Original subtitles

♪ Happy Birthday to you Happy Birthday to you

♪Happy Birthday, Miss Jane,

♪Happy Birthday to you

Enoch, what you put all these candles on this cake for?

Never mind, just blow 'em out. Just blow 'em out.

I ain't got enough breath to be blowing out these candles.

See that?

Happy birthday!

Are you gonna be having me this time next year, Lena?

God willing. God willing.

Don't wanna be here by myself.

I will be here with you, Jane.

Oh, Mar, I know you gon' be here.

Yes, child.

Oh!

Happy birthday.

Hello, Miss Jane.

Well, hello, Jimmy. Come on in.

Happy birthday.

Can I speak with you, Miss Jane?

Well, Jimmy...

Listen.

Go on outside before they stuff me full of cake.

Me help? How?

Going with us down to the courthouse.

When we get ready to move.

I'm 109, oh, 110.

I'm too old.

I can't even do nothing but get in the way.

You can inspire the others.

Hey, Jimmy.

What you got going in the back of your head?

We're going to have one of our girls

drink from the white peoples' fountain down at the courthouse.

The white folks' fountain?

That old loon Edgar

won't let her get anywhere near that fountain.

You know, when they passed that segregatin' law,

that old loon come round slobberin' and, hon, I tell him,

"Edgar, if you touch me,

I'll take my cane and crack your skull."

We want Guidry to arrest her.

If one of us did it, we'd just get beat up.

Now, what you want old fat Guidry to arrest her for?

So we can march down to the courthouse.

Oh, Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy.

You see these folks 'round here

ain't ready for nothing like that yet.

That's our job.

Talk to 'em, Jimmy. Talk to the young ones.

We don't have that kind of time, Miss Jane.

What else do you got, Jim?

I've been carrying a scar on my back ever since I was slave.

That's precisely why we need you.

Your mere presence with us will bring forth the multitudes.

Jimmy... I understand.

Believe it or not, I was once young myself.

That girl is gonna drink from the fountain

tomorrow, Miss Jane.

Well...

God moves in a mysterious way,

His wonders to perform.

I'll wait for Him to give me the sign, Jimmy.

And He's right most times.

I'll wait on Him.

That girl is gonna drink from the fountain

tomorrow, Miss Jane.

Excuse me.

I'm, uh... I'm looking for Miss Jane Pittman.

Well, you'll find Miss Jane

in the last cabin on your left down that lane.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Tell me again.

What you wanna know about Miss Jane for?

I'm writing a feature story.

A what?

Is this for radio? I'm gonna be on television?

The Ed Sullivan Show?

No, ma'am.

It... it's, uh, for a magazine from New York.

Oh.

Always preferred Brooklyn myself.

Oh...

You wanna know how come I live so long.

Well, I'd like to hear whatever you have to say.

'Bout what?

You don't have to say a thing to him, Miss Jane.

Uh, I understand you were a slave.

Lots of peoples were slaves.

Well, yes, but you're still alive.

Just 'bout.

Well, I... I thought maybe you could tell me

what things were like in those days.

In those days?

Hmm.

Tomorrow.

Miss Jane's tired. She'll decide tomorrow.

This mornin' marks Bayonne's first brush

with the so-called civil rights movement,

as a group of negro agitatos confronted Sheriff Guidry

at the "white folks only" drinkin' fountain

at the courthouse.

There were no serious injuries reported,

although several arrests were made.

Well, it's her son Jimmy they got in the jail there.

She could tell ya.

Well, I wanna do an interview with him

as soon as things settle down.

I... I came down here to talk to you, Miss Jane.

Are you 110 years old?

So they tell me.

How far back can you remember?

How far back do you wanna go?

Well, the war. Can you remember...?

What war?

Second World, First World, or that... that Cuban war?

You... You remember the Spanish-American War?

Spanish-American War.

I can do a whole lot better than that.

Do you remember getting your freedom?

I hope I never forget it.

How far back do you wanna go? You wanna go back that far?

I'll go back as far as you wanna go.

Now, you don't have to tell him nothin', Miss Jane.

I know that, Lena.

But if I don't,

he's just gonna sit here and worry me half to death.

You mean it's all right?

How far?

Do you want me to go back as far as I can go?

That's even further than when the freedom come.

That thing ain't gonna bite me, is it?

Oh, no, ma'am. No, it's just a tape...

Oh, my, my, my.

Well, where to start? Where to start, Lena?

Honestly, I wouldn't talk to this man here.

Oh, Lena, you just fill in the gaps.

Well, I can see who got their mind made up.

You might as well start with them over there.

What?

Oh, these.

Mm.

Lord, Lord, Lord.

I've had these things ever since I can remember.

Two rocks?

You don't know a whole lot, do ya?

♪♪

Oh, it was a cold day.

Wet and muddy.

I won't ever forget it.

The rebel army, they come first.

Officers on horses and troops just walkin'.

They was half dead,

draggin' they guns in the mu, they was so tired.

