00:53:05.775 --> 00:53:07.568
♪ Oh the world didn't give it ♪

00:53:07.568 --> 00:53:10.780
♪ So the world
can't take it away ♪

00:53:10.780 --> 00:53:13.908
(audience applauding)

00:53:15.076 --> 00:53:19.080
(mellow acoustic guitar music)

00:53:22.875 --> 00:53:24.919
- Almost every morning
we would walk up the road

00:53:24.919 --> 00:53:27.004
and we'd walk around the cemetery.

00:53:27.004 --> 00:53:29.507
I would read the, the inscriptions

00:53:29.507 --> 00:53:32.301
and the, and the markers there.

00:53:32.301 --> 00:53:36.180
But there was one that
always perplexed me.

00:53:36.180 --> 00:53:42.687
All it said on the stone besides
his dates was, "He tried."

00:53:42.687 --> 00:53:46.941
And I remember thinking,
"Well that's kinda sad."

00:53:46.941 --> 00:53:51.195
And then more recently as I
think about my own mortality,

00:53:51.195 --> 00:53:53.072
I've thought
differently about that.

00:53:53.072 --> 00:53:56.325
I mean, I would like
to leave behind

00:53:56.325 --> 00:53:57.994
the thought that I tried.

00:53:57.994 --> 00:54:01.998
(mellow acoustic guitar music)

00:54:03.416 --> 00:54:06.377
Every one of the people
I painted is, is like a,

00:54:06.377 --> 00:54:09.255
a life buoy being tossed to me.

00:54:09.255 --> 00:54:12.758
Periodically I get
close to despair.

00:54:12.758 --> 00:54:15.344
I wonder, you know what I'm
doing, why I'm doing it,

00:54:15.344 --> 00:54:17.138
if it's making any difference.

00:54:17.138 --> 00:54:19.640
What I do at that point is
find somebody else to paint,

00:54:19.640 --> 00:54:21.601
and I hang on to that person.

00:54:21.601 --> 00:54:26.647
I ride their courage and carry
myself back to the surface.

00:54:26.647 --> 00:54:30.193
- But we will march
with the spirit of love.

00:54:30.193 --> 00:54:32.278
- The land of the free
and the home of the brave.

00:54:32.278 --> 00:54:34.864
- To go to jail
together, to stand up

00:54:34.864 --> 00:54:36.491
for freedom together.

00:54:36.491 --> 00:54:39.660
(crowd cheering)

00:54:39.660 --> 00:54:42.288
- What to leave
behind, I don't know.

00:54:42.288 --> 00:54:45.082
The victory is in the struggle.

00:54:45.082 --> 00:54:47.335
You don't have to
get there, you know,

00:54:47.335 --> 00:54:50.588
and I'm not gonna get there,
we're not gonna get there.

00:54:50.588 --> 00:54:52.673
But the fact that we're trying,

00:54:52.673 --> 00:54:55.092
the victory is in the struggle.

00:54:55.092 --> 00:54:59.764
I mean, if we give up,
what can be said about us?

00:54:59.764 --> 00:55:01.849
What can we say if we give up?

00:55:01.849 --> 00:55:04.101
We can't, we don't
have that right.

00:55:04.101 --> 00:55:07.063
We just don't have the
right to give up, you know?

00:55:07.063 --> 00:55:09.857
We don't have that privilege, no.

00:55:09.857 --> 00:55:13.069
We've got to face the
truth, but there's also,

00:55:13.069 --> 00:55:15.988
in a sense there's, there's
real hope in facing that truth

00:55:15.988 --> 00:55:20.535
because the story is full
of models of such courage,

00:55:20.535 --> 00:55:23.621
such persistence, such idealism,

00:55:23.621 --> 00:55:25.456
that if we can only
live like that,

00:55:25.456 --> 00:55:29.460
tell ourselves that's
how we know who we are,

00:55:29.460 --> 00:55:32.213
by reading this history,
knowing these stories,

00:55:32.213 --> 00:55:34.131
identifying with these people,

00:55:34.131 --> 00:55:38.469
because that's where the
best of this country is.

00:55:40.263 --> 00:55:44.267
(mellow acoustic guitar music)

00:55:50.690 --> 00:55:55.152
♪ Five years now gone
and here we stand ♪

00:55:55.152 --> 00:55:59.782
♪ In ruins on this troubled land ♪

00:55:59.782 --> 00:56:03.995
♪ Young hearts lie dead
in fields of shame ♪

00:56:03.995 --> 00:56:10.835
♪ Their loved ones weep
yet nothing's gained ♪

00:56:10.835 --> 00:56:15.506
♪ Some say this is
a right we choose ♪

00:56:15.506 --> 00:56:19.969
♪ One God decrees we
should not lose ♪

00:56:19.969 --> 00:56:24.932
♪ So as we fight to make a stand ♪

00:56:24.932 --> 00:56:31.397
♪ The blood pours
out across the land ♪

00:56:31.397 --> 00:56:35.651
♪ So sing it loudly as you go ♪

00:56:35.651 --> 00:56:40.031
♪ The sad refrain
we've come to know ♪

00:56:40.031 --> 00:56:44.744
♪ Our hearts remind
us once again ♪

00:56:44.744 --> 00:56:50.583
♪ Violence is a bitter friend ♪

00:56:55.296 --> 00:57:04.013
♪ No more auction block for me ♪

00:57:04.013 --> 00:57:12.897
♪ No more no more ♪

00:57:12.897 --> 00:57:16.525
♪ Stories must be told ♪

00:57:16.525 --> 00:57:20.863
♪ And since we've all
been bought and sold ♪

00:57:20.863 --> 00:57:25.117
♪ It's up to us to
shift the frame ♪

00:57:25.117 --> 00:57:31.082
♪ So future hearts
won't bear this pain ♪

00:57:45.262 --> 00:57:48.516
(audience applauding)