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[ambient music]

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- Last night in Las Vegas,

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200 people on welfare--
half of them children--

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marched into the Stardust Hotel.

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They walked past the gambling casino
and the slot machines

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and sat down in the dining room.

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They ordered, they ate,
but they didn't pay,

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and they said they'd do it again.

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- My advice
for poor women in this country:

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you've gotta get out
and talk about your problem.

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You've gotta be strong.

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Don't take no for an answer.

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Something need to be done.

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And we know that we have a problem
in this country right now.

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Poor people have no voice.

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"You poor.
You stupid.

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You don't have an education."

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That's what they say.

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But poor women that have children--

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us--

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we surprised a whole lot of people.

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- It's nice to meet you.

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- Ruby Duncan from Las Vegas,

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one of our civil rights icons
and my guest tonight.

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- It's an honor to meet you.
- Thank you.

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- It's a real honor.
- It's a honor to meet you.

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I remember your husband.

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- Ms. Duncan, let me just say
what an honor it is to greet you.

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- You know, mothers will do anything
for their children.

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My first name is Ruby.

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Last name is Duncan.

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- [singing] Oh, oh

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Oh, oh

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- You can make a stimulus.
You can print money.

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If money really grew on trees,
why not give more free money?

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- It's not free money.

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They're taxpayer.

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When you go buy something,
you're a taxpayer.

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- I believe we have a duty
to end welfare as we know it.

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- And a whole bunch
of old, rich, white men

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deciding poor people
are getting too much money,

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and they taking it away!

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- [singing]
They gon' take it

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- We're going to tighten
the eligibility standards

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to eliminate those
who are receiving welfare fraudulently.

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- We are not the cheaters.

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The cheaters are those
that should be making sure

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that poor children in this country
survive.

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- [singing]
We're tired of your nonsense

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We all have the right to survive

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We got to exercise
the powers that we know

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You know it ain't right

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For the right,
we will fight

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With all of our might,
we gonna fight

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We ain't gonna take it

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[laughter]

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- This is the only picture of my youth.

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- Aw.

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- When I was 19,
at a state fair in Tallulah.

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- You look beautiful, Grandma.

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- Now, look at this one here.

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I used to wear them--
- That's a great picture.

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- That picture--let me see.

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Ooh, I love this photo, Ma!

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Look at this.
- That's the best one.

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- I love this.

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- That one's got Mary Wesley in it.
- That's you!

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- Me and George Wiley.

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- It's on my wall.
Well...

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- Oh, no she didn't!
- Uh-oh!

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Yes, she did!
- No, she didn't!

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[laughter]

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- "Is your power bill too high?"

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[laughter]

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- Ooh, Lord, I look rugged.

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Well, that was what this is all about.

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We needed the help.

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I had to get on welfare for that time

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so we could make it.

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- When we wanted something--
like, "Mom, can we get this?"--

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my mother would explain,
"I don't have the money.

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I need money to buy food to feed you all."

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And I was like, oh, God,
I don't want to hear this again.

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You know,
but she would explain.

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- Where'd you get these pictures?
- I'm gonna want 'em back.

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- Everybody in the neighborhood
just about was getting it.

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We'll crack on them.

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You know, we'll laugh at them,
but vice versa.

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You know, they got us too.

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We didn't understand the structure
of the welfare system.

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- It was very hard making sure
that they had food to eat,

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place to stay.

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The Welfare Department,
they talk down.

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They belittle you.

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- The impression
about all these matters

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being capable of being solved
by the federal government,

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which, of course,
is just not realistic.

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- This has a bad effect
on the rest of the society,

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because someone who is working says,

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"Well, gee, why should I be working
if the neighbor next door

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can just sit at home doing nothing
and take in welfare?"

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- Who is going to say to a welfare mother,

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who's had three
or four illegitimate children,

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who are now charges of this state,

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"We're very sorry, but we will not be able
to allow you to have any more children"?

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[applause]

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- The upper class politicians,

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they really don't understand

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poor women like me.

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[pensive music]

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I met my husband at a birthday party.

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I had just had Sondra.
[baby crying]

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And Sondra began crying, and I had
to go in the bedroom to take care of her.

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Roy Duncan, he said,
"I'll take care of the baby."

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And I say, "That's okay.
I can take care of my baby."

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He said,
"No, I want to take care of the baby."

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[cheers and applause]

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He and I got married,

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and we lived a okay life.

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As a matter of fact,
we lived a good life.

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He was a great father to my children.

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- How can you not respect a man
that marries your mom,

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accept all her children--
she had six children.

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And I always admired that...

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But I remember a lot of big arguments.

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It made me nervous.

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- He'd be sitting there arguing at me,
and I'm sitting there, looking,

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saying to myself,
"What in the world?"

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Then, he'd become kind of mean,
and went to slapping me around,

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so I couldn't take that.

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[solemn music]

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I'd go to work at the hotels.

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My face would be black and blue.

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I grab my children up.

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- My mother got a divorce,
so we went to the projects.

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- I worked at the Sahara Hotel
as a short order cook.

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I went to work at 2:00 in the afternoon.

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At 5:00,
I had to have 1,500 salads.

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The two guys,

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which fried eggs
and made bacon and stuff like that,

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they had a half a can of fried--

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you know, the grease
that they would pour off the food.

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They was taking it over and spill it.

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Well, I'm coming back
with these big platters,

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and I didn't see the grease.

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And all of a sudden,
I steps in the grease,

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and down I went,
and all the food all over the place.

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And I fractured my shoulder.

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I fractured my hip.

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I was in so much pain.

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I went to the emergency room.

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I could not go back to work.

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- That's how we ended up
on public assistance.

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When my mother told us,
I was like, oh, my God.

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- We were only getting, like, $120,

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and we had to pay $60 for rent.

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It was not enough money to really live.

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- I'm using this to do the fruit salad.

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I'ma put all my fruit in there.
- Mm-hmm.

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- Look at all this food.
Look at that.

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Mama, do you remember?
I never forgot this.

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You would buy a hamburger.

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- Oh!
- Oh, my God.

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And Mama--I said,
"Mama, can I get a bite?"

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And you took that one hamburger,

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and you shared it with all seven of us.

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It was amazing.
- We just couldn't take a big bite.

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- Yeah, I mean,
I remember just biting.

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And then, you bite, and then I bite,
and then everybody bit.

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And you just had--
- Yeah, you just bite.

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"Not such a big bite!
Take a little bite!"

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- Because we were too poor.
We didn't have any money.

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We was on welfare
and the county commodities,

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which were government cheese.

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- Not to be sold or exchanged.
- There you go.

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We didn't have--we seriously
didn't have anything to eat,

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'cause that's when I was making up
cornbread with just plain water and flour

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and frying it with Vaseline.

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- Vaseline?
- Vaseline grease.

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- Vaseline.
both: Mm-hmm.

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- There were days--

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[emotionally]
Oh--mm.

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There were days
we didn't have anything to eat

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but cornmeal and onion.

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And sometimes
I had to borrow the onion

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to make the cornmeal taste better
with the fried grease

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when I did have some fatback of bacon.

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[sobbing]

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[somber music] -

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You loses everything.

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you loses your rights, your dignity,
and everything else,

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because you got to go
drop your guard and ask.

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Most of the women in the project
didn't want to say they were on welfare,

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because being on welfare,
it felt like it's just demeaning.

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- When we talk about welfare,

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it could refer
to any number of different things--

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social security program,
unemployment compensation,

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tax breaks.

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Any kind of government assistance
to the American people is welfare,

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but the term "welfare"
has become closely identified

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with the Aid to Families
with Dependent Children program.

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[upbeat music]

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- The state and federal governments
provide monthly cash payments

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to provide for children
who have lost their breadwinners.

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- There had long been activists
for what were called mothers' pensions.

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That was an argument that began
in the early 20th century,

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the idea being that the work
that mothers do in the home

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is socially valuable
and economically valuable.

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And then in 1935, the Social Security Act
included Aid to Dependent Children,

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but they left out domestic workers,

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which meant they left out
the majority of women of color.

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- Beginning in the early 1950s,

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more and more African American women
began to apply for welfare assistance,

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and that is when we began to see
a real stigma associated with welfare.

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Although the welfare rolls

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were always made up of more white women
than Black woman,

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welfare became controversial
when Black women started being seen

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as the primary recipients
of welfare assistance.

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- That shift is really important.

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Suddenly, we have a story

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that people are poor
because they are not working hard,

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or they're making bad choices,
or they're lazy.

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- We began
to see people talking about

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"our tax dollars supporting people
who don't want to work."

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[jazz music]

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- Mattie Grace works as a maid
in a Las Vegas hotel,

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but that's not enough.

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She needs welfare to make ends meet.

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- Las Vegas was a seasonal hiring town
in those days,

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and it was kind of a precursor
to the gig economy, where we are now.

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They hired people,
but they hired them as temporary workers.

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So the greatest beneficiaries of welfare
in Nevada were the casinos,

00:13:25.846 --> 00:13:29.016
who could lay people off and help them
to get on public assistance

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so they wouldn't leave town,

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and the state itself,
because then they had a steady,

00:13:33.771 --> 00:13:36.565
low-wage workforce.

00:13:36.607 --> 00:13:39.902
- The economics for us was zero.

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[tense music]

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- Nevada had the second lowest benefits
in the country...

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- Well, they better get someone
in there

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that can give them
good fiscal recommendations.

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- Largely because of a man
named George Miller.

00:13:56.043 --> 00:13:57.545
- George Miller was

00:13:57.586 --> 00:14:03.467
the Nevada state director of welfare.

00:14:03.509 --> 00:14:06.929
- There wasn't a bona fide person,
in our opinion, that we cut off,

00:14:06.971 --> 00:14:08.472
that shouldn't have been cut off.

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- He would just find reasons
to make it hard for mothers.

00:14:14.311 --> 00:14:17.356
- Miller had grown up
as a poor person himself,

00:14:17.398 --> 00:14:20.776
and I guess he had pulled himself up
by his bootstraps

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and figured that everybody else
should do that as well.

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- We didn't have no bootstraps
to pull up.

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I did not want to be on welfare.

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I called the welfare department

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and asked them
did they have a job that I could do,

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but they said
they couldn't help me get a job.

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And so, I called the newspaper.

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Mary Manning answered the phone.

00:14:55.311 --> 00:14:57.271
- She told me
what was happening to her--

00:14:57.313 --> 00:14:59.732
that she had been injured,
she couldn't support her children,

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she needed work--and I said,
"Why don't you come in?

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And I'll talk to you and interview you,
and we'll tell your story."

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After the story appeared
in the "Las Vegas Sun,"

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of course the state called Ruby up
within a week, and they said,

00:15:14.038 --> 00:15:16.999
"Hey, we'll put you
in a sewing training program,

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and you can learn
how to make a living stitching."

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[upbeat music]

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- I went every day.

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A whole bunch of us got
to know each other.

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- Ruby, she was loud.

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[chuckles]
Her voice would pierce your ears.

00:15:39.063 --> 00:15:42.358
- When Ruby come in, I said,
"That woman sure talk loud."

00:15:42.399 --> 00:15:45.402
But she had a voice on her.
[laughs]

00:15:45.444 --> 00:15:49.698
- Alversa was the cook of the group.
She was always cooking.

00:15:49.740 --> 00:15:52.451
Mary was a cook too.

00:15:52.493 --> 00:15:56.372
- You said, "Mary, that's the bad one.
She'll hurt you."

00:15:56.413 --> 00:16:00.668
They used to talk about her,
but we had fun, though.

00:16:00.709 --> 00:16:03.253
- We all here.
We all can talk now.

00:16:03.295 --> 00:16:06.924
And I would ask questions.
I was a nosy person.

00:16:06.966 --> 00:16:09.176
"What do you get?
How much you get?

00:16:09.218 --> 00:16:11.095
How do you feel?"

00:16:11.136 --> 00:16:12.680
[laughter]

00:16:12.721 --> 00:16:16.517
A pretty good girlfriend of mine
called me, and she said,

00:16:16.558 --> 00:16:21.230
"Ruby, why don't you come and help us

00:16:21.271 --> 00:16:26.568
with the Welfare Mothers Organization?"

00:16:26.610 --> 00:16:28.070
I said, "What do they do?"

00:16:28.112 --> 00:16:29.113
[upbeat jazz music]

00:16:29.154 --> 00:16:31.281
Ladies, let's have a meeting!

00:16:35.995 --> 00:16:38.163
[singing]
We ain't going down like that!

00:16:38.205 --> 00:16:40.624
We ain't going down like that!

00:16:42.543 --> 00:16:44.336
We gotta fight

00:16:45.963 --> 00:16:48.716
- Every movement I can think of
comes out

00:16:48.757 --> 00:16:54.346
of one person saying something
they think only happened to them,

00:16:54.388 --> 00:16:58.434
and 6 or 12 other people say,
"Oh, that happened to me too."

00:16:58.475 --> 00:17:01.812
And then, you realize
it's probably about power.

00:17:01.854 --> 00:17:04.064
And if you come together,
you can change it.

00:17:04.106 --> 00:17:05.566
[singing]
We gotta fight

00:17:05.607 --> 00:17:09.194
- In 1968, the Clark County
Welfare Rights Organization

00:17:09.236 --> 00:17:12.990
agreed that this fiery-tongued
younger woman,

00:17:13.032 --> 00:17:16.035
Ruby Duncan,
should become the president.

00:17:18.120 --> 00:17:20.956
- We had organized
before Ruby joined us.

00:17:20.998 --> 00:17:24.293
And then, she joined with us.

00:17:24.334 --> 00:17:27.004
Then, we started going places.