Some of 'em weren't much oldr than I was.

Ma'am.

Would it be askin' too much

if we could use some of your water?

We don't have very much time.

I'd be honored, sir.

Colonel, would you do me the pleasure

of takin' some brandy wine?

Well, thank you kindly. I would like that.

Ticey! Ticey!

Don't just stand there gapin'. Get them troops some water.

♪♪

These are the same ones, mind ya,

who told their peoples when the war was gettin' started,

"Keep my food warm.

I'm gonna kill me a few Yankees and be home for supper."

Colonel! Colonel!

Over there.

Colonel, I seen 'em. They're right down the road.

They're right behind me.

Ma'am, I'm truly grateful, and God bless you all.

Our hearts are with you.

If left up to me, I'd turn them niggers loose, if left up to me.

Yeah, if the Yankees want 'em, let the Yankees have 'em.

Ticey, what are you doing standing there for?

You go get some more water.

What for, Mistress Bryant? They're all gone now.

Oh, you don't think Yankees drink water, too?

Don't you hear that rifle fire?

I gotta haul that water for them Yankees, too?

You don't wanna get boiled in oil now, do you?

They're coming! They're coming!

The Yankees coming!

- Where? - Over there.

Oh, my God. They're coming right through the fields.

Where's the master?

He just went down the street.

Stop pointing. And watch your tongue.

They may be the devil.

Now, you hear me,

don't you say one word about the master

or one word about the silver,

or they gonna skin you alive before they boil you in oil.

Halt!

Good day.

Ma'am.

May I offer you some brandy wine?

Why, thank you, ma'am.

What happened to your shoes?

I took mine off. They hurt my feet.

Hey.

What's your name?

Ticey, Master.

They ever beat you, Ticey?

Now, you can tell me.

What do they beat you with?

Cat o' nine tails, Master.

Why'd they whip you?

I go to sleep looking after the young mistress' children.

You're nothing but a child yourself.

How old are you right now?

I don't know, Master.

Ticey, I'm not a master.

I'm a plain old ordinary soldier.

My name's Corporal Lewis Brown. Now, can you say "corporal"?

No, Master.

Bet you can. Go on, try.

I can't say that.

Can you say "Lewis"?

Yes, Master.

All right. Well, you call me Lewis.

And I'm gonna call you something besides Ticey.

Ticey's a slave name.

And now, back in Ohio,

there's lots of pretty names for a girl like you.

What names you got?

Oh, uh, Heloise.

Sophie, Marguerite, Jane...

I like Jane.

Okay, you take it.

Now, from now on your name is Jane.

Not Ticey anymore. Jane.

When you get older, you change it to anything you want,

but until then, your name is Jane.

Mount up!

Ha!

Get there. Come on.

If anybody gives you any more trouble,

you just come on up to Ohio and tell me.

We'll fix it.

♪♪

Hey! Go on!

A year later, Master Bryat called us all together.

We knew something big was happenin',

'cause he had on his best sut and his top hat.

Now, everybody that can stand or crawl gotta hear this.

That's all of us, Master Bryant.

All right, then.

I got something to read to you all.

Now, these papers come through while the war was still goin',

but... wasn't any point in readin' 'em 'til now.

"Whereas on the 22nd day of September

in the Year of our Lord 1862,

a proclamation was issued

by the President of the United States

containin', among other things, the following:

That on the first day

of January in the Year of our Lord 1863

all persons held as slaves

within any state or designatd part of a state,

the people whereof shall thn be in rebellion

against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward

and forever...

"free."

Well, it just goes on like that.

Now...

All I wanna say is that...

y'all can stay and work on shares.

I... I... I can't pay ya nothing, since I ain't got nothin' myself

since them Yankees went through here last time.

Y'all can stay, y'all can go.

Just as you please.

Now, if... If y'all stay, I promise,

I... I'll be as fair, as... As fair with you

as I always been with y'all.

Now, then, that's that.

You shut up there!

Shut up this moment!

Now, you just shut up this noise here.

You comin' in here talkin' about, "I'm leavin'."

Where to?

What you gonna do?

What do we care, Unc? We is free to choose.

They's all kind of places to go.

Gold in California.

Hold it. Hold it.

What you gonna eat?

Well, Unc, I eats food.

How you gonna pay for all this food, you big young buck?

With money, Unc. Same as any other free man.

And from where is you gettin' this fortune?

Honest wage for an honest day's work.

You don't know nothin' about outside.

You belong right here on this plantation.

Y'all do what y'all want. I'm headin' for Ohio.

What about them paterollers, honey?

They got Yankees now.

They'll pay for them just as free as the masters.

They ain't gonna beat ya.

And they didn't kill you before 'cause you belonged to somebody.

Now you ain't owned but by fate, Ticey.

My name's Jane, and I'm headed for Ohio

just as soon as you point the way north.

Very well, Miss Jane.

North be that-a-way from here.

Now, the sun's on the right in the mornin'

and on the left in the evenin'.

