***Check speakers***

Robert Perry Jr., Daniel Lee Byrd, Oliver Bush?:

Civil Rights Oral History:

-Robert Perry Jr.:
-Background story. Ministry background. High school educating negros. Went ;
-New Orleans in 1940. Principal 2 year in Thibodaux. Principal at Waltel? Neal? Coin Senior High School until 1976;
-Working with Mr. Bryd in the 1940s;
-LA Education Association. Mr. Byrd and Mr. Haynes. Young man enraged and had two rifles in his vehicle;
-Going to Baton Rouge to save situations;
-Equal rights in education. Sometimes having to suffer. Education and freedom;
-People becoming lawyers, doctors, professors;
-Williamstown, Massachusetts;
-Men gave their lives that ALL men may be free;
-Save the WHOLE nation;

-NAACP (6:21);
-Remembering things, not knowing the customs of the street car. He was going to give up his seat to an elderly white woman, but she refused since it would be breaking the law. She was about -80 years old and had that faith;
-Making gains in the past, there's still more to do;
-Southwest Georgia. Watermelon. Boy who was 21 years old and registered him to vote;
-Things to fight for, things to fight against;
-Steal their place to keep from perhaps being killed? Meetings at 1 AM at churches around the country;
-Opposition to civil rights. Groups (sometimes same group) had different views of what should be done;
-Louisiana had the most opportunity in the South to doing something and failed to do it because of people's views/vision. Whites, Catholics, Protestants all had opposition;
-Melding groups together, not working for just one;
-Blacks staying away from other black communities because more dangerous?;
-People coming closer together;
-Role of church in the movement. Holding people together. Martin Luther King Jr.;
-Southern Christian Leadership Conference;
-Greatest influence and left a legacy. Doing what they expected of us;
-Hoping youth with appreciate what was done for them in the past. Not forgetting what can be done for others;
-Always need for all of these organizations;

Daniel Lee Byrd:

-Personal history. Born in Arkansas and schooling. Getting married in New Orleans;
-Integrated High School. Not celebrating with the white students. Leading boys out on strike and getting suspended from school for 3 weeks;
-His father went to the principal and told him that his son better be let back in school or that he'd better not be here next semester;

-Crane Junior College in Chicago, IL 1929. Free 2-year college, money was short (13:51);
-Northwestern University and going to work;
-Racial difficulties in the South, particularly New Orleans--discrimination in department stores circa 1942;
-Need for better human relations. Married in the South with no water fountains, no places to eat, no place to buy clothes/get a meal;
-Boycott of most stores of Orleans Parish. Boycotting on Canal Street, injunction prevented them;
-Stores eventually admitted negroes and allowed them to try on clothes. Around 1942;
-Negro jobs, poor paying jobs. They would smell;
-Equal rights in education in Orleans parish. Labor strike after the school board elected to do nothing about the issue;
-Oliver Bush took offense and filed a law suit;
-Lawless Junior High School. Albert Aubert? filed a law suit for equality (although separate);
-Hitting segregation head on with the Bush case;
-Suits filed all over the country;
-Suits (around 30) filed for integration of education in secondary and elementary education Southwestern Louisiana Institute (SLI) & trade schools in Lafayette & Crowley, LA;
-LSU, Southern Law School;
-Negroes appyling for engineering, etc.;
-T.H. Harris trade school in Opelousas, LA. Brilliant boy took a metal stem and made a balance post for a watch;
-Baton Rouge and Greensboro suits, lost;