00:17:28.839 --> 00:17:32.634
- I told them, I don't know nothing
about having no meetings.

00:17:32.676 --> 00:17:34.511
I don't know how to do a meeting.

00:17:34.553 --> 00:17:36.722
I knew nothing about politics.

00:17:36.764 --> 00:17:39.558
They said,
"Don't none of us know nothing."

00:17:39.600 --> 00:17:43.729
I says, "Okay, I'll take it,

00:17:43.771 --> 00:17:46.899
"but I will not do the work all by myself.

00:17:46.940 --> 00:17:51.779
All of you are going to be part of this."

00:17:55.157 --> 00:17:58.452
It was the best thing
could have ever happened to me.

00:17:58.494 --> 00:18:01.705
Up until 1968,

00:18:01.747 --> 00:18:05.167
I was just a regular, shy woman.

00:18:05.209 --> 00:18:11.215
[ambient music]

00:18:11.256 --> 00:18:13.967
I grew up back

00:18:14.009 --> 00:18:18.472
in the backwoods
of Tallulah, Louisiana.

00:18:18.514 --> 00:18:20.766
We were sharecroppers.

00:18:22.976 --> 00:18:25.604
I fell in love with the eighth grade,

00:18:25.646 --> 00:18:29.316
and I made it to the ninth.

00:18:29.358 --> 00:18:34.196
I was a very good student
with English and reading.

00:18:34.238 --> 00:18:36.990
I never could catch on to math.

00:18:39.993 --> 00:18:43.497
Every year, in April,

00:18:43.539 --> 00:18:49.545
I had to leave school
to go back and help chop cotton.

00:18:49.586 --> 00:18:52.798
I hated it very much.

00:18:52.840 --> 00:18:56.343
I would always have these great dreams.

00:18:56.385 --> 00:19:00.639
I could see myself somewhere
way, way away.

00:19:02.808 --> 00:19:06.228
I'm going to be a speaker.

00:19:06.270 --> 00:19:12.943
I'm going to stand
before thousand of people and speak,

00:19:12.985 --> 00:19:15.946
but I didn't know
that I would ever get to do anything.

00:19:15.988 --> 00:19:19.241
I thought I was very shy.

00:19:21.702 --> 00:19:23.579
But it was my dream.

00:19:28.792 --> 00:19:34.214
- Most of the other women also came
from small communities in the South.

00:19:37.593 --> 00:19:39.887
I was married.

00:19:39.928 --> 00:19:42.055
My husband,
he was so jealous.

00:19:42.097 --> 00:19:43.765
He didn't like nobody to look at me.

00:19:43.807 --> 00:19:46.685
He didn't want me to go nowhere.

00:19:46.727 --> 00:19:49.855
He'll go out and come back,
and he drunk.

00:19:49.897 --> 00:19:53.483
He say he drunk,
and he would fight me.

00:19:53.525 --> 00:19:58.780
And I had the young baby, but I would
fight him back, so I got tired of that.

00:20:02.075 --> 00:20:05.579
- I grew up in Quitman, Mississippi.

00:20:05.621 --> 00:20:07.497
When I worked with the peoples,
they would tell me--

00:20:07.539 --> 00:20:09.166
they had the wooden floors.

00:20:09.208 --> 00:20:10.334
They wanted me to get down.

00:20:10.375 --> 00:20:14.504
And so, I told this lady I never got
to get on my knees to scrub floors,

00:20:14.546 --> 00:20:17.382
not when they had mops.

00:20:17.424 --> 00:20:20.093
That's why my mother wanted me
to go to Las Vegas.

00:20:20.135 --> 00:20:22.471
She said
that I stand a little bit too tall.

00:20:30.187 --> 00:20:34.775
[funky music]

00:20:34.816 --> 00:20:38.654
- My Uncle Top was always looking
for better living,

00:20:38.695 --> 00:20:40.948
and he would explain to us

00:20:40.989 --> 00:20:46.662
what a beautiful place it was
in Las Vegas.

00:20:46.703 --> 00:20:51.083
And I would start dreaming,
wow, that's really nice.

00:20:52.709 --> 00:20:54.753
- People would tell relatives,

00:20:54.795 --> 00:20:58.340
"You've got to come to Las Vegas.
Why are you still in the cotton fields?"

00:20:59.967 --> 00:21:01.551
- I came here,

00:21:01.593 --> 00:21:04.680
and I saw this dry climate,
this desert, all

00:21:04.721 --> 00:21:07.099
this cactus, no trees.

00:21:07.140 --> 00:21:10.352
I wanted to know,
how can peoples actually live here?

00:21:10.394 --> 00:21:12.771
I left my husband,
come out here.

00:21:12.813 --> 00:21:14.356
- I saw those mountains,

00:21:14.398 --> 00:21:18.485
and I said, oh, Lord,
we at the end of the world.

00:21:18.527 --> 00:21:22.072
And then, they took me out on the Strip,
and it was so beautiful.

00:21:22.114 --> 00:21:24.449
It was the prettiest lights I ever seen.

00:21:31.081 --> 00:21:36.461
But we couldn't get out
and go into the casinos and things.

00:21:38.005 --> 00:21:42.926
- The 1950s was a time in Las Vegas
before integration.

00:21:42.968 --> 00:21:45.762
African Americans were relegated

00:21:45.804 --> 00:21:48.849
to lives in the westside community,

00:21:48.890 --> 00:21:51.727
only a half mile from downtown.

00:21:51.768 --> 00:21:55.689
- Las Vegas then was
the Mississippi of the West.

00:21:55.731 --> 00:22:01.361
West Las Vegas at the time
had sort of a rural atmosphere.

00:22:02.696 --> 00:22:04.406
- I asked my grandmother.

00:22:04.448 --> 00:22:07.784
I say, "They raise a lot
of chickens here, huh?"

00:22:07.826 --> 00:22:09.911
She says,
"Where you see the chickens at?"

00:22:09.953 --> 00:22:14.541
I said, "All those coops here.
There's just coops everywhere."

00:22:14.583 --> 00:22:19.129
Those was the houses.
They was actually like a chicken coop.

00:22:19.171 --> 00:22:22.674
And I could not believe
peoples actually lived in them.

00:22:28.889 --> 00:22:33.435
- "Yes, maybe life here
isn't what I expected it to be,

00:22:33.477 --> 00:22:37.105
but I can get a decent job."

00:22:37.147 --> 00:22:41.360
Women came to work at casinos downtown,

00:22:41.401 --> 00:22:44.696
where African American women
worked in the back of the house,

00:22:44.738 --> 00:22:48.658
doing the cleaning, in the linen rooms
and places like that.

00:22:48.700 --> 00:22:53.997
- In '56, I went to work
at the Flamingo Hilton as a maid.

00:22:55.791 --> 00:22:59.669
In two weeks,
I had a hundred and some dollars.

00:22:59.711 --> 00:23:01.713
And I asked my sister-in-law

00:23:01.755 --> 00:23:04.883
was that right,
and did I make that much money,

00:23:04.925 --> 00:23:07.052
and she said,
"Yeah, you did."

00:23:07.094 --> 00:23:12.516
And I was happy, 'cause I had never
had made that much money in two weeks.

00:23:12.557 --> 00:23:18.397
[jaunty jazz music]

00:23:22.317 --> 00:23:25.195
We'd dress up and go down Jackson Street.

00:23:25.237 --> 00:23:28.824
We couldn't go out on the Strip,
so that was our Strip.

00:23:28.865 --> 00:23:30.409
- Jackson Street.

00:23:30.450 --> 00:23:33.453
That was the westside business corridor.

00:23:33.495 --> 00:23:35.205
There was a bowling alley,

00:23:35.247 --> 00:23:37.416
all kinds of nightclubs,

00:23:37.457 --> 00:23:40.836
small casinos, restaurants.

00:23:45.882 --> 00:23:48.051
The Cove Hotel.

00:23:48.093 --> 00:23:50.095
A lot of entertainers went over there--

00:23:50.137 --> 00:23:54.182
people like Sammy Davis Jr.,
Lena Horne, Nat King Cole.

00:23:54.224 --> 00:23:59.271
They would be here to entertain
in the largest hotels on the Strip

00:23:59.312 --> 00:24:01.940
but could not enjoy
any of the entertainment,

00:24:01.982 --> 00:24:03.817
any of that gaming.

00:24:03.859 --> 00:24:05.277
- They would all come there,

00:24:05.318 --> 00:24:07.362
and they would have
what's called a jam session,

00:24:07.404 --> 00:24:09.322
from Sunday evening to Monday morning.

00:24:16.037 --> 00:24:17.831
[somber music]

00:24:17.873 --> 00:24:22.377
My husband was making by then,
like $500 or $600 a week,

00:24:22.419 --> 00:24:24.045
but he would gamble so much.

00:24:24.087 --> 00:24:26.756
He just couldn't stop that.

00:24:26.798 --> 00:24:30.427
After seven kids,
we separated,

00:24:30.469 --> 00:24:34.514
and I needed two jobs to make it
for the kids, you know?

00:24:38.351 --> 00:24:41.104
One time,
my kids didn't have any food,

00:24:41.146 --> 00:24:43.857
so I went to the club called
the Louisiana Club.

00:24:43.899 --> 00:24:48.820
I would ask someone for a dime
to make a phone call,

00:24:48.862 --> 00:24:51.615
'cause I don't have anything
but a dollar bill.

00:24:51.656 --> 00:24:53.033
Didn't have not one penny.

00:24:55.744 --> 00:25:00.832
It was, like, probably three or four hours
before I got enough to buy a bag of beans.

00:25:04.794 --> 00:25:07.422
And then finally,
I got sick.

00:25:07.464 --> 00:25:10.175
And these peoples come to me
at the hospital,

00:25:10.217 --> 00:25:14.471
and they told me about welfare,
and I was so ashamed of that.

00:25:17.098 --> 00:25:20.101
I wanted to get off of welfare quick,

00:25:20.143 --> 00:25:23.647
but I was not gonna give my kids up
for nothing.

00:25:23.688 --> 00:25:27.734
- About a quarter of Negro families
are headed by women.

00:25:27.776 --> 00:25:30.278
The divorce rate is 2 1/2 times what it is,

00:25:30.320 --> 00:25:35.659
and the number fatherless children
keeps growing.

00:25:35.700 --> 00:25:37.827
All these things are getting worse,
not better.

00:25:41.206 --> 00:25:43.542
- There came to be an idea

00:25:43.583 --> 00:25:47.587
that women were just staying at home
and slacking off

00:25:47.629 --> 00:25:51.007
and, you know,
that childcare wasn't hard work,

00:25:51.049 --> 00:25:57.389
that even they might be having children
in order to get on welfare.

00:25:57.430 --> 00:25:59.099
- You don't want to be on welfare.

00:25:59.140 --> 00:26:01.268
You don't get nothing
but that little crumbs of money,

00:26:01.309 --> 00:26:04.104
and they gonna talk to you
and treat you so bad.

00:26:04.145 --> 00:26:07.524
They made me feel real sorry
that I had kids.

00:26:07.566 --> 00:26:09.734
You know,
"Why you have these kids?"

00:26:09.776 --> 00:26:12.821
And I didn't know anything
about birth control then.

00:26:12.862 --> 00:26:14.614
[indistinct chatter]

00:26:14.656 --> 00:26:18.868
- It was a time when you couldn't
send information about birth control

00:26:18.910 --> 00:26:19.744
through the mail,

00:26:19.786 --> 00:26:23.582
and many states
totally criminalized birth control.

00:26:26.209 --> 00:26:33.133
- I went to a doctor and asked her
would she help my period come back.

00:26:33.174 --> 00:26:38.430
- She says,
"I don't believe in abortions, Ruby."

00:26:39.973 --> 00:26:43.268
- I ended up with 11 kids.

00:26:43.310 --> 00:26:46.062
Another lady told me,
she said,

00:26:46.104 --> 00:26:49.441
"I went to the doctor,
and he stopped me from having babies.

00:26:49.482 --> 00:26:50.692
He tied my tubes."

00:26:50.734 --> 00:26:52.569
I said, "Well, give me his name."

00:26:52.611 --> 00:26:57.073
So I went to him,
and I asked will he tie my tubes.

00:26:58.867 --> 00:27:00.702
They had to ask my husband.

00:27:00.744 --> 00:27:04.331
So they sent a letter down there,
and he signed it.

00:27:04.372 --> 00:27:06.541
I was so happy.

00:27:13.423 --> 00:27:17.010
[pensive music]

00:27:17.052 --> 00:27:23.183
- In Nevada, a welfare family of four
receives an average of $1,700 a year.

00:27:23.224 --> 00:27:26.269
By comparison, New York,
New Jersey, and Alaska

00:27:26.311 --> 00:27:30.690
pay the same-sized family
more than $4,000.

00:27:30.732 --> 00:27:33.985
- The poverty program
was supposed to make sure

00:27:34.027 --> 00:27:40.325
every welfare mother in the state
and her family could have adequate income,

00:27:40.367 --> 00:27:44.537
but the rich and the powerful,
who make the programs,

00:27:44.579 --> 00:27:48.875
they care nothing
about our children.

00:27:48.917 --> 00:27:54.547
- George Miller decided to survey
Nevada's recipients of public assistance

00:27:54.589 --> 00:27:56.257
for cheaters.

00:27:56.299 --> 00:27:58.968
He thought cheaters were
people who worked off the books,

00:27:59.010 --> 00:28:00.804
who got a little extra income,

00:28:00.845 --> 00:28:03.640
or women who had men in their lives.