You got all this?

All right.

Now, remember, God bless you, child.

Mistress had tears in her eyes,

and she was kissin' all the peoples good-bye.

She even kissed me.

♪♪

We walked for days through the swamps.

Stayed off the main roads,

'cause them paterollers would kill a free man

quick as he would a runaway slave.

No one knew where we was headin',

so Big Laura, tough as any man, showed us the way.

Come on, Jane.

Come on.

Paterollers! The paterollers!

Get up!

Hit him again!

Get that man there!

Hit him!

Stupid animal!

You wanna go to Ohio with me?

If anybody asks, these just two plain old rocks.

Not of iron and flint that Big Laura used,

but two plain old rocks.

Make sure to get to Ohio the same time we do.

So Big Laura's little boy Nd and me,

we started walking toward Ohio.

There wasn't much left of the South in those times.

All that the Yankees couldn't lift and take with 'em,

they burned.

Once in a while, though, you'd see something still standin'.

You!

Get away from my fence!

Excuse, ma'am.

Could you tell me which way Ohio?

Please, ma'am?

If you don't get away from my fence,

I'm gonna have that old dog there point the way to Ohio.

I just wanted to know if I was headed the right way.

I don't know nothin' about no Ohio.

Get away from my fence!

We headed on, then.

Can you tell me if there's a spring around here?

You don't see no spring around here, do you?

Me and this boy here are awful thirsty.

Stay there.

Here.

You don't think I'm gonna let you foul this cup

with your black mouth, do you?

Hold your hands out.

Don't ya'll think I love niggers

just because I'm giving you water.

I hate y'all.

Hate ya! All of you!

You're the cause of all the trouble

we're havin' around here.

All this ravishin' and burnin'.

Yankee and nigger soldiers all over the place.

They're stealin' and killin'.

They done killed my boy and my man,

and you're the cause of it!

And I hope to God they kill you!

I'd kill ya myself if I weren't God-fearin'!

Look what you done to me!

Look what you done!

Look what you done to me!

♪♪

Whoa!

You two must be pretty tired, standing on that grave.

Old hat's so weather-dry, can't tell who it belonged to.

Lot of them in there, though, whoever they was.

Where y'all goin'?

We headin' north.

We headin' north.

You ain't going nowhere standing there.

Come on, now.

Headin' north, hey? For the big freedom, hey?

Well, you gonna have to cross the river, you know.

- River?! - The mighty Mississip'.

I ain't crossin' no river nuttin.

You gon' cross the mighty Mississip'

or y'all ain't headin' north.

You two keep still. I know these two.

Let me do the talking.

See you got you some niggers there, Joe.

Yes, sir. For the Bondurant's place.

Can't say they much, but you got to start with somethin', sho.

Feed 'em. They'll grow.

Will do. Yes, sir.

You two, get off here.

Where the river? I don't see no river.

Never mind. Just get off.

I don't see no river.

♪♪

Where you think you're goin'?

Me and this boy here are headed for Ohio.

Ohio? Who y'all for?

We ain't for nobody. We just as free as you are.

All right, little free nigger. You got money?

It take a nickel to ride on here.

You got a nickel each?

- No, sir. - Then, get on back.

Lucas, take care of them.

So we walked and walked. Round in circles, prob'ly.

Keepin' an eye on the way for rednecks and pateroller,

who was on the lookout for freemen.

Finally, we was so tired and hungry,

and not knowin' where else to go,

I signed on at the Dye plantation.

I didn't know it was gonna take me 12 long hard years

to get off from that place.

They ain't no rocks.

Ned knew that.

They're flints, for makin' fire.

- Is she all right? - Oh, yeah.

That's just Miss Jane's way.

She like to take advantage of her age that way,

skippin' good-byes and all.

Says she had too many, anyway.

Uh, excuse me.

Got a whole bunch of telephone messages here for ya.

Oh, thank you.

In slavery, you had two dresses,

a pair of shoes and a coat.

Hey.

You like that stuff?

Yes, ma'am.

That's homegrown, you know. Not from no cans.

You ever ate sugar cane before?

No, ma'am.

I know you ain't never chopped none.

No, ma'am, I haven't.

Man has to chop sugar cane for a while for a living

to appreciate it.

Most people ain't never eat sugar cane raw today,

black or white.

I work on the Dye plantation for 12 long years,

and I know what went on.

I was there.

I guess I must've been about...

I guess I was about 22, 23.

All right.

Let's go.

Yo, yo.

Whoa.

You all know and trust and love me.

Vote for me, send me to Washington to ensure...

Colored politicians used o come around

and sign us up for votes

and more than just a few got sent to Washington,

but Reconstruction never really worked.

It wasn't too long before carpetbaggers, black and white,

moved in to take from the South what the war didn't.

For a while there,

it looked like things was gonna be all right for us.

We had a little school on the place

where we could go at night.

Ned, he must have been about 18, then.

Oh!

You want an education?

We're gonna give you an education!

No, don't! No!