-Opposition among the negro population--fear of revolution and violence (20:12);
-Whites meeting in secret, at night;
-Integration of schools. Court didn't side with this as long as schools were equal;
-Separate but equal education--curriculum study. Only reading, writing, and arithmetic. No foreign language or anything else to prepare them to get a good education;
-Going to the school boards. By that time, there were some negroes on the board. They deemed it unnecessary. They chose the subjects and chose how much money to allocate to subjects. As long as schools were equal;
-Busing kids, white and black, to different schools. Negroes passing white schools to other white schools;
-Schools are no longer important now. Some whites have money to go to private schools;
-Picking on negro college faculty, passing over them;
-Movement to equalize the college system;
-Negro students passing tests day after day that whites naturally pass. Whites passing over these grades, Blacks are not passing the required subjects;
-Negroes interested in integration, as long as it does NOT affect their job or passing test. They are no longer interested in education;
-Negroes far behind whites' test scores, but still they say integration had nothing to offer them;

-Assistant Director of Teacher Information and Security (National Office) in the NAACP. Started in New Orleans, 1912. Dr. Lucas was the president (25:39);
-NAACP keeping peace with the power structure. Getting younger men. Late 1930s (1938-1939);
-Young group taking over. Local 14-19, had 1,400 members with a $1 to join. Voting out their candidates as officers;
-Violence and police brutality--vigilantes. 5-15 cases a week of police brutality;
-Judge Cox? was a former District Attorney, not standing for any police brutality. Phone calls at night;
-NAACP securing affidavits to people and taking them to Judge Cox. Judge Cox tired of them and set on the police;
-Youth council in the early 1940s. Youths wanting to be policemen. Filing suit. First black police in 1944-1945. After the Korean Conflict;
-So many things going on at one time;
-Negro and his nephew. Johnny Jones cut across a vacant lot going home in Minden, LA. Woman who left her shade up in the house, accused him of looking in the house. Lynched Johnny Jones and left him drowned, castrated, cut up. Left the youth there for dead, but he was still alive;
-Going to the sheriff, he didn't want anything to do with it. Shreveport. Unprovoked;
-Western Union, getting the boy on a plane to New York. Wife of the boy who got killed on a train. Walter getting information sent to President Truman;
-Newspaper got a hold of this information with the names. White men going to a negro bar room;
-Tried them and spun them free. Cyclone destroyed some of the property and killed some of the suspects;

-The boy was burned/castrated with a blow torch (32:57);
-Files of NAACP full of that stuff if not destroyed. Given to a university archive?;
-Living in Lagrange, Georgia in 1938-1939, Walter White would frequent him. Various experience that seem like dreams. Telling people to leave at 2 AM;
-Having been through a lot, going through more;
-Incidents during the war? Street cars and buses;
-Man in Georgia stripped because his uniform was not for a negro to wear. Another black man accused of insulting a white woman whom he had never seen before. Immediately putting him in jail;
-Colonel said they'd get him back. Got a company (without a negro) and said they'd burn down the jail if they didn't get him back;
-Man lynched in Thomasville (small town in the South). White schools and Colored schools. Man came in town and accused of molesting a lady. Proved he was not on that part of town that day. -Men hanged him and lynched him and dragged him down Broad Street. Dumped him on the Courthouse lawn to show negro children so that they would behave themselves. Never done anything about. Colonel Flipper born there;
-Things have changed, people realized their mistakes. Not getting better overnight, but because people fought for it;
-Youth need to see that this is still pertinent. Continuing to move forward, not losing momentum. Getting what is desired;
-Wasted energy, money. Instead of loving others, they're nobody;
-Froth that has burned in the cauldron, boiling over;
-Civil Rights in New Orleans;

-New Orleans pastor hanged in effigy (40:31);
-People who got involved, who wanted to do something. Going to Atlanta. MLK. Bringing MLK back here;
-Not remembering, refusing MLK a place to congregate. Going to listen to MLK;
-People from small towns in LA showing manhood;
-Hanging the pastor in front of his church;
-Citizen's Council and the Klan always worked behind the scenes (setting churches on fire);
-Moving too fast?;
-Building a church slowly. Going slow causes problems;
-People gave their lives for this effort. He doesn't think the youth fully appreciate everything;
-Only negro bathroom on Canal Street was at the Southern Railroad Station, and sometimes