00:28:03.682 --> 00:28:06.101
He wanted to turn men
into responsible providers

00:28:06.142 --> 00:28:08.353
and heads of household.

00:28:08.395 --> 00:28:12.399
It was a very gendered vision
of the purpose of the welfare state.

00:28:18.613 --> 00:28:21.449
- They were coming
in women's homes at night--

00:28:21.491 --> 00:28:26.246
midnight--
knocking on their doors.

00:28:26.287 --> 00:28:27.122
They opened the door.

00:28:27.163 --> 00:28:30.208
They just said,
"We here to do a check.

00:28:30.250 --> 00:28:33.294
"We want to see
if there's a man in the house."

00:28:35.714 --> 00:28:39.384
- Whether or not this man was the father
of the children was irrelevant.

00:28:39.426 --> 00:28:44.639
If there was a man around
who could presumably support the children,

00:28:44.681 --> 00:28:48.601
then that would be grounds
for cutting off a welfare recipient.

00:28:48.643 --> 00:28:50.729
- Everything was no privacy.

00:28:50.770 --> 00:28:52.313
They was pulling you out of bed.

00:28:52.355 --> 00:28:55.024
They would check your medicine cabinet
or whatever.

00:28:55.066 --> 00:28:56.860
- If they found whiskers in the sink,

00:28:56.901 --> 00:28:59.404
if they found men's clothing in a closet,

00:28:59.446 --> 00:29:03.742
the welfare mothers
automatically lost their benefits.

00:29:03.783 --> 00:29:06.703
- She asked me, "What these
men's shoes doing in your room?"

00:29:06.745 --> 00:29:10.457
I said,
"The lady give them to me for my son."

00:29:10.498 --> 00:29:14.252
She said,
"Well, I thought a man was here."

00:29:14.294 --> 00:29:18.214
- And if you were married,
and the husband couldn't find a job,

00:29:18.256 --> 00:29:22.969
he had to leave
so the children could have food.

00:29:23.011 --> 00:29:24.637
It was horrible.

00:29:24.679 --> 00:29:26.014
They watches your home.

00:29:26.055 --> 00:29:31.436
They pays investigators
from $10,000 to $12,000 a year

00:29:31.478 --> 00:29:36.399
to watch a woman and two children
get $1,600 a year.

00:29:36.441 --> 00:29:41.321
- Literally, the Constitution
was left on the doorstep.

00:29:44.407 --> 00:29:48.411
- In the men-in-the-house raids,
in the middle of the night,

00:29:48.453 --> 00:29:52.832
George Miller had insisted
that social workers were in danger,

00:29:52.874 --> 00:29:56.336
especially if they were white women
going into these houses,

00:29:56.377 --> 00:29:59.798
and he insisted
that they carry loaded guns.

00:29:59.839 --> 00:30:02.675
And the social workers
really rebelled against this.

00:30:05.303 --> 00:30:08.681
They were worried that some kid
might jump out and they would just shoot.

00:30:08.723 --> 00:30:10.892
You would endanger
the lives of their children,

00:30:10.934 --> 00:30:12.685
you would endanger their lives.

00:30:15.438 --> 00:30:19.234
- We didn't know when
they were coming knocking on our door.

00:30:19.275 --> 00:30:21.236
and so,
we sued them for it.

00:30:21.277 --> 00:30:22.403
- [singing] Ooh

00:30:22.445 --> 00:30:26.449
- We say every day,
in this country,

00:30:26.491 --> 00:30:32.038
the welfare department violates
the United States Constitution,

00:30:32.080 --> 00:30:35.083
which was set up to protect the people.

00:30:35.124 --> 00:30:39.128
- If you want your life to get better,
you got to fight for it.

00:30:39.170 --> 00:30:42.465
- [singing]
Oh, fighting for change

00:30:42.507 --> 00:30:45.009
And we won't ever stop

00:30:45.051 --> 00:30:47.303
Fighting for change

00:30:47.345 --> 00:30:50.098
Till we reach that mountaintop

00:30:50.139 --> 00:30:55.603
- One day, I seen this big paper
laying there and saying

00:30:55.645 --> 00:30:58.815
"National Welfare Rights."

00:30:58.857 --> 00:31:00.775
I said,
what in the world?

00:31:00.817 --> 00:31:02.527
And I began to read.

00:31:02.569 --> 00:31:04.445
[contemplative music]

00:31:04.487 --> 00:31:07.115
- Before the Clark County
Welfare Rights Organization began,

00:31:07.156 --> 00:31:10.743
in Las Vegas came
the National Welfare Rights Organization

00:31:10.785 --> 00:31:14.747
when these three professors
became interested

00:31:14.789 --> 00:31:17.667
in creating a national
poor mothers movement.

00:31:17.709 --> 00:31:20.420
- Our organization protests action

00:31:20.461 --> 00:31:22.964
using demonstrations,
using legal channels,

00:31:23.006 --> 00:31:26.384
using negotiations,
using the democratic processes,

00:31:26.426 --> 00:31:30.263
by people who are some
of the most despised and outcast dwellers

00:31:30.305 --> 00:31:32.891
of the ghettos and barrios
of our country.

00:31:32.932 --> 00:31:36.144
This is one of the most hopeful movements
that there is in the country.

00:31:36.185 --> 00:31:37.645
- George Wiley.

00:31:37.687 --> 00:31:42.108
He actually was a chemistry professor
at Syracuse University.

00:31:42.150 --> 00:31:45.820
He had been completely bitten
by the movement bug.

00:31:45.862 --> 00:31:50.366
- If we don't get justice in the court,
we gonna get it in the streets!

00:31:50.408 --> 00:31:51.993
- He chose to leave his job

00:31:52.035 --> 00:31:56.831
and devote his life to civil rights
and anti-poverty organizing.

00:31:56.873 --> 00:32:00.335
- When Richard and I
ran into George Wiley,

00:32:00.376 --> 00:32:01.878
as social scientists,

00:32:01.920 --> 00:32:06.716
we had learned a lot
about how the welfare system functioned.

00:32:06.758 --> 00:32:10.720
We had learned it
from the women who were turned away.

00:32:10.762 --> 00:32:13.514
I was so troubled
'cause I didn't understand

00:32:13.556 --> 00:32:20.229
why welfare policy was as harsh as it was.

00:32:20.271 --> 00:32:22.982
These were mothers with six kids.

00:32:23.024 --> 00:32:26.653
What was the point of degrading them?

00:32:26.694 --> 00:32:32.575
Why refuse benefits
for which they were eligible?

00:32:32.617 --> 00:32:34.869
[tense music]

00:32:34.911 --> 00:32:38.539
And so,
we laid out this strategy.

00:32:40.333 --> 00:32:44.212
What if poor people all started
making applications for welfare

00:32:44.253 --> 00:32:47.757
and then being a little truculent
about if they were turned away...

00:32:48.007 --> 00:32:50.301
[chanting]

00:32:53.763 --> 00:32:57.183
With all of these constituents
banging on the door

00:32:57.225 --> 00:33:01.270
of the federal programs
and the federal budget,

00:33:01.312 --> 00:33:05.566
we thought the federal government
would reform

00:33:05.608 --> 00:33:11.572
what was a pretty archaic
and miserable welfare system.

00:33:11.614 --> 00:33:14.617
George Wiley wanted to try it out.

00:33:16.786 --> 00:33:20.707
We didn't know how many welfare rights
groups there were in the country.

00:33:20.748 --> 00:33:22.417
We didn't know how to find them.

00:33:22.458 --> 00:33:24.585
And so,
we had this idea.

00:33:26.295 --> 00:33:31.801
Let's send out the call
for all the welfare rights groups--

00:33:31.843 --> 00:33:36.431
we don't know if there are 10 or 100--

00:33:36.472 --> 00:33:40.101
to march on the same day
to show solidarity.

00:33:40.143 --> 00:33:42.812
- On June 30, 1966,

00:33:42.854 --> 00:33:49.360
they had the first nationwide
welfare rights protest.

00:33:49.402 --> 00:33:52.113
- And then,
we hired a clipping service

00:33:52.155 --> 00:33:57.952
to collect clippings from all these
hometown newspapers all over the country,

00:33:57.994 --> 00:34:04.542
and that clipping file became our
first registry of welfare rights groups.

00:34:06.335 --> 00:34:10.131
- They decided to form
the National Welfare Rights Organization.

00:34:10.173 --> 00:34:12.800
George Wiley was
the executive director.

00:34:12.842 --> 00:34:16.596
There were also local organizers
hired by the national office

00:34:16.637 --> 00:34:19.057
to help welfare recipients organize.

00:34:19.098 --> 00:34:20.516
[chanting]

00:34:20.558 --> 00:34:23.895
- I said, my God,
people doing this all over the country.

00:34:23.936 --> 00:34:25.313
[chanting]

00:34:25.354 --> 00:34:28.608
In LA, they call themselves Welfare Mamas.

00:34:28.649 --> 00:34:30.735
Johnnie Tillmon.

00:34:30.777 --> 00:34:34.155
- We couldn't care less
about making you mad

00:34:34.197 --> 00:34:37.408
because we have been mad
over a period of years.

00:34:37.450 --> 00:34:40.787
- In New York City
was Beulah Sanders.

00:34:40.828 --> 00:34:45.458
- Our people ain't gonna starve,
and we ain't about to see them starve.

00:34:45.500 --> 00:34:49.837
We're gonna get food and clothing
and shelter one way or the other.

00:34:49.879 --> 00:34:51.047
- They were bad.

00:34:51.089 --> 00:34:54.801
Ooh, I wanted to be like them so bad.

00:34:54.842 --> 00:34:58.763
- Welfare recipients across the country
began to talk to each other.

00:34:58.805 --> 00:35:00.598
- A woman in Nevada has no choices.

00:35:00.640 --> 00:35:03.017
There are very few jobs
except going to the club

00:35:03.059 --> 00:35:05.269
or going out to become a prostitute.

00:35:05.311 --> 00:35:08.815
- The mothers met
a northern Nevada white welfare mother

00:35:08.856 --> 00:35:13.903
with a blonde beehive hairdo
named Johanna "Cookie" Bustamonte.

00:35:13.945 --> 00:35:18.032
It was the first time
they met poor, white welfare families.

00:35:18.074 --> 00:35:22.120
- I could not believe white womens
didn't have enough to make ends meet.

00:35:22.161 --> 00:35:26.207
That opened my eyes up so much.

00:35:26.249 --> 00:35:31.212
- Poor whites,
poor Asian, poor Latinas--

00:35:31.254 --> 00:35:36.342
just poor people in general
start organizing together.

00:35:36.384 --> 00:35:40.972
- You have to be in a mass
for anybody to listen.

00:35:41.013 --> 00:35:43.766
You know, you can go down
to the welfare and have a problem,

00:35:43.808 --> 00:35:45.810
and they'll just sit there
and look at you and say,

00:35:45.852 --> 00:35:48.896
"I'm sorry," you know,
and that's all.

00:35:48.938 --> 00:35:49.772
It's not effective.

00:35:49.814 --> 00:35:52.942
- More women band--
especially welfare women--

00:35:52.984 --> 00:35:58.614
band together and clear this image up
that they got painted so dim of us.

00:35:58.656 --> 00:36:01.701
- The only way to overcome oppression
is through revolution,

00:36:01.742 --> 00:36:04.495
and so, we revolted.

00:36:04.537 --> 00:36:08.082
[funky music]

00:36:08.124 --> 00:36:12.003
- This was an era in which
a lot of welfare regulations

00:36:12.044 --> 00:36:15.631
were overturned through litigation.

00:36:15.673 --> 00:36:19.552
Nothing was celebrated more heartily
than the King v. Smith decision,

00:36:19.594 --> 00:36:24.348
a Supreme Court decision ending
the hated man-in-the-house rule.

00:36:24.390 --> 00:36:27.393
[cheering]

00:36:27.435 --> 00:36:30.396
- We had won that victory.

00:36:30.438 --> 00:36:35.651
We see now the system do listen
once you come out in numbers.

00:36:35.693 --> 00:36:40.323
- We intend to develop the organization

00:36:40.364 --> 00:36:45.453
through closer liaison
with the women's rights movement,

00:36:45.494 --> 00:36:49.832
with the movement of Chicanos,
Indians, and Puerto Ricans,

00:36:49.874 --> 00:36:51.709
and the Black Power movement.

00:36:51.751 --> 00:36:53.669
[singing]

00:36:53.711 --> 00:36:55.671
- In the mid-'60s,

00:36:55.713 --> 00:37:01.219
there was a lot of energy behind a
broad vision of social justice in America.

00:37:01.260 --> 00:37:05.014
People thought
that almost anything was possible.

00:37:05.056 --> 00:37:10.728
People thought we could actually
abolish poverty in America for good.

00:37:10.770 --> 00:37:12.605
We get the war on poverty from Johnson,

00:37:12.647 --> 00:37:15.650
who was pushed really hard
by movement energy.

00:37:15.691 --> 00:37:20.112
- Unconditional war on poverty
in America.

00:37:20.154 --> 00:37:23.282
- That created a range
of low-income programs.

00:37:23.324 --> 00:37:27.495
It's partly how we got food stamps,
so that people had some food security.

00:37:27.536 --> 00:37:28.788
It's how we got Medicare and Medicaid.

00:37:34.293 --> 00:37:36.504
- But the states resisted it.

00:37:36.545 --> 00:37:41.300
Now, Nevada, which was very libertarian,
resisted it more than most.

00:37:42.718 --> 00:37:45.805
- All of the people here could see

00:37:45.846 --> 00:37:48.724
the programs under Lyndon Johnson
going into effect,

00:37:48.766 --> 00:37:50.559
and nothing was happening here.