No!

No!

Oh, oh, no!

No, no!

Oh, my God!

No!

Oh, my God!

My God!

My God!

Colonel Dye was gettin' crazier by the day,

sometimes wearin' his unifom like the war never ended.

Yes, and no more nigger politicians 'round here.

That schoolhouse up there is gonna stay shut down

'til I can find y'all a competent teacher.

Y'all don't need a pass to leave the place, like before.

Y'all do right by me and any group stop you on the road,

you just tell me, and I'll fix it right up.

Yeah.

I... I can't pay y'all 'til the end of the year,

but you can draw, uh, rations and clothing from the store.

That suit ya? Stay.

If that don't,

then, catch up with them coattail-flyin' scallywags

and the rest of them hot-footin' niggers.

Ned started teachin' the peoples to write.

He even wrote to Washington, D.C.,

but they never wrote back.

You know, he found out about committees bein' formed

that helped the coloreds with their rights,

and so he formed one, too.

And there ain't no such tax as protection livin'.

If someone tries to burn your crop, tell us.

We know how to prosecute.

The vigilantes heard about Ned's committee,

and they started watchin' hi, but that didn't stop him non.

Ho!

Where's he at?

Who? Who? Who?

You know who I'm talkin' about.

No, I...

Ned thievin' Douglass that's who.

Or whatever he's callin' himself these days.

I don't know where he is.

She don't know, Bo.

No!

Still don't know where he's at?

No.

We'll get him.

I'm telling you, that boy of yours

better stop being so serious.

I don't like him gettin' so serious.

You understand?

She understands.

Come on, let's go.

We'll find him.

Ma, what happened?

What happened where?

Eat your food.

This. What happened?

They was here lookin' for you tonight, Ned.

They're fixing to kill you.

They will if you don't leave this place.

I can't, Mama, you know that.

You got to.

I can't leave these people.

They haven't got anybody else who will fight for them

except the committee.

Ned, you ain't worth nothin' to nobody dead.

You pack your things now.

Take the road to New Orleans and take a boat leavin' for Kansas.

You come with me, then.

I can't.

I can't, Ned.

I'm tied here.

You're comin' with me, Mama. They'll hurt you again.

They can't do me nothin', Ned.

I don't have what you have.

I don't have the urge.

I know the land, but you know the peoples.

Go to 'em, Ned.

Talk to 'em, show 'em.

You have to come with me.

No.

It's not my time.

I'll stop.

I'll stop the teachin's, I'll stop the writing, the letters...

You know that's not right.

And that ain't what none of us wants.

I don't wanna leave, Mama.

I don't want us to separate.

I know.

But it has to be.

I knew the day would come.

You know, I never did tell you,

but the first time you ever read to us,

I knew that you was the one.

I won't hold you back, Ned.

I won't hold you back.

Mama.

Mama.

Mama.

Make me proud.

Make me proud.

Mama...

Keep them for me.

Make sure they get to Ohio the same time we do.

♪♪

I didn't hear from Ned for a whole year.

I guess that was about '75 or '76,

the same year I first saw Joe Pittman.

I had him over to supper,

and we started seein' each other from time to tim,

and as things happen betweens people,

one thing led to another.

"But after a time, there were too many and no jobs,

and people started freezin' to death of cold.

Others got starvin'.

Then the protest riots came,

and people started goin' off to other states.

I am still goin' to school, college, now.

When I'm ready, I'm comin' back home.

In the meantime, here's three dollars...

And God bless you, Mama.

"All my love, Ned."

Well, little mama...

Took a whole year, but you finally heard from your boy.

Ever tell him about us?

When you gonna tell him about the Clyde Ranch?

Ain't said I gonna go yet.

Oh, you goin'. That's all there is to it.

I'm leavin', and you're goin' with me.

Well, how's Ned gonna know where to write to me?

Well, we'll send him a photograph of us

up on a horse Wild West style.

I ain't gettin' on no horse or nothin'.

Yeah, you're comin' with me, little mama.

By then, Colonel Dye was so forgetful,

he'd call us all out to him,

and then he couldn't remembr what we was there for.

What you all doin' standin' and starin'?

Go get on back to work.

Colonel, we're leavin'.

You what?

Jane and me are goin'.

What's the matter, Joe? Ain't I treatin' you right?

It ain't that at all, Colonel.

We've been treated very good here,

but I wanna go out and do a little sharecroppin' on my own.

Listen, Joe, I'll, uh, turn over

that piece of good bottom land to you.

You can work it like you want.

Joe, you a good man.

I need you around here.

Ain't much happened since the war,

and there ain't another nigger on this place

can work a horse like you.

You peoples the happiest damn creatures on God's green earth.

I wanna do right by y'all.

Mighty grateful, Colonel. Mighty grateful.

But Jane and me, we... We wanna go off on our own.

You ain't grateful.

Hell...

You wanna sharecrop, sharecrop!

See what I care!

Thank you, sir.

Just a minute.

Ain't you forgettin' somethin'?