00:37:50.601 --> 00:37:53.479
[indistinct chatter]

00:37:53.521 --> 00:37:56.857
- What makes me angry
is when a child is starving,

00:37:56.899 --> 00:38:00.236
when they have no good housing.

00:38:00.278 --> 00:38:03.990
All the bad things
that can happen to poor families

00:38:04.031 --> 00:38:05.491
is what makes me angry.

00:38:05.533 --> 00:38:07.159
[solemn music]

00:38:07.201 --> 00:38:11.455
- In order to build a movement
that could exert public pressure,

00:38:11.497 --> 00:38:14.750
the mothers wanted a connection
to the civil rights movement,

00:38:14.792 --> 00:38:16.836
which was also a poor women's movement

00:38:16.877 --> 00:38:18.462
in terms of the number
of the people on the ground.

00:38:18.504 --> 00:38:21.924
But the visible faces of it were
these, you know, collared ministers.

00:38:21.966 --> 00:38:24.885
[applause]

00:38:24.927 --> 00:38:27.138
- Dr. King, I read
in "The New York Times" recently

00:38:27.179 --> 00:38:32.977
that you intend to organize one--
or to join some one million mothers.

00:38:33.019 --> 00:38:35.062
You seem to be mobilizing everybody, hmm?

00:38:35.104 --> 00:38:36.439
- [chuckles]

00:38:36.480 --> 00:38:40.192
These happen to be welfare mothers,

00:38:40.234 --> 00:38:43.571
and many of them are members
of an organization

00:38:43.612 --> 00:38:49.160
known as the National
Welfare Rights Organization.

00:38:49.201 --> 00:38:52.913
[inspirational music]

00:38:52.955 --> 00:38:55.499
- Wiley, Beulah Sanders,
and Johnnie Tillmon

00:38:55.541 --> 00:39:00.004
had really tried to get the ministers
of the civil rights movement involved.

00:39:00.046 --> 00:39:01.922
These women actually said to King,

00:39:01.964 --> 00:39:03.591
"You know,
if you're here to listen, listen.

00:39:03.632 --> 00:39:05.009
If you don't know
what you're talking about, don't talk."

00:39:05.051 --> 00:39:07.303
And amazingly enough,
he agreed with them,

00:39:07.345 --> 00:39:09.638
and he said,
"Okay, I'm here to listen."

00:39:09.680 --> 00:39:12.475
- This was really an educational process
for us

00:39:12.516 --> 00:39:16.604
because we met with mothers
with eight and ten children.

00:39:16.645 --> 00:39:21.859
And if they have to wash and iron
and feed and take care of these children--

00:39:21.901 --> 00:39:25.404
if that's not work,
then I don't know what work is.

00:39:26.822 --> 00:39:30.743
- We--
I mean the women from about 31 states--

00:39:30.785 --> 00:39:36.540
we have not had the opportunity
until recently to tell people our problems.

00:39:36.582 --> 00:39:42.838
Always found some person who had expertise
on being poor but had never been poor.

00:39:42.880 --> 00:39:46.884
[indistinct chatter]

00:39:46.926 --> 00:39:49.011
- King's Poor People's movement came out

00:39:49.053 --> 00:39:51.680
of the National Welfare
Rights Organization,

00:39:51.722 --> 00:39:56.185
and especially of poor
and working class Black mothers,

00:39:56.227 --> 00:39:59.855
who were pushing
the male movement leaders.

00:39:59.897 --> 00:40:03.317
- They did a good job organizing.
They was very good.

00:40:03.359 --> 00:40:08.197
We, as a group of women already here,
we welcome the help.

00:40:11.992 --> 00:40:17.498
It didn't cost the nation one penny
to guarantee the right to vote,

00:40:17.540 --> 00:40:22.378
but now, we are dealing with issues
that cannot be solved

00:40:22.420 --> 00:40:26.924
without the nation
spending billions of dollars

00:40:26.966 --> 00:40:30.428
and undergoing a radical redistribution
of economic power.

00:40:30.469 --> 00:40:32.721
[murmurs of agreement]

00:40:32.763 --> 00:40:36.350
[solemn music]

00:40:36.392 --> 00:40:38.227
- When he was assassinated,

00:40:38.269 --> 00:40:42.314
a majority of white Americans
disapproved of Dr. King.

00:40:42.356 --> 00:40:45.192
He was trying to take up poverty
and the Vietnam War,

00:40:45.234 --> 00:40:48.028
and people were like, "Stay in your lane.
You only do the Black stuff."

00:40:48.070 --> 00:40:52.032
- A man who fought against violence
is by violence destroyed.

00:40:52.074 --> 00:40:54.118
His successor,
Dr. Ralph Abernathy.

00:40:54.160 --> 00:40:58.747
- You may have killed the dreamer,
but you cannot kill the dream.

00:40:58.789 --> 00:41:01.792
[cheers and applause]

00:41:12.845 --> 00:41:15.764
- By the end of 1968,

00:41:15.806 --> 00:41:19.143
the complexion of the nation had changed.

00:41:19.185 --> 00:41:22.354
Richard Nixon was elected president.

00:41:22.396 --> 00:41:27.985
It was a big change in the environment
for movement politics.

00:41:43.417 --> 00:41:48.422
- All the movements began
to lose momentum and members,

00:41:48.464 --> 00:41:50.841
and so did welfare rights.

00:42:03.562 --> 00:42:08.067
- In Nevada, George Miller
started to tighten the screws.

00:42:08.108 --> 00:42:11.195
- The day-to-day
of fixing meals for your children,

00:42:11.237 --> 00:42:13.155
at that time,
was pretty hard.

00:42:16.116 --> 00:42:19.703
- When you're poor,
nothing is easy.

00:42:21.455 --> 00:42:24.250
I remember times when mom be driving,
and officers said,

00:42:24.291 --> 00:42:28.921
"Well, you came too close
to the yellow line, you know?

00:42:28.963 --> 00:42:33.092
Yeah, you didn't cross it, but
I'm gonna give you a ticket just in case."

00:42:33.133 --> 00:42:34.635
They knew we were poor.

00:42:34.677 --> 00:42:38.472
You know, $15, $10, $5,
at that time,

00:42:38.514 --> 00:42:41.684
was a difference
in having Sunday dinner

00:42:41.725 --> 00:42:44.937
or paying a light bill
or something like that.

00:42:44.979 --> 00:42:48.274
it's a poor people tax.

00:42:48.315 --> 00:42:53.070
- On the westside,
it was horrible with the police.

00:42:53.112 --> 00:42:55.281
I mean, they was monsters.

00:42:55.322 --> 00:42:58.701
You know,
they was very unprofessional.

00:42:58.742 --> 00:43:01.745
[sirens wailing]

00:43:01.787 --> 00:43:04.790
[clamoring]

00:43:09.336 --> 00:43:12.089
- There was a man who was pulled over
for a traffic violation

00:43:12.131 --> 00:43:15.134
and ended up getting beaten very badly.

00:43:18.053 --> 00:43:21.432
- The people were just pissed off,
you know?

00:43:21.473 --> 00:43:26.478
I mean, tempers had flared, and...

00:43:26.520 --> 00:43:29.481
one thing led to another.

00:43:29.523 --> 00:43:34.111
- The west side of Las Vegas
erupted in frustrations.

00:43:34.153 --> 00:43:37.990
- People throwing rocks through windows,
overturning cars.

00:43:38.032 --> 00:43:39.825
[tense music]

00:43:39.867 --> 00:43:44.913
- It was an incident of police brutality,
but it was also just everything.

00:43:44.955 --> 00:43:49.376
- Majority of those young people
were on welfare,

00:43:49.418 --> 00:43:53.881
and they couldn't get what they need.

00:43:53.922 --> 00:43:56.717
- Protesters went
after the welfare department

00:43:56.759 --> 00:44:00.512
because the welfare department
disrespected their mothers.

00:44:04.850 --> 00:44:07.853
[clamoring]

00:44:11.815 --> 00:44:16.528
- We all have a right in this country
to survive,

00:44:16.570 --> 00:44:22.910
so in some way, you got
to make the powers of understand it's a must.

00:44:22.951 --> 00:44:24.244
We're here.

00:44:26.372 --> 00:44:29.833
- It is quite clear that
the struggle for adequate income,

00:44:29.875 --> 00:44:33.796
for shelter, for clothing,
for the basic necessities of life,

00:44:33.837 --> 00:44:36.423
will go on in the cities
and will escalate,

00:44:36.465 --> 00:44:41.845
and NWRO is dedicated to continuing
and escalating that struggle for life

00:44:41.887 --> 00:44:43.847
around the basic necessities.

00:44:43.889 --> 00:44:48.560
[dramatic music]

00:44:48.602 --> 00:44:53.691
- They picked a person
from every state as the delegate.

00:44:53.732 --> 00:44:55.734
[indistinct chatter]

00:44:55.776 --> 00:44:59.780
I was from Nevada.

00:44:59.822 --> 00:45:02.032
We would meet every month.

00:45:02.074 --> 00:45:03.784
- We come together

00:45:03.826 --> 00:45:08.622
at a time of unprecedented repression
against poor people.

00:45:08.664 --> 00:45:12.418
We come together at a time
when we have opportunities

00:45:12.459 --> 00:45:17.339
for organizing and for building
our strength as never before.

00:45:17.381 --> 00:45:20.134
- George Wiley be talking to us

00:45:20.175 --> 00:45:24.054
from 6:00 in the evening
all the way to 3:00 in the morning.

00:45:24.096 --> 00:45:26.849
He wouldn't let us go to sleep.
He say, "You got to know"...

00:45:26.890 --> 00:45:30.060
- That Nixon doesn't care
about poor children.

00:45:30.102 --> 00:45:34.314
- Welfare is not geared
to help you get on your feet at all.

00:45:34.356 --> 00:45:36.734
They are there to keep you down.

00:45:36.775 --> 00:45:39.695
- Beulah Sanders and Johnnie Tillmon,

00:45:39.737 --> 00:45:42.865
they were our greatest teachers.

00:45:42.906 --> 00:45:46.243
- We all know
what the poverty program is about.

00:45:46.285 --> 00:45:48.954
We all know that it's one big lie.

00:45:48.996 --> 00:45:52.124
- I enjoyed it so much.
I learned so much.

00:45:53.834 --> 00:45:55.878
Political education

00:45:55.919 --> 00:45:58.547
to teach community people

00:45:58.589 --> 00:46:04.636
who's holding the pocketbook and power.

00:46:04.678 --> 00:46:07.431
- A 15-year-old young lady
becomes pregnant.

00:46:07.473 --> 00:46:10.309
She is automatically,
by reason of her pregnancy,

00:46:10.350 --> 00:46:12.686
eligible for Aid to Dependent Children.

00:46:12.728 --> 00:46:15.063
When the passing months
reveal that her pregnancy,

00:46:15.105 --> 00:46:19.443
like the report of Mark Twain's death,
was somewhat exaggerated,

00:46:19.485 --> 00:46:21.111
she was removed from welfare.

00:46:21.153 --> 00:46:23.071
But she took her case to work.

00:46:23.113 --> 00:46:26.992
She is now enjoying welfare
in her 15th month of pregnancy.

00:46:27.034 --> 00:46:30.037
[laughter]

00:46:30.078 --> 00:46:34.291
- Rates of fraud are no higher
in the welfare program

00:46:34.333 --> 00:46:36.585
than they are
in the student loan program.

00:46:39.505 --> 00:46:43.175
But stereotypes
about the lack of work ethic

00:46:43.217 --> 00:46:46.512
solidified in the 1950s.

00:46:46.553 --> 00:46:48.514
- That then helps
to lead into the trope

00:46:48.555 --> 00:46:50.682
that Ronald Reagan later ran on
for president

00:46:50.724 --> 00:46:52.559
around the welfare queen,

00:46:52.601 --> 00:46:56.188
and it was this mythology
around this Black woman,

00:46:56.230 --> 00:46:58.899
with her Cadillac,
with her fur coat.

00:46:58.941 --> 00:47:00.734
It was absolutely untrue.

00:47:00.776 --> 00:47:04.488
He knew it was untrue,
but of course, he was a showman.

00:47:04.530 --> 00:47:07.366
[laughter]

00:47:07.407 --> 00:47:12.371
- George Miller,
who came from California to Nevada,

00:47:12.412 --> 00:47:17.626
admired Governor Ronald Reagan
at the time very much.

00:47:17.668 --> 00:47:19.253
He went to a conference

00:47:19.294 --> 00:47:24.341
where he began to hear Reagan
articulate his philosophy,

00:47:24.383 --> 00:47:29.054
you know, "what we're going
to do is cut the welfare rolls,"

00:47:29.096 --> 00:47:31.431
but it wasn't easy
to cut the welfare rolls

00:47:31.473 --> 00:47:36.436
in a state the size of California
or Massachusetts or New York or Illinois.

00:47:36.478 --> 00:47:39.857
They needed a model program.
They needed a trial run.

00:47:39.898 --> 00:47:41.859
[ominous music]

00:47:41.900 --> 00:47:45.863
And Miller really became enamored
of the idea that that would be him.

00:47:45.904 --> 00:47:50.576
- George Miller sent a letter
to every senator.

00:47:50.617 --> 00:47:54.329
"This is how you stop welfare.

00:47:54.371 --> 00:47:56.999
Cut them down or cut them off."

00:48:01.044 --> 00:48:03.463
- Before Christmas,
in 1970,

00:48:03.505 --> 00:48:07.885
women are cut off of the welfare rolls
in great numbers.

00:48:07.926 --> 00:48:12.097
- Nevada officials have cut out of welfare
more than 1,100 families

00:48:12.139 --> 00:48:15.350
on grounds of fraud--
welfare cheating.

00:48:15.392 --> 00:48:18.312
[indistinct chatter]

00:48:18.353 --> 00:48:20.522
- When they sent you the letter
telling you you'd been cut off,

00:48:20.564 --> 00:48:22.274
did they tell you could appeal?

00:48:22.316 --> 00:48:23.442
- No.

00:48:25.319 --> 00:48:28.989
My oldest child had broken her arm.

00:48:29.031 --> 00:48:33.702
and I had appointment back
to see the doctor,

00:48:33.744 --> 00:48:35.829
but I didn't have the money to take her.

00:48:35.871 --> 00:48:38.457
And she was going around,
saying it was paining her,

00:48:38.498 --> 00:48:42.294
so I took the cast off her arm myself.

00:48:42.336 --> 00:48:46.298
And the doctor called
and asked me why hadn't I brought her in,

00:48:46.340 --> 00:48:49.259
and I told him I had been cut off ADC.

00:48:52.596 --> 00:48:54.681
- We need help.

00:48:56.224 --> 00:49:00.979
Mahlon Brown was
the director of legal services.

00:49:01.021 --> 00:49:04.650
- You had a welfare department that's
already trying to put the thumb on them

00:49:04.691 --> 00:49:08.320
under some guise
of saving taxpayer money.

00:49:08.362 --> 00:49:11.657
- So, one day, Mahlon come,
and he let me know

00:49:11.698 --> 00:49:16.203
he was gonna assign another attorney
to us,

00:49:16.244 --> 00:49:19.498
and that attorney was Jack Anderson.

00:49:19.539 --> 00:49:24.670
- I looked at it as the Wild West.

00:49:24.711 --> 00:49:27.339
That George Miller,

00:49:27.381 --> 00:49:31.635
he was sort of your epitome
of backroom politics--

00:49:31.677 --> 00:49:34.262
cigar smoking,
dealmaking.

00:49:36.515 --> 00:49:42.020
Ruby Duncan and two other women
came to the office.

00:49:42.062 --> 00:49:45.857
They said
they hadn't received their checks.

00:49:45.899 --> 00:49:49.069
I said, "Well, did you get a notice?"

00:49:49.111 --> 00:49:52.114
"No, there wasn't any notice."

00:49:52.155 --> 00:49:55.701
I said, "That couldn't happen.
That's not legal.

00:49:55.742 --> 00:49:59.913
I'll call the welfare department,
get it straightened out."

00:49:59.955 --> 00:50:02.290
Got ahold of the case worker.

00:50:02.332 --> 00:50:04.543
She said,
"Well, they've been terminated."

00:50:04.584 --> 00:50:08.588
And I said, "There's a case that's decided
this year by the Supreme Court,

00:50:08.630 --> 00:50:10.674
"Goldberg vs. Kelly.

00:50:10.716 --> 00:50:14.469
"You have to provide them
advance notice of that.

00:50:14.511 --> 00:50:19.850
And if they want,
they can request a fair hearing."

00:50:19.891 --> 00:50:24.771
"No," she says,
"that's not the way it works in Nevada."

00:50:24.813 --> 00:50:26.523
Within a few more days,

00:50:26.565 --> 00:50:30.694
it became clear that thousands
of terminations had occurred.

00:50:30.736 --> 00:50:37.117
Moreover, they had all
been terminated illegally.

00:50:37.159 --> 00:50:39.244
This calls for a class action.

00:50:39.286 --> 00:50:42.664
[dramatic music]

00:50:42.706 --> 00:50:45.709
[indistinct chatter]

00:50:49.796 --> 00:50:51.339
- Well, brother,
we're right here.

00:50:51.381 --> 00:50:53.008
- We're right here.
We'll talk to you.

00:50:53.050 --> 00:50:54.342
- Where they at?

00:50:54.384 --> 00:50:56.887
- What does he look like?
- Where they at?

00:50:56.928 --> 00:50:59.222
- And I got myself and two kids
to support.

00:50:59.264 --> 00:51:00.098
How can I pay rent?

00:51:00.140 --> 00:51:03.101
- They want you to get out and prostitute
and get put in jail.

00:51:03.143 --> 00:51:04.978
- I hear that!
- And I'm tired of this shit!

00:51:05.020 --> 00:51:07.105
[clamoring]

00:51:07.147 --> 00:51:10.067
- The people that check was cut,

00:51:10.108 --> 00:51:13.236
we demand immediately
a copy of the budget sent

00:51:13.278 --> 00:51:16.698
to every welfare recipient in Las Vegas.

00:51:16.740 --> 00:51:20.410
We demand a right for them
to have a fair hearing,

00:51:20.452 --> 00:51:21.995
quit badgering

00:51:22.037 --> 00:51:24.498
and trying to tell the people
they don't need a fair hearing.

00:51:24.539 --> 00:51:25.874
And the last demand...

00:51:28.126 --> 00:51:32.672
all: Removed! Removed!
- We want George Miller removed.

00:51:32.714 --> 00:51:35.383
- Anybody who was terminated
from welfare...

00:51:35.425 --> 00:51:37.719
- Hey, come on now!
- Hush!

00:51:37.761 --> 00:51:42.057
- Was terminated
within the existing rules.

00:51:42.099 --> 00:51:44.851
Nobody has been cut off welfare illegally.

00:51:44.893 --> 00:51:47.354
[clamoring]

00:51:48.897 --> 00:51:53.110
- I called George Wiley
from the Welfare Rights Organization.

00:51:53.151 --> 00:51:57.114
- I'm here in Las Vegas today
to meet with Ruby Duncan

00:51:57.155 --> 00:52:01.034
and other leaders of the Clark County
Welfare Rights Organization.

00:52:01.076 --> 00:52:05.372
- They all came from everywhere,
all over the United States.

00:52:05.413 --> 00:52:10.001
- Yeah, I wake up and all these white people
in sleeping bags on the floor, you know?

00:52:10.043 --> 00:52:12.671
I'm like, who these people?
You know?

00:52:12.712 --> 00:52:15.090
- Why don't we start two lines here.

00:52:15.132 --> 00:52:18.552
- We're gonna get you back on the rolls.
We're gonna try anyway.

00:52:18.593 --> 00:52:20.428
- This Nevada uprising

00:52:20.470 --> 00:52:25.767
looked like a good opportunity for NWRO.

00:52:25.809 --> 00:52:27.811
Let's make a stand in Nevada,

00:52:27.853 --> 00:52:31.314
and they send waves
through the rest of the country.

00:52:31.356 --> 00:52:35.068
- Today, the National
Welfare Rights Organization

00:52:35.110 --> 00:52:38.947
launches the grassroots
phase of Operation Nevada.

00:52:38.989 --> 00:52:41.992
[singing]

00:52:57.257 --> 00:53:01.511
- We do not intent to respond
to threatening demands.

00:53:01.553 --> 00:53:03.889
[clamoring]

00:53:03.930 --> 00:53:06.057
- You got one week!

00:53:07.726 --> 00:53:10.645
That whole week,
women were calling me,

00:53:10.687 --> 00:53:14.816
because they didn't have no food
or anything for their children,

00:53:14.858 --> 00:53:18.195
so they wanted to know
what were we gonna do.

00:53:18.236 --> 00:53:19.821
- In the other movements,

00:53:19.863 --> 00:53:23.658
workers walk out,
or students walk out.

00:53:23.700 --> 00:53:26.119
But welfare recipients?

00:53:26.161 --> 00:53:28.496
What can they defy?

00:53:28.538 --> 00:53:31.541
- So we was over at Ruby's house
that Sunday,

00:53:31.583 --> 00:53:33.585
and we was trying to find something to do.

00:53:33.627 --> 00:53:37.005
- It was so many of them they cut off,
a lot of women off.

00:53:37.047 --> 00:53:39.841
- I said,
"Something has got to happen,

00:53:39.883 --> 00:53:46.431
and the only way it's gonna happen is
we have to hit the Strip."

00:53:46.473 --> 00:53:52.229
They're the ones
that funnels money to every legislator.

00:53:52.270 --> 00:53:56.191
Once you hit them,
you got it made.

00:53:56.233 --> 00:53:57.400
- This is Nevada.

00:53:57.442 --> 00:54:03.365
It's one industry
down a 7-milelong strip.

00:54:03.406 --> 00:54:06.576
Close that down,
and you close down the state.

00:54:09.412 --> 00:54:11.665
- It was so outrageous,

00:54:11.706 --> 00:54:16.503
you know, marching outside the
organized crime-owned places on the Strip,

00:54:16.544 --> 00:54:20.423
but you realize
they don't take opposition lightly.

00:54:20.465 --> 00:54:25.136
[foreboding music]

00:54:25.178 --> 00:54:28.390
- I was going down Fremont
to go home,

00:54:28.431 --> 00:54:31.726
and two big limousines pulled up,

00:54:31.768 --> 00:54:35.105
one on this side of me
and one on that side.

00:54:35.146 --> 00:54:37.941
I said, oh, God,
there's the mob.

00:54:42.028 --> 00:54:45.323
- You had these guys
who used to call the house,

00:54:45.365 --> 00:54:47.826
3:30, 4:00 a.m.,

00:54:47.867 --> 00:54:53.290
and threaten to blow the house up
or set it on fire.

00:54:53.331 --> 00:54:59.421
I can hear the stress and the panic in her
voice when she slammed the phone down.

00:55:04.175 --> 00:55:05.635
- When you're a little kid,

00:55:05.677 --> 00:55:08.346
you're afraid one day
your mama's not coming home again.

00:55:08.388 --> 00:55:10.223
- I prayed for her,

00:55:10.265 --> 00:55:12.517
because she was really
putting her life on the line.

00:55:12.559 --> 00:55:15.603
And you talking about closing,
shutting down the Strip,

00:55:15.645 --> 00:55:18.732
you impacting a lot of money.

00:55:18.773 --> 00:55:20.775
Things could have happened.

00:55:20.817 --> 00:55:22.819
I could have lost my mother.

00:55:25.405 --> 00:55:27.407
- I wasn't afraid of nothing.

00:55:27.449 --> 00:55:32.287
I had seven children,
and they got to be fed.

00:55:32.329 --> 00:55:35.749
- It occurred to them
that what they needed

00:55:35.790 --> 00:55:40.628
were some famous people
who would march with them

00:55:40.670 --> 00:55:45.467
so that they would be less likely
to be shot, beaten, whatever.

00:55:47.469 --> 00:55:50.138
- They were able to get Sammy Davis Jr.,

00:55:50.180 --> 00:55:51.931
and Donald Southerland,

00:55:51.973 --> 00:55:53.600
Ralph Abernathy.

00:55:53.641 --> 00:55:59.606
- We may have to seize the dice away
from the crap tables.

00:55:59.647 --> 00:56:05.653
We may have to dismantle
the slot machines on the Strip,

00:56:05.695 --> 00:56:08.281
but be assured,
we ready for business.

00:56:08.323 --> 00:56:11.242
[applause]

00:56:11.284 --> 00:56:13.703
- A lot of peoples afraid to march,
but I think,

00:56:13.745 --> 00:56:16.081
when they found out
that it was other peoples behind them

00:56:16.122 --> 00:56:18.541
and really wanted to help them,
they got like they didn't care.

00:56:18.583 --> 00:56:20.335
They wanted afraid anymore.

00:56:20.377 --> 00:56:25.965
- I want to see every lady here who's
worked in her life, hold up your hand.

00:56:26.007 --> 00:56:28.176
You know what they took out
of your check?

00:56:28.218 --> 00:56:29.719
Tax money.

00:56:29.761 --> 00:56:33.306
You hear me?
They took tax money!

00:56:33.348 --> 00:56:35.725
[applause]

00:56:35.767 --> 00:56:38.937
- It was, like, a officer
I was outside

00:56:38.978 --> 00:56:43.400
the group, make sure that nobody
come in or go out of our group

00:56:43.441 --> 00:56:45.318
to fight or do anything.

00:56:45.860 --> 00:56:49.656
So if you do I had to learn signs,
where to call others to help,

00:56:49.697 --> 00:56:51.908
and they'll come running and help us,
you know?

00:56:51.950 --> 00:56:53.618
[applause]

00:56:53.660 --> 00:56:57.330
- We had been meeting all week long.

00:56:57.372 --> 00:56:59.165
Everybody was ready.

00:56:59.207 --> 00:57:05.213
[inspirational music]

00:57:10.468 --> 00:57:13.346
We had the universities.

00:57:13.388 --> 00:57:16.015
We had all the welfare mamas.

00:57:16.057 --> 00:57:20.019
- Cookie Bustamonte came down
to be one of the leaders in the march.

00:57:20.061 --> 00:57:22.981
- Jane Fonda was right
in the middle of it!

00:57:23.022 --> 00:57:24.607
Yes, she was!

00:57:24.649 --> 00:57:28.278
[indistinct chatter]

00:57:28.319 --> 00:57:31.072
And we began to go down the Strip.

00:57:31.114 --> 00:57:34.117
[chanting]

00:57:43.793 --> 00:57:46.254
- We had people on the streets

00:57:46.296 --> 00:57:51.426
yelling at the protesters
as the march is taking place.

00:57:51.468 --> 00:57:54.846
- This gentleman,
he was walking right in front of me.

00:57:54.888 --> 00:57:57.765
"Go to work!
Go to work! Go to work!"

00:57:57.807 --> 00:58:02.270
And I wanted to push him so bad.