Where my 50 dollars?

What 50 dollars?

Oh, you forgot that, did ya?

Well, I ain't.

That 50 dollars to get y'all out of that trouble with the Kluxes.

Ain't bothered me.

'Course they ain't.

Y'all mixed up in a little politics there after the war.

Everybody 'round here knew it.

I didn't know you paid.

Them Kluxes don't stop doin' what they do

just 'cause y'all say, "Hold it."

Now, you pay up... or else.

We had to sell everything we owned.

A dollar for the chair, five for the whole.

Shotgun got seven dollars.

Finally, Joe did what he had to do.

He sold his beautiful horse,

the one he trained special, the one he rode so proud.

Well?

Here's the money, Colonel.

I'll count it out, so as you're sure it's all there.

It all there.

You're a smart one, ain't ya?

Well, I got news.

Time elapsed come to five more dollars.

You didn't say nothin' about that.

Joe, we ain't got no more.

I got legal rights, my interest.

Now, what are you doing, Jane? That's your wedding ring.

That's our freedom.

♪♪

It took 10 days of hard walkin'

'til we reached East Texas and the Clyde Ranch.

♪♪

Joe was chief breaker.

Everybody called him "Chief Pittman".

They'd bring horses in from Texas,

and he'd ride the ones nobody else could.

Oh, he was a poet, the way he rode.

Get him in there! Come on! Get him in there!

Haw, haw, haw!

Get him in there!

Haw! Come on!

The next summer, Joe brought in a horse

like I'd never seen before.

It sent a chill down my spin, the way it looked.

I knew it was something evi.

And when I see that ol' white devil horse

come in to Clyde Ranch,

he just stand there and keep a-laughin' at me.

Laughin' at me! I know it!

De calme, de calme.

Before we go more,

how many children have you given Joe Pittman?

I'm barren.

Ah, that is it.

Have you told him?

No.

Voila, c'est pour ça.

This is why he ride the horses, to prove something.

This is man's way.

You think that ol' horse gonna kill him?

You want the true response?

Yes.

De I'argent.

Money.

You may go if you want.

I wanna know.

You are brave, my child.

Does that mean that ol' white devil horse gonna kill my Joe?

Je n'ai pas dit ça.

I did not say that.

But that's the answer.

♪♪

Why, Jane? Why'd you do it?

Let it be, Joe.

Please.

Let him be.

Let him be, Joe!

Oh!

Please!

Please! Let him go, Joe!

Let him go!

Oh!

Let him be!

Oh!

Let him be.

Please, let him be.

No!

No! No!

No!

No! No!

We buried him at the ranch.

The rodeo went on as always, but before it started...

...they tolled the bell for Joe Pittman.

When Joe Pittman was killed,

part of me went with him to his grave.

No man would ever take the place of Joe Pittman,

and that's why I carry his name to this day.

I've known two or three other mens,

but none took the place of Joe Pittman.

I let 'em knew that from the very start.

Have I got to the part about Albert Cluveau yet?

No, ma'am.

Or Ned, when he come back that time from Cuba?

Not yet, Jane.

Oh...

I thought I did.

It was...

I was takin' in laundry then.

It was about the turn of the century.

I... I was fishin' that day on my place at False River

when I...

I saw him comin' 'round the bend.

It was 20 years since I'd seen him,

but I knew that was my Ned

the moment I laid eyes on him.

Yes, I did.

♪♪

Put me down.

I'm gettin' mad, 'cause I'm full.

Well, I made some of my favorite puddin'.

Looks good.

That's you, Elizabeth.

- And there's you. - Thank you, Miss Jane.

- Oh, Mama, Mama. - That's you.

So, anyway...

we... we got used to, um, small shot whizzin' around us,

but when one of those big ones hit,

oh, we sometimes found ourselves in a lively dispute

over the proprietorship of the nearest tree.

Now, don't go talkin' like you spent

the whole Spanish-American War hidin' behind a tree.

Tell her what the newspaper said.

You get your name in the newspapers?

Oh, no, no. Not me personally, Mama.

But I guess folks by now know about the 10th Cavalry.

Miss Jane, that newspaper in Washington said

that the roughriders would've never made it up San Juan Hill

if it hadn't been for the black soldiers fightin' beside 'em.

Uh, uh, ahead of 'em sometimes.

And you didn't get hit in all that shootin'?

No. Never.

I saw men dead and dyin' all around me,

black, white, Spanish.

I began to feel like, you know, I was alive for a reason.

Come back to teach?

I checked around, Mama.

You don't... You don't have a school on the river.

Well...

Ain't nothin' changed here either.

He hasn't stopped talkin'

about how much he has to do, Miss Jane.

He can get that way.

Yeah. We're both so pleased.

You know, I know my Ned can accomplish a great deal here.

Made up your mind, ain't you, Ned?

That war in Cuba taught me a lot of things, Mama.

Well...

Ned, I want to tell ya,

if you're fixin' to use Elder Thomas' church,

he ain't gonna let ya.

I know that it is hard for you to come here

and discouraging when so many said they would come and didn't.

But we must not give up.

We are not alone.

Listen to what Mr. Frederick Douglass wrote to us

from the North, 50 years ago.

"Remember that we are one, that our cause is one,

and that we must help one another if we would succeed.

We have drunk to the dregs the bitter cup of... of slavery.

We have worn a heavy yoke,

we have sighed beneath our bonds,

we have writhed to the bloody lash.

Cruel mementoes of our oneness

"are indelibly marked in our living flesh."

And that's where Albert Cluveau come in.

He was a Cajun.

He already killed 12 people, black and white.

"Like choppin' wood," he used to say.

Why you always talkin' about killin' for?

I'm the baddest.

I don't brag so much.

Oh!

Hey, Jane, you cook this, uh, for me tonight,

I, uh, tell you something important.

What's important?

They talked to me about your boy there, Jane.

They don't want he build that school there, no.

They say he could just stir up trouble for niggers.

They want him go back.

Back where he come from.

They don't know Albert tell you this.

They want me stop him.

You mean kill my boy?

I tell them, I say, me, you,

we all time fish on Saint Shaw River.

I tell them I eat at your house.

Can you kill my boy?

They don't like he preach on the river, way he do.

Can you kill my boy?

I do whatever they tell Albert.

Can you kill my boy?

Yes!

Yes.

I can, Miss Jane.

♪♪

Mama, Mama! Where you been?

What you runnin' all this way for?

Ned, you got to leave this place.

I'm not going to, Mama.

Gotta leave, Ned!

Mama, that's just what they want me to do.

I ran once, never again.

Make him take you and Elizabeth back to Kansas.

Mama.

Mama, look at all these people.

These are my people, this is my home.

Now, they're not afraid!

They came to listen, and I'm gonna speak.

Ned...

You got some black men who will tell you

that the white man's the worst thing on the earth.

But let me tell you this...

all men are the same.

The same evil you see in whites you see in blacks,

and likewise the good to be found is in all men,

white and black.

The enemy is not skin.

It's ignorance.

It was ignorance that put us here in the first place.

Ignorance because the big tribes of Africa

warred against each other,

or made slaves out of the smaller tribes.

Our own black people put us in pens like hogs,

destroying entire civilizations with rum and beads.

And it was still the African,

this time the Arabs, who sold us on the block.

The white man didn't need guns, because we were weak.

The French, the Spanish, the Portuguese,

they took us because we were ignorant.

We were apart from one another.

You got folks here sayin', "Let's go back to Africa."

"Let's go to Liberia."

Well, I am not African.

I'm American.

A black American, and proud of it.

Look inside yourself, say, "What am I?"

"What else besides this... This black skin?"

Do you know what a nigger is?

First, a nigger feels below anything else on this earth.

He doesn't care about himself.

He doesn't care about anybody else.

He doesn't care about anything.

Now, he'll never be an American,

and he'll never be a citizen of any other nation.

But there's a big difference

between a black American...

and a nigger.

A black American cares, and he knows, and he struggles.

That's why I'm telling you this.

That's why I know that no son or daughter of mine

will ever be a nigger.

I want my children to be black and proud of it.

This... This land, America, belongs to us all.

I don't mean that we own it, but that it's God's.

And that makes it as much ours as any man's.

You are not bested by no man.

Be Americans, but first, be men.

I'm gonna die, Mama.

Ned, I tell you, you get down out of the wagon.

Get down out of the wagon, Ned.

He ain't got nothing but a double barrel, Ned.

He gonna need both of 'em to bring me down.

Take the lumber and finish the school.

Ned, let me take him.

Talk to Mama, talk to Vivian. It's important.

Ned, you're important! Let me take him!

Sam, do as I say.

Else, he'll get us both.

I tell you Mama about all this.

What took you so long?

Albert Cluveau determine the world.

They tell Albert make you crawl first.

No!

Crawl! Crawl!

Get down and crawl, and we get this over with!

No!

♪♪

I can't explain all my sorrw and feelin' on that day.

I remember talkin' to him like he was still alive.

For days, weeks, folks always stayed with me,

'cause they afraid I was gonna lose my mind.

...did not have a, uh, poliy which gave any assurances

of success,

and which the Soviet Union has already,

in fact, has rejected.

Thank you, Mr. President.

No, thank you.

In Massachusetts, the possibility

of JFK's younger brother, 30-year-old Teddy,

running for the 1962 Democratic nomination...

"Yeah.

Bet you put your foot in your mouth again."

"No. Oh, did that...?"

Well, back again, huh?

Yes, ma'am.

I... I tried to get in to see Jimmy, but, uh...

But Guidry wouldn't let you.

That old Guidry, he makes me sick.

Ain't had your fill of me yet?

No, ma'am.

Well, when did I come to this place?

It was the early '20s.

19 and 25.

Time of the Kingfish, Huey Long.