00:58:02.312 --> 00:58:04.814
- They had folks on one side,
chanting at you,

00:58:04.856 --> 00:58:07.567
"Welfare mothers, go home,"
stuff like that.

00:58:07.609 --> 00:58:10.612
[chanting]

00:58:13.448 --> 00:58:16.409
- The police was over here,
just rows of them,

00:58:16.451 --> 00:58:18.703
driving.

00:58:18.745 --> 00:58:21.498
When we turned off
into Caesars Palace,

00:58:21.539 --> 00:58:25.293
the police said,
"Where are they going now?"

00:58:25.335 --> 00:58:26.628
[chanting]

00:58:26.669 --> 00:58:29.589
- To the right.

00:58:29.631 --> 00:58:30.632
- We was marching.

00:58:30.673 --> 00:58:33.176
We just turned
and went up in Caesars Palace.

00:58:33.218 --> 00:58:36.429
- Perhaps a thousand marchers
flooded into Caesars Palace,

00:58:36.471 --> 00:58:39.224
one of the most luxurious resort hotels.

00:58:39.265 --> 00:58:42.101
- They said
we stormed Caesars Palace,

00:58:42.143 --> 00:58:43.937
closed them tables down.

00:58:43.978 --> 00:58:46.606
- Chips, money, dice,
and cards disappeared.

00:58:46.648 --> 00:58:49.776
All gambling stopped.

00:58:49.817 --> 00:58:52.612
all: We want Miller out!
We want Miller out!

00:58:52.654 --> 00:58:53.571
We want Miller out!

00:58:53.613 --> 00:58:55.240
- It frightened someone like them,

00:58:55.281 --> 00:58:58.618
when they find out
that poor people like us

00:58:58.660 --> 00:59:04.415
that are waking up to their crooked rules
that they have been had for years.

00:59:04.457 --> 00:59:07.126
- Okay! Whatever!
[claps]

00:59:07.168 --> 00:59:10.922
- The economic impact was huge.

00:59:10.964 --> 00:59:14.551
They literally shut down gambling
for a certain length of time.

00:59:14.592 --> 00:59:17.595
[chanting]

00:59:25.562 --> 00:59:29.232
- A week later,
they went to the Sands Hotel.

00:59:29.274 --> 00:59:31.859
- And then, the next march,
they were waiting on us.

00:59:31.901 --> 00:59:34.821
We headed towards the Sands Hotel.

00:59:34.862 --> 00:59:38.908
They locked the doors
and had the guards and everything there.

00:59:38.950 --> 00:59:41.869
[chanting]

00:59:41.911 --> 00:59:44.789
- This time, the protest
was stopped at the door.

00:59:44.831 --> 00:59:46.749
All other entrances had been locked,

00:59:46.791 --> 00:59:49.502
and the main entry was barred
by security officers.

00:59:49.544 --> 00:59:52.547
[clamoring]

00:59:56.426 --> 01:00:00.054
- After they locked the doors,
we knew we had them on the run.

01:00:00.096 --> 01:00:01.764
They were frightened.

01:00:01.806 --> 01:00:04.809
[clamoring]

01:00:06.853 --> 01:00:08.187
We had an idea.

01:00:08.229 --> 01:00:11.232
[rhythmic clapping and chanting]

01:00:13.610 --> 01:00:16.613
- Just turned around
and sit in the middle of the street.

01:00:16.654 --> 01:00:22.368
- They sat down in the road
and actually blocked traffic to Las Vegas,

01:00:22.410 --> 01:00:24.829
clear to the Nevada/California line.

01:00:24.871 --> 01:00:27.874
[clamoring]

01:00:30.293 --> 01:00:33.963
- I declare this assembly in violation

01:00:34.005 --> 01:00:40.511
of Nevada Revised Statute Number 203.020.

01:00:40.553 --> 01:00:44.182
- Arrest George Miller!
He's acting illegally!

01:00:44.223 --> 01:00:45.808
[clamoring]

01:00:45.850 --> 01:00:49.103
- You have five minutes
in which to leave this area.

01:00:49.145 --> 01:00:54.317
Any persons who have not dispersed
at the end of that time period

01:00:54.359 --> 01:00:56.819
are subject to arrest.

01:00:56.861 --> 01:00:58.029
- I went to jail that night.

01:00:58.071 --> 01:00:59.906
all: Arrest George Miller!

01:00:59.947 --> 01:01:02.283
Arrest George Miller!

01:01:02.325 --> 01:01:04.702
- Mary Wesley and my mother
got arrested that day.

01:01:04.744 --> 01:01:06.579
There were a lot of people arrested.

01:01:06.621 --> 01:01:09.874
[chanting]

01:01:09.916 --> 01:01:13.378
- All of this turmoil,
all of these marches,

01:01:13.419 --> 01:01:16.714
all of this strategizing leads to...

01:01:16.756 --> 01:01:19.717
[funky music]

01:01:19.759 --> 01:01:21.678
rights being reinstated.

01:01:21.719 --> 01:01:24.222
- The federal court ruled
the terminations illegal

01:01:24.263 --> 01:01:26.474
and ordered payments made retroactive.

01:01:26.516 --> 01:01:29.352
The court held that
the State welfare department

01:01:29.394 --> 01:01:32.313
ran roughshod
over the constitutional rights

01:01:32.355 --> 01:01:34.565
of the eligible and ineligible alike.

01:01:34.607 --> 01:01:37.610
[cheering]

01:01:40.822 --> 01:01:43.783
- We were attacked
by a strange coalition--

01:01:43.825 --> 01:01:46.077
the Welfare Rights Organization,

01:01:46.119 --> 01:01:48.663
the Welfare Workers Union,

01:01:48.705 --> 01:01:50.206
the Peace Coalition,

01:01:50.248 --> 01:01:53.626
and all the busy, little cells
of the New Left.

01:01:53.668 --> 01:01:57.463
- The National Welfare Rights Organization
claims a major victory in Nevada.

01:01:57.505 --> 01:01:59.882
Do you agree with that?
- No, I do not.

01:01:59.924 --> 01:02:02.135
I don't think
there was any victory at all.

01:02:02.176 --> 01:02:03.678
- Why?
- Well, how?

01:02:03.720 --> 01:02:07.515
I can't see any victory
because the court made a decision

01:02:07.557 --> 01:02:12.311
that would have been made regardless
of the Welfare Rights Organization.

01:02:13.855 --> 01:02:18.818
- If the women and the families
had not been on the Strip,

01:02:18.860 --> 01:02:21.112
had not stopped business as usual,

01:02:21.154 --> 01:02:23.906
there well could have been
a different outcome.

01:02:23.948 --> 01:02:30.204
The federal judge realized
a cavalier decision would not have stood,

01:02:30.246 --> 01:02:34.834
or the building in which it was made
would not have stood.

01:02:38.004 --> 01:02:40.757
- Nevada, for us,
was the proving grounds,

01:02:40.798 --> 01:02:46.012
where we showed that we have strong allies
in SCLC and the women's movement,

01:02:46.053 --> 01:02:50.057
that we could mount demonstrations
to disrupt a whole industry.

01:02:50.099 --> 01:02:54.604
The economic pressure that was put
on those hotels and gambling casinos

01:02:54.645 --> 01:02:59.525
by our demonstrations were really
too much for the state of Nevada.

01:03:01.486 --> 01:03:06.866
- We showed Las Vegas there was a need
for change in Nevada state welfare.

01:03:06.908 --> 01:03:08.159
- [singing] Yeah

01:03:08.201 --> 01:03:11.037
Hey, yeah

01:03:11.078 --> 01:03:14.165
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

01:03:14.207 --> 01:03:16.375
Yeah, yeah, yeah

01:03:18.753 --> 01:03:21.756
[indistinct chatter]

01:03:23.966 --> 01:03:26.511
- The Strip marches
were successful,

01:03:26.552 --> 01:03:30.139
but Nevada still had
the second lowest benefits in the country.

01:03:30.181 --> 01:03:36.187
[solemn music]

01:03:39.857 --> 01:03:43.653
- The case is about food
or about the lack of it.

01:03:43.694 --> 01:03:45.988
- You know, the other ones
that are suffering are the children.

01:03:46.030 --> 01:03:48.115
They have to go through this without food.

01:03:48.157 --> 01:03:49.575
This is a disgrace.

01:03:49.617 --> 01:03:51.911
These people are hungry.

01:03:51.953 --> 01:03:54.080
- We wanted food stamps.

01:03:55.706 --> 01:04:00.753
Nevada still did not want
to bring food stamps in.

01:04:00.795 --> 01:04:04.799
- The hunger that was rampant
in poor communities in Nevada at that time

01:04:04.841 --> 01:04:06.592
was severe enough

01:04:06.634 --> 01:04:11.389
that nurses who would visit people
who had been cut off welfare

01:04:11.430 --> 01:04:13.140
would find kids with rickets,

01:04:13.182 --> 01:04:16.978
literally with bleeding, open sores
and legs that didn't quite hold them up.

01:04:17.019 --> 01:04:22.275
I mean, this was severe and pervasive
and longstanding malnutrition.

01:04:22.316 --> 01:04:26.571
- The governor said there were
no hungry people in Clark County,

01:04:26.612 --> 01:04:29.574
there were no hungry people in Nevada.

01:04:29.615 --> 01:04:33.953
- Governor Michael Callaghan
was in office.

01:04:33.995 --> 01:04:37.748
- He saw the backlash from poor people

01:04:37.790 --> 01:04:40.793
as a direct threat to him.

01:04:40.835 --> 01:04:43.004
- The demonstrations in the streets

01:04:43.045 --> 01:04:46.090
merely stiffened the backs
of the people in the state of Nevada.

01:04:46.132 --> 01:04:50.219
You don't threaten Nevadans,
and you don't threaten this governor.

01:04:50.261 --> 01:04:54.807
- They said that it would be easier to
have a elephant birth a pink elephant

01:04:54.849 --> 01:04:56.392
before we would get food stamps,

01:04:56.434 --> 01:04:58.436
and I said, "I bet we get them."

01:04:58.477 --> 01:05:00.813
[lively music]

01:05:00.855 --> 01:05:03.566
- We were gonna use
more creative means.

01:05:03.608 --> 01:05:06.611
[indistinct chatter]

01:05:09.822 --> 01:05:12.950
- We had two busloads of kids,

01:05:12.992 --> 01:05:16.078
anywhere from the age of 12 down,

01:05:16.120 --> 01:05:21.042
march straight
into the Palms restaurant

01:05:21.083 --> 01:05:22.209
and the Stardust.

01:05:22.251 --> 01:05:24.712
- Come on.
Let's move.

01:05:24.754 --> 01:05:27.173
- "Okay, anywhere y'all want to sit.
Sit wherever you want to sit."

01:05:27.214 --> 01:05:30.343
So we sat down.
We sat at the table.

01:05:30.384 --> 01:05:33.512
And then, we all got a menu.

01:05:33.554 --> 01:05:37.266
And I said to my mother, I said,
"Mom, what can we order?"

01:05:37.308 --> 01:05:39.310
She said, "Anything you want."

01:05:41.270 --> 01:05:44.774
- And they said,
"I want a hamburger and a Coke."

01:05:44.815 --> 01:05:47.818
I said, "No, you don't.
You want a steak and lobster.

01:05:47.860 --> 01:05:50.363
Serve them that."

01:05:50.404 --> 01:05:54.450
- They was bringing everyone
just piles of food.

01:05:57.703 --> 01:06:00.998
When these kids got
these steaks and these salads,

01:06:01.040 --> 01:06:02.458
the kid would start crying.

01:06:02.500 --> 01:06:05.670
They said the meat was bleeding.

01:06:05.711 --> 01:06:07.672
I knew they was having rough times,
a lot of them,

01:06:07.713 --> 01:06:10.591
but I didn't know it was that bad.

01:06:10.633 --> 01:06:13.052
- I never had a steak before.

01:06:13.094 --> 01:06:15.304
I enjoyed every bit of it.

01:06:18.015 --> 01:06:21.018
- Children love good food,

01:06:21.060 --> 01:06:25.564
and that was some delicious food.

01:06:25.606 --> 01:06:28.401
- The manager of the restaurant
came up to my mother,

01:06:28.442 --> 01:06:30.194
and he said,
"You gonna have to pay this bill."

01:06:30.236 --> 01:06:32.196
And she said,
"I'm not paying nothing."

01:06:32.238 --> 01:06:33.447
- "But who gonna pay for this?"

01:06:33.489 --> 01:06:36.367
And I say,
"Charge it to the governor."

01:06:39.829 --> 01:06:42.373
- They ordered, they ate,
but they didn't pay,

01:06:42.415 --> 01:06:44.500
and they said they'd do it again.

01:06:44.542 --> 01:06:47.545
[sirens wailing]

01:06:48.921 --> 01:06:52.299
- It's kind of scary,
seeing the police handcuffing your mother,

01:06:52.341 --> 01:06:53.634
but I got used to it.

01:07:00.016 --> 01:07:03.436
- The eat-in was an opportunity
to demonstrate

01:07:03.477 --> 01:07:08.524
that a state in which so much food
was literally given away to people

01:07:08.566 --> 01:07:10.401
to encourage them to gamble

01:07:10.443 --> 01:07:13.279
would not feed hungry children.

01:07:14.739 --> 01:07:20.578
- We decided that we would go up
to the legislature in Carson City.

01:07:20.619 --> 01:07:26.625
[ambient music]

01:07:27.126 --> 01:07:30.296
The legislators would meet
6:30 in the morning.

01:07:30.337 --> 01:07:32.465
I would meet with them.

01:07:32.506 --> 01:07:36.552
- You know how that makes
old, white legislators nervous,

01:07:36.594 --> 01:07:41.849
when you've got a crowd out there
of Black ladies looking at them?

01:07:41.891 --> 01:07:42.933
Drives them nuts.

01:07:42.975 --> 01:07:44.393
- They were apprehensive.

01:07:44.435 --> 01:07:46.854
Well, then I began to tell them

01:07:46.896 --> 01:07:50.900
how much food stamps
would help the grocery stores

01:07:50.941 --> 01:07:54.612
make as much money
as they could sell food.

01:07:54.653 --> 01:07:58.157
More money coming in to Nevada,

01:07:58.199 --> 01:08:01.368
and money excited them.

01:08:01.410 --> 01:08:03.537
- In a really brilliant move,

01:08:03.579 --> 01:08:06.791
Ruby and the women decided
to play supermarkets

01:08:06.832 --> 01:08:09.418
against the conservative legislature
and say,

01:08:09.460 --> 01:08:12.922
"Look, sorry if, you know,
you feel some qualms

01:08:12.963 --> 01:08:16.217
"about putting another spoonful of oatmeal
in a poor, hungry child's mouth,

01:08:16.258 --> 01:08:20.763
but you could be putting millions a year
into grocery stores."

01:08:20.805 --> 01:08:21.847
And it worked.

01:08:24.809 --> 01:08:27.853
- Nevada was the last state
in the whole United States

01:08:27.895 --> 01:08:29.730
to get food stamps.

01:08:29.772 --> 01:08:32.900
That don't make no sense.
It didn't make any sense.

01:08:34.693 --> 01:08:36.612
I thought,

01:08:36.654 --> 01:08:40.533
there's too much money flowing
throughout this country,

01:08:40.574 --> 01:08:44.245
and it doesn't flow
to the little, bitty people.

01:08:44.286 --> 01:08:48.624
[tense music]

01:08:48.666 --> 01:08:51.418
Our politicians,

01:08:51.460 --> 01:08:55.256
whomever they may be,

01:08:55.297 --> 01:09:00.719
must understand there is
a group of human beings

01:09:00.761 --> 01:09:03.806
throughout America

01:09:03.848 --> 01:09:05.516
that is in poverty.

01:09:05.558 --> 01:09:09.687
And we, that are strong enough
to get the message over,

01:09:09.728 --> 01:09:13.524
must let them know it's a need.

01:09:13.566 --> 01:09:17.027
- The biggest protest rallies of all
during the Democratic Convention

01:09:17.069 --> 01:09:20.906
are being organized by
the National Welfare Rights Organization.

01:09:20.948 --> 01:09:25.786
- Your whole life is
in the hands of politicians

01:09:25.828 --> 01:09:30.749
that is taking money from poor,
low-income people.

01:09:32.334 --> 01:09:36.714
- You see before you a coalition of women,

01:09:36.755 --> 01:09:40.092
of Black people,
of Spanish-speaking people,

01:09:40.134 --> 01:09:41.927
and of young people,

01:09:41.969 --> 01:09:48.350
Tell the country what is different
about the 1972 Convention.

01:09:48.392 --> 01:09:52.396
In that era, the party convention
was not just a public event.

01:09:52.438 --> 01:09:56.400
It actually had a role in forming policy.

01:09:56.442 --> 01:09:58.694
They were discussing welfare,

01:09:58.736 --> 01:10:03.866
and they were not hearing
from women who were on welfare.

01:10:03.908 --> 01:10:05.284
[chanting]

01:10:05.326 --> 01:10:11.498
- In Miami, we were fighting
for adequate income,

01:10:11.540 --> 01:10:13.626
jobs,

01:10:13.667 --> 01:10:16.253
housing.

01:10:16.295 --> 01:10:19.089
We were fighting for everything.

01:10:19.131 --> 01:10:21.258
[chanting]

01:10:21.300 --> 01:10:23.928
- The welfare rights movement
made a demand

01:10:23.969 --> 01:10:25.679
for a guaranteed annual income.

01:10:25.721 --> 01:10:29.975
- We want 6,500,
and adequate income,

01:10:30.017 --> 01:10:33.938
and all of the other planks
of the Poor People's platform.

01:10:33.979 --> 01:10:35.898
[cheers and applause]

01:10:35.940 --> 01:10:38.484
- The Democratic Party,
one would have hoped,

01:10:38.525 --> 01:10:43.239
would have been supportive
of a guaranteed income floor,

01:10:43.280 --> 01:10:49.119
but this was the first massive test
of it in the national spotlight.

01:10:49.161 --> 01:10:52.164
[chanting]

01:10:54.041 --> 01:10:56.210
- So the National
Welfare Rights Organization

01:10:56.252 --> 01:10:58.754
decided to carry its fight
for representation

01:10:58.796 --> 01:11:03.717
and a $6,500 guaranteed income
to the convention hall on Miami Beach.

01:11:03.759 --> 01:11:05.511
[clamoring]

01:11:05.552 --> 01:11:08.264
all: Let the people in!

01:11:08.305 --> 01:11:10.474
Let the people in!

01:11:12.226 --> 01:11:15.562
- We made more noise
in them stands that day,

01:11:15.604 --> 01:11:17.147
oh, heaven,

01:11:17.189 --> 01:11:22.528
to make sure that the political power
people know we wasn't jiving.

01:11:22.569 --> 01:11:24.780
We was for real.

01:11:24.822 --> 01:11:27.491
all: [rhythmic clapping]
We are welfare fighters!

01:11:27.533 --> 01:11:29.994
We shall not be moved!

01:11:30.035 --> 01:11:32.579
We are welfare fighters!

01:11:32.621 --> 01:11:34.123
We shall not be moved,

01:11:34.164 --> 01:11:37.751
just like a tree
that's planted by the water.

01:11:37.793 --> 01:11:39.962
- The American people are anxious

01:11:40.004 --> 01:11:45.134
for economic justice
for the people of this country.

01:11:45.175 --> 01:11:49.847
- They are able
to push through a $1,000 benefit,

01:11:49.888 --> 01:11:53.434
but when McGovern is crushed
in that election,

01:11:53.475 --> 01:11:57.021
that's a nail in the coffin
of that idea for decades.

01:11:57.062 --> 01:11:58.564
[unsettling music]

01:11:58.605 --> 01:12:01.775
- We would've had a working nation.

01:12:01.817 --> 01:12:06.989
With that guaranteed income,

01:12:07.031 --> 01:12:11.744
everybody would have been on a level,
and they don't have to be in poverty.

01:12:19.460 --> 01:12:24.923
I was on a plane, coming back
from the Democratic Convention.

01:12:24.965 --> 01:12:27.926
I just got to thinking,

01:12:27.968 --> 01:12:33.515
we could do something for ourselves
in West Las Vegas.

01:12:33.557 --> 01:12:36.560
[drumming cardboard boxes]

01:12:43.776 --> 01:12:47.363
The welfare department was really running

01:12:47.404 --> 01:12:51.116
an ill-administrative program.

01:12:51.158 --> 01:12:57.539
And I began to ask some of the women,
"Aren't you guys kind of tired of that?

01:12:57.581 --> 01:13:03.420
"Why not become administrators ourselves?

01:13:03.462 --> 01:13:07.091
We know we can do it,
and we can do it better."

01:13:07.132 --> 01:13:09.259
- One-stop shopping for social services

01:13:09.301 --> 01:13:12.888
so that people don't have to take
three bus fares to get to a hospital

01:13:12.930 --> 01:13:16.308
and then go to another part
of the city to get food stamps.

01:13:16.350 --> 01:13:18.977
They really wanted
to create a central hub,

01:13:19.019 --> 01:13:21.688
run by poor women,
for poor women and kids,

01:13:21.730 --> 01:13:26.193
getting federal money
to actually deliver community services.

01:13:26.235 --> 01:13:28.445
- Then, the Cove Hotel sitting there

01:13:28.487 --> 01:13:32.783
with nothing but an empty building,
and we moved in.

01:13:35.077 --> 01:13:37.162
- They rehabbed this hotel

01:13:37.204 --> 01:13:40.833
with little bits of grant money
here and there.

01:13:40.874 --> 01:13:45.087
- And that's how Operation Life
come into being.

01:13:45.129 --> 01:13:46.964
[uplifting music]

01:13:47.005 --> 01:13:52.094
Welfare mothers become administration.

01:13:52.136 --> 01:13:53.303
And it worked.

01:13:53.345 --> 01:13:56.682
It was a beautiful program.

01:13:56.723 --> 01:13:58.434
- The politicians in Washington,

01:13:58.475 --> 01:14:00.561
and the politicians in Carson City,
for that matter,

01:14:00.602 --> 01:14:02.688
didn't know what the mothers needed.

01:14:02.729 --> 01:14:06.275
Mothers in a sewing circle,
mothers going door to door,

01:14:06.316 --> 01:14:08.360
knew what each other needed.

01:14:08.402 --> 01:14:11.196
- Las Vegas' Ruby Duncan is a busy lady.

01:14:11.238 --> 01:14:15.534
Duncan now serves as executive
director of Operation Life, Inc.,

01:14:15.576 --> 01:14:18.370
a self-help,
community-based organization.

01:14:18.412 --> 01:14:21.999
- People like myself
and others in the community,

01:14:22.040 --> 01:14:25.252
that are quite interested
in uplifting and upgrading

01:14:25.294 --> 01:14:28.881
and making people
more economically independent,

01:14:28.922 --> 01:14:32.509
have to do that
along with the people in the community.

01:14:32.551 --> 01:14:35.846
- Through Operation Life,
she brought into her community

01:14:35.888 --> 01:14:40.684
a lunch program, a library,
a childcare center, and a clinic.

01:14:40.726 --> 01:14:42.811
[indistinct chatter]

01:14:42.853 --> 01:14:45.063
- One of the programs
that Ruby found out about

01:14:45.105 --> 01:14:48.233
was early periodic screening
and diagnostic testing.

01:14:48.275 --> 01:14:49.818
100% free.

01:14:49.860 --> 01:14:52.446
They got a local doctor, Garnett Ice,
a Black doctor,

01:14:52.488 --> 01:14:53.906
who became their official physician.

01:14:53.947 --> 01:14:55.449
This was revolutionary.

01:14:55.491 --> 01:14:58.869
- We'd go out and get the kids,
'cause they had never had examinations.

01:14:58.911 --> 01:15:01.205
Most of the parents couldn't afford it,

01:15:01.246 --> 01:15:04.082
and they didn't take them to doctor
unless it was an emergency or something.

01:15:04.124 --> 01:15:05.584
They had to go to the hospital.

01:15:05.626 --> 01:15:08.879
- 50% of the kids
had never seen a dentist.

01:15:08.921 --> 01:15:12.966
Some staggering percentage
had traits for sickle cell anemia.

01:15:13.008 --> 01:15:14.009
They were able to treat these kids.

01:15:14.051 --> 01:15:19.223
They're alive today because
of what they were able to do.

01:15:19.264 --> 01:15:22.351
- We had bought a van
for Operation Life.

01:15:22.392 --> 01:15:25.187
One lady had five girls,
and she say,

01:15:25.229 --> 01:15:29.399
"I can't comb their hair and get them
dressed to get them down there,"

01:15:29.441 --> 01:15:33.153
so I said, "Well, lady,
I got nine kids, girls.

01:15:33.195 --> 01:15:34.404
I'll comb their hair."

01:15:36.240 --> 01:15:37.991
We would go to the house,

01:15:38.033 --> 01:15:42.204
and I'll be combing their hair,
and then take them to the clinic.

01:15:43.705 --> 01:15:45.791
- The clinic was such a success.

01:15:45.832 --> 01:15:49.545
It was the most successful clinic
in the country,

01:15:49.586 --> 01:15:53.423
because we were seeing,
like, 2,000 children per month.

01:15:56.134 --> 01:15:59.513
- I worked every day
down at Operation Life.

01:15:59.555 --> 01:16:03.642
We did a lot of good things,
and I felt good about that.

01:16:23.078 --> 01:16:25.831
- George Miller
padlocked Operation Life

01:16:25.872 --> 01:16:29.585
on the eve of Thanksgiving in 1976

01:16:29.626 --> 01:16:33.714
and charged Ruby and others
with welfare fraud.

01:16:33.755 --> 01:16:35.507
- Is there a criminal investigation

01:16:35.549 --> 01:16:38.135
of any of the Operation Life people
at this time?

01:16:38.176 --> 01:16:39.761
- Yes, there are.

01:16:39.803 --> 01:16:42.264
- Do you have proof of any of this?

01:16:42.306 --> 01:16:44.558
- Well, yes, we do.

01:16:44.600 --> 01:16:47.561
- Can you say
whether Ruby Duncan is being investigated?

01:16:47.603 --> 01:16:50.188
- I would say that all of the defendants
are being investigated

01:16:50.230 --> 01:16:52.983
and some of the board members.

01:16:53.025 --> 01:16:57.279
- First, they audited the Woman and
Infant Children nutrition program books.

01:16:57.321 --> 01:17:01.199
Then, they said
that Ruby was misusing funds.

01:17:01.241 --> 01:17:06.330
- There has been a sabotage by the welfare
department and the higher administrators--

01:17:06.371 --> 01:17:08.665
political administrators in this state--

01:17:08.707 --> 01:17:15.255
who sent me word that I better
not never challenge what they are doing.

01:17:15.297 --> 01:17:17.841
- Are you saying if you weren't
involved with Operation Life,

01:17:17.883 --> 01:17:20.344
that the state might never
have withdrawn their money?

01:17:20.385 --> 01:17:23.180
- I would say just that, yes.

01:17:24.723 --> 01:17:29.478
I think they felt like
us being welfare moms,

01:17:29.519 --> 01:17:33.899
and the majority of us
didn't have an education,

01:17:33.940 --> 01:17:37.986
how the hell did you know

01:17:38.028 --> 01:17:42.741
how to keep up the paperwork,
manage the money?

01:17:42.783 --> 01:17:48.789
[solemn music]

01:17:53.919 --> 01:18:00.842
- At the time, I was in California,
and came back to litigate the matter.

01:18:00.884 --> 01:18:02.761
Told Judge Babcock, I said,

01:18:02.803 --> 01:18:06.348
"You know, I've been sitting here,
listening to the state.

01:18:06.390 --> 01:18:10.185
"They're just completely
misleading the court.

01:18:10.227 --> 01:18:16.817
"And my suggestion is
that we take a recess

01:18:16.858 --> 01:18:20.153
"and we go over to the clinic

01:18:20.195 --> 01:18:24.783
so that you can see
what they're describing."

01:18:24.825 --> 01:18:26.993
- This was a rare occasion,
for a district court judge

01:18:27.035 --> 01:18:30.706
to conduct a personal observation
of evidence pertaining to a case.

01:18:30.747 --> 01:18:34.668
Judge Babcock was given a first-hand tour
of the center and its facilities.

01:18:34.710 --> 01:18:39.047
Senator Joe Neal and other Operation Life
personnel assisted the judge on the tour.

01:18:39.089 --> 01:18:42.259
The hearing resumes
tomorrow morning at 9:45.

01:18:43.844 --> 01:18:46.179
- They audit Operation Life's
WIC program,

01:18:46.221 --> 01:18:48.223
which is being administered
by Alversa Beals,

01:18:48.265 --> 01:18:50.684
who has only
an elementary school education,

01:18:50.726 --> 01:18:54.020
and she had designed
this bookkeeping technique

01:18:54.062 --> 01:18:57.482
that enabled her
to keep the books accurate within pennies.

01:18:57.524 --> 01:19:02.070
- I was glad that I did a good deed,
done come through for us.

01:19:02.112 --> 01:19:07.117
- The city came in
and audit four books for six weeks

01:19:07.159 --> 01:19:09.870
and found four cents missing.

01:19:09.911 --> 01:19:13.457
They tried to find five and couldn't.

01:19:13.498 --> 01:19:16.334
- The welfare fraud charges
were never proved.

01:19:16.376 --> 01:19:17.961
- We got out.
We went home.

01:19:18.003 --> 01:19:20.172
It was funny.

01:19:20.213 --> 01:19:24.926
So we was having a good time
from then on, organizing.

01:19:24.968 --> 01:19:28.764
[uplifting music]

01:19:28.805 --> 01:19:31.308
- Operation Life proved
what they argued:

01:19:31.349 --> 01:19:34.144
that poverty can be best fought
by the poor,

01:19:34.186 --> 01:19:38.106
that budgets in poverty programs
can best be balanced

01:19:38.148 --> 01:19:40.484
by poor mothers
who've learned how to stretch budgets

01:19:40.525 --> 01:19:42.944
farther than they could go.

01:19:42.986 --> 01:19:46.031
- Right now, Duncan's days are
a little more hectic than usual.

01:19:46.072 --> 01:19:48.408
President Carter named the North Las Vegan

01:19:48.450 --> 01:19:52.245
to the National Advisory Council
on Economic Opportunity.

01:19:52.287 --> 01:19:54.998
She's one of five individuals
from across the country

01:19:55.040 --> 01:19:58.084
who will represent the poor of America.

01:20:02.672 --> 01:20:05.383
- My mom was on various commissions.

01:20:05.425 --> 01:20:09.387
I remember going back
to Washington, D.C. with her.

01:20:09.429 --> 01:20:10.722
I was just mesmerized.

01:20:10.764 --> 01:20:14.476
It was like,
gosh, is this really happening?

01:20:14.518 --> 01:20:16.102
This is my mom, you know?

01:20:17.896 --> 01:20:21.900
- [sniffles]

01:20:21.942 --> 01:20:23.735
Mama.
You know, she's my hero.

01:20:23.777 --> 01:20:27.322
Shero. Yeah.

01:20:27.364 --> 01:20:30.909
She had a lot of influence
on a lot of things.

01:20:30.951 --> 01:20:36.957
[hopeful music]

01:20:49.094 --> 01:20:51.388
- Hey, Gloria.

01:20:51.429 --> 01:20:54.182
How you doing?

01:20:54.224 --> 01:20:56.685
You want to go over to the urban farm?
- Oh, yeah.

01:20:56.726 --> 01:20:58.728
Where?
- Okay, I'ma show you.

01:20:58.770 --> 01:21:00.856
Hey, John!

01:21:00.897 --> 01:21:05.402
The greenhouse is gonna be from here,
where the tree is,

01:21:05.443 --> 01:21:07.571
all the way down.

01:21:07.612 --> 01:21:12.576
I saw his proposal,
and it was like, carrots, squash.

01:21:12.617 --> 01:21:15.620
I am advisory neighborhood commissioner

01:21:15.662 --> 01:21:18.790
and elected representative
for my community.

01:21:18.832 --> 01:21:20.542
Are you looking for employment?

01:21:20.584 --> 01:21:22.043
- Yeah.
- Okay.

01:21:22.085 --> 01:21:23.712
That's my home number, okay?

01:21:23.753 --> 01:21:25.463
And I'm Ms. Gilbert.
- Okay, Ms. Gilbert.

01:21:25.505 --> 01:21:27.465
- It's locked right there.

01:21:27.507 --> 01:21:31.928
- Everything I do,
I learned from my mother,

01:21:31.970 --> 01:21:35.432
and Mary Wesley,
and all the other women.

01:21:35.473 --> 01:21:38.935
So we need to utilize our buildings first,

01:21:38.977 --> 01:21:41.897
find out what the community needs
before they give it away.

01:21:41.938 --> 01:21:44.691
- Yeah. Thank you.
- And I'll tell you--okay.

01:21:44.733 --> 01:21:46.943
Take care. Okay, bye, bye.
- All right. See you soon, Sondra.

01:21:46.985 --> 01:21:49.195
- You too. You too.
- Have a good one.

01:21:49.237 --> 01:21:52.824
- I heard that if I call Him...
- Yeah!

01:21:52.866 --> 01:21:54.826
- You can trust He'll answer.

01:21:57.120 --> 01:22:01.207
- They used to say, "Them old
welfare rights womens, they bad."

01:22:01.249 --> 01:22:04.794
I would tell the kids,
"I'll get my group together on y'all."

01:22:04.836 --> 01:22:05.879
[laughs]

01:22:05.921 --> 01:22:08.673
"We ain't scared of nobody.
We'll get y'all."

01:22:08.715 --> 01:22:10.050
And they'd just laugh.

01:22:10.091 --> 01:22:12.427
- You had too much sweets.
You need some water.

01:22:12.469 --> 01:22:15.013
And get some milk.
Please drink some milk with the baby.

01:22:15.055 --> 01:22:16.973
Please.

01:22:17.015 --> 01:22:18.475
I think I was a little crazy.

01:22:18.516 --> 01:22:21.645
I didn't think.
I would just do.

01:22:21.686 --> 01:22:24.648
If it involved a kid or something
you had to do, I would do it.

01:22:31.071 --> 01:22:35.283
- All of this,
working with all these women,

01:22:35.325 --> 01:22:38.203
has been one
of the greatest things of my life.

01:22:42.791 --> 01:22:49.005
all: [singing]
Happy birthday to you

01:22:49.047 --> 01:22:52.133
Happy birthday,

01:22:52.175 --> 01:22:56.304
Dear Mama

01:22:56.346 --> 01:23:02.978
Happy birthday to you

01:23:04.437 --> 01:23:07.440
[cheers and applause]

01:23:10.652 --> 01:23:13.113
- Happy birthday, Grandma.
- Happy birthday, Grandma.

01:23:13.154 --> 01:23:14.531
- Happy birthday, Mama.

01:23:14.572 --> 01:23:16.533
[laughter]

01:23:16.574 --> 01:23:19.411
- I came from no place,

01:23:19.452 --> 01:23:24.749
just slided in from out of nowhere.

01:23:24.791 --> 01:23:28.420
But when I come in,
I came in pushy,

01:23:28.461 --> 01:23:30.380
and I've been pushy ever since.

01:23:30.422 --> 01:23:31.715
Yes!

01:23:31.756 --> 01:23:36.386
You want to laugh, but you don't know--
no, you don't know this lady.

01:23:36.428 --> 01:23:39.848
I am that woman started all of y'all.

01:23:39.889 --> 01:23:42.142
[giggles]

01:23:42.183 --> 01:23:44.144
Hey!

01:23:44.185 --> 01:23:45.562
"Who are all y'all?

01:23:45.603 --> 01:23:47.480
Where y'all come from?"
- Look at her.

01:23:47.522 --> 01:23:49.399
She gonna smile in a second.
- Ain't she sweet?

01:23:49.441 --> 01:23:52.277
- She's a old soul.
- Yeah!

01:23:52.318 --> 01:23:56.322
Say, "I can see everything."

01:23:59.242 --> 01:24:02.454
- In a modern, moral,
and wealthy society,

01:24:02.495 --> 01:24:06.166
no person in America
should be too poor to live.

01:24:06.207 --> 01:24:09.753
[chanting]

01:24:09.794 --> 01:24:10.795
[uplifting music]

01:24:10.837 --> 01:24:13.339
- [singing]
How long? How long? How long? How long?

01:24:13.381 --> 01:24:18.470
- Every generation has its moment
to fight for what's right.

01:24:18.511 --> 01:24:22.807
We are traveling across the country
on the Poor People's Campaign.

01:24:22.849 --> 01:24:24.601
I hope all of you will join us.

01:24:24.642 --> 01:24:26.061
- [singing]
Every day, every day

01:24:26.102 --> 01:24:27.103
- [rapping]
And when the day come,

01:24:27.145 --> 01:24:28.104
When we can live life

01:24:28.146 --> 01:24:30.815
With the stress and the racism strife,
racism strife

01:24:30.857 --> 01:24:33.276
- What do we want?
all: UBI!

01:24:33.318 --> 01:24:35.570
- When do we want it?
all: Now!

01:24:35.612 --> 01:24:37.989
- What do we want?
all: UBI!

01:24:38.031 --> 01:24:40.575
- When do we want it?
all: Now!

01:24:41.743 --> 01:24:43.912
- [singing]
We struggle each day to survive

01:24:43.953 --> 01:24:45.622
Battle, we fought on the line

01:24:45.663 --> 01:24:49.459
Overcoming every obstacle

01:24:49.501 --> 01:24:51.628
Uplifting ourselves every day

01:24:51.669 --> 01:24:53.463
Though the pain can erase

01:24:53.505 --> 01:24:57.133
Doing whatever we can do, yeah

01:24:57.175 --> 01:24:59.094
But we pull together to fight

01:24:59.135 --> 01:25:01.012
We storm the palace, united

01:25:01.054 --> 01:25:04.891
And we change to a law that we believe in

01:25:04.933 --> 01:25:08.686
By giving some hope to the ones
that we need it the most when it counts

01:25:08.728 --> 01:25:12.273
We are the difference to the spirit

01:25:12.315 --> 01:25:14.109
How long? How long? How long?

01:25:14.150 --> 01:25:16.277
Must we fight for our freedom?

01:25:16.319 --> 01:25:18.196
Every day, every day, every day

01:25:18.238 --> 01:25:19.823
Make a way, make a way, make a way

01:25:19.864 --> 01:25:21.783
Stand up,
stand up and fight

01:25:21.825 --> 01:25:23.952
Stand up,
stand for your rights

01:25:23.993 --> 01:25:25.870
Every day, every day, every day

01:25:25.912 --> 01:25:27.539
Make a way, make a way
- [singing] Every day

01:25:27.580 --> 01:25:28.414
- [rapping]
We have to fight

01:25:28.456 --> 01:25:29.415
We rebel for our rights

01:25:29.457 --> 01:25:31.209
Rebel for our freedoms,
we winning this fight

01:25:31.251 --> 01:25:33.086
- [singing]
Make a way, make a way, make a way

01:25:33.128 --> 01:25:34.587
Every day, every day
- [rapping] Make a way

01:25:34.629 --> 01:25:35.922
Make a way every day

01:25:35.964 --> 01:25:37.924
Still we fight,
and we fight for our say

01:25:37.966 --> 01:25:39.801
Everyone here should have equal rights

01:25:39.843 --> 01:25:42.137
Just say it again,
'cause you know I'm right

01:25:42.178 --> 01:25:43.054
- [rapping]
How long? How long?

01:25:43.096 --> 01:25:44.139
- [singing]
How long? How long?

01:25:44.180 --> 01:25:47.016
How long must we fight for our freedom?

01:25:47.058 --> 01:25:48.852
Every day, every day, every day

01:25:48.893 --> 01:25:50.603
Make a way, make a way, make a way
- [rapping] Make a way, make a way

01:25:50.645 --> 01:25:52.438
- [singing]
Stand up, stand up and fight

01:25:52.480 --> 01:25:54.649
Stand up,
stand for your rights

01:25:54.691 --> 01:25:56.651
Every day, every day, every day
- [singing] Stand up

01:25:56.693 --> 01:25:58.903
- [singing]
Make a way, make a way every day

01:26:01.239 --> 01:26:04.951
- [singing]
Stand up

01:26:04.993 --> 01:26:07.996
[vocalizing]

01:26:11.416 --> 01:26:13.209
- We must fight.