Oh, I... I seem to remember it was 'fore the high water,

19 and 27.

I'd slowed up in the field, but I rode 'round to the peoples

to let 'em know I was stil alive and kickin'.

Well, well...

Whoa, whoa!

If it ain't Miss High Class.

Just my noon stroll, Lena. My noon stroll.

Well, that's how it is with the Indian prince.

Me, I gotta work for a livin'.

Whoa! Whoa!

Well, hey, there, Miss Jane. How're ya'll?

Mr. Robert, what you doin' out here in the sun for?

How'd y'all like to come work inside the main house?

What for?

You ain't thinkin' I'm too old

to work the fields anymore, is you?

Oh, no, no, no.

Miss Amma Dean needs help with the two boys, that's all.

How old are you now, Jane?

70, give or take a little.

Y'all know how to cook?

Well, now, I've been doin' it for nigh on these sixty years,

ain't poisoned nobody yet.

Sometimes it seemed like we was one big famil.

We played baseball every Sunday.

The score would be 50 to nothing, or 41 to 8.

We need another one of those, uh, home runs.

Get in there in the field!

Whoo!

Oh, foul!

That's a foul ball!

I was too old to play, so they stuck a cap on me

from my favorite team, the Brooklyn Dodgers,

and they made me the ump.

I don't mind tellin' you, I was too old.

I was half-blind, really, for them calls.

Out!

But they made no real mind,

'cause nobody played real well anyway.

I say you're out!

You're out! I'm the ump!

Out!

Come on, let's play ball, everyone.

Oh, yeah, we sure had some fun.

People's always lookin' for somebody to lead 'em.

They did it durin' slavery,

they did it durin' the wa, and they're doin' it now.

They always do in the hard times,

and the Lord always obliges them.

When a child is born, old folks look at it and as,

"Is you the one?"

When Lena had her baby boy,

all the folks look at him and say,

"You the one? Jimmy, is you the one?"

'Course I always knew he was.

You want Dick Tracy?

You done did your figures for the day yet?

Yes'm. Multiplication tables are comin' out of my ear.

All right. I don't want no funnies today, though.

Read me the sports page.

I wanna hear what they say about my Jackie.

He stole three bases and he hit two homers.

He did not!

It say so right here, Miss Jane.

Uh, I heard the game last night on the radio, smart boy.

Dodgers lost.

Yes'm.

But so did the Yankees.

Uh-huh. You see there?

Jackie and the Dodgers is for the colored folks anyway.

Just like Joe Louis was.

You know who he is?

You told me, Miss Jane.

Yeah.

Well, did I tell ya

that he let Schmeling beat him the first time,

just to teach us a lesson?

Did I?

Well, he did, but, oh, boy, that second time was something else.

Unc Gilly used to show us al

how Schmeling fell when Joe Louis hit him.

Oh, he was famous for that.

Old as he was.

And years later, that's how he died,

showin' folks how Schmelig fell when Joe hit him.

Peoples in the quarters was takin' notice of Jimm,

how he recitin' numbers and- and like school.

They was always sayin',

"He gonna be a credit to his race, that one."

When he got older, he went away to school.

I didn't see him for 10 long years.

And that was the beginnin' of the civil rights trouble.

Help us, oh, Lord, and show us the way.

Help...

Amen.

I'm here for your help.

You know what's going on all over the country,

all over the South.

I met the Reverend King, I've eaten at his home.

I've been to his church, I've even gone to jail with him.

I was with him when he was winnin' the battle

in Alabama and Mississippi,

but you people here, my own folks,

haven't even begun to fight.

Hold it. Hold it right there.

You don't come to our church no more, Jimmy.

I'm here now, and I have something to say.

You have nothing to say.

You're just fixin' to get us in a whole lot of trouble.

Shut up and listen to what Jimmy got to say.

Well, some people are thinkin' of carrying guns.

But we don't want anything to do with that nonsense.

Others wanna carry flags.

Well, what's a flag

if you haven't got any meaning behind it?

All we have is our strength,

the strength of our people, that's what gives us meaning.

We need your strength, we need your prayers.

We need you to stand with us, because we have no other roots.

Jimmy, I don't want no trouble for my people.

What you see here is all we are, nothing more than that.

We don't want to lose what little we have.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry I have disturbed the church.

I'm sorry.

Jimmy...

I was feelin' poorly, so Mis Amma Dean was takin' me

to the doctor that day when-

I'm sorry, Miss Amma Dean, the trouble we're havin' here.

One thing after another

since they passed that desegregation law there.

How you doing today, Granny?

You have to remember, Sheriff, she's over 100 years old.

Don't let all this upset you now, Jane.

It's gonna be all right.

Y'all take care now.

That everybody?

Good.

I wanted to remind every last one of y'all,

y'all livin' on this place for free.

You pay me no rent, you pay me no water bill,

you don't give me a turnip out of your garden,

you don't give me one egg out of your hen house.

You pick all the pecans you can find on the place.

All I ask for is half, what I never get.

I ask you for half of the berries you find,

and you bring me a pocketful so dirty,

I wouldn't feed 'em to a hog I don't like.

All right.

I let all that go.

But this I will not let go...

There ain't gonna be no demonstratin' on my place.

Anybody around here who thinks he needs more freedom

than he got already

is free to pack up and leave now.

That go for the oldest one, that go for the youngest one.

Jane, too.

Who the last one had a baby down there?

Eva's little boy, Peter.

That go for Jane, that go for Eva's little boy, Peter.

There sho enough is somethin' goin' on.

You know Batlo and Rose down there at Dulaville's place?

Been there now 30 years?

Batlo got mixed up in a demonstration

in Baton Rouge yesterday.

Mr. Dulaville give him 24 hours to get off the place.

After 30 years, give him 24 hours to get off the place.

...and ask, "Is he the one?"

When Lena had her baby, we all look at him and as,

"Is you the one, Jimmy? Is you the one?"

'Course...

Yes?

I have a telephone call for ya.

- Comin' in from New York City. - Okay.

Hello. Hello, Quentin.

- Yes, sir. - I'm pulling you.

You get to cover the John Glenn story in two days.

Look, I know this space shot is a big thing, but this woman is...

Well, she's not exactly another human interest story.

Look, Quentin, I'm sure she's fascinating,

but a magazine this size can't survive

on a story about an old woma.

Now, I need someone to cover that blast off, dammit.

Now, if you can't go, then, I'll send someone els.

Quentin?

Quentin, are you there?

All right.

All right, what?

I'll be there.

You have to be there tomorrow night.

I said I'd be there.

I'm leaving today, Miss Jane.

I'm, uh, gonna go watch a rocket take a man around the Earth.

It's, uh... It's never been done before.

You think I'm crazy?

Ma'am?

I talk to this tree, you know?

Ol' sister Oak.

Look at me.

I'm more than 110 years old.

Now, if it ain't the Lord that's keepin' me going, what is it?

See?

I can sit in the sun, and I can walk.

Not like I used to, but I do pretty well.

Sometimes, when I feel very good,

I walk all the way down to the road,

and I looks at the river.

Generally, though, I just come up the quarters a piece,

and I sit here under this old oak.

Look, the peoples done fixed me a nice clean place

to sit and talk with my God.

Or sometimes I'll sit here for an hour,

just thankin' Him for His blessin'.

And then I go back home.

There's only just a few of us left, you know?

And I have seen...

enough years to last two lifetimes.

I don't mind seein' a few more, though.

He'll know when to call me.

And when He call me, I'll be ready.

'Til then, I'll just have some of the children

read me the Bible

and the sports page and... And the funnies.

I like the funnies, too, you know?

And I do enjoy my vanilla ice cream.

I have my vanilla ice cream.

I like that.

You know, this oak tree I'm sure has been here

as long as this place been here.

And I ain't ashamed to tell ya that I talk to it.

And I ain't crazy, either.

It ain't... It ain't necessary craziness to talk to the rivers

and the trees.

Of course, now, when you talk to the teches in the bayous,

that's different, because a teche ain't nothin',

and a bayou ain't much more.

But, oh, the rivers and the trees...

Unless'n, of course, you talk to a china ball tree.

Anybody get caught talkin' to a china ball tree or a thorn tree,

they got to be crazy.

But an old oak, like this one here,

that's been here all these years

and knows more than you'll ever know,

it ain't craziness, son.

It's just the nobility you respects.

Well, you found all you come for?

Yes, ma'am.

That's good.

Today's Sunday service is from the First Baptist Churh

of Baton Rouge,

and we will continue with soe of your favorite music...

Y'all stayin' right here in the quarters today.

Been some trouble in Bayonne,

don't want nobody else to get hurt.

Who got hurt? Did my Jimmy get hurt?

They shot him.

Is he dead?

Ah!

Who shot him?

Nobody knows.

Somebody knows.

Well, I don't know nothin' about it.

Y'all go on back now.

I'm going to Bayonne.

What you think you gonna find there, 'cept trouble, Miss Jane?

You're too old for that.

Jimmy.

Didn't you just hear me say he'd been shot?

He ain't dead nor nothin'.

There's only a piece of him dead.

The rest of him is waitin' there for us in Bayonne and I'm goin'.

Miss Jane, you've been on my place long as I can remember.

You've been part of my family, you raised me and both my boys.

But I'm tellin' you, you ain't goin' to Bayonne today.

Is you gonna tell me now that I have to leave your place?

Those folks ain't your problem.

Mr. Robert,

the other day they throwed a girl in jail

for tryin' to drink from the fountain.

Today they killed my Jimmy,

and I say I'm goin'.

Bayonne was the scene of more violence today.

Fresh reports indicate that a Negro male prisoner

died in a shootin' incidet at the jail.

♪♪

On July 19th, 1962,

five months after the last of these interviews was recorde,

Miss Jane Pittman died at the age of 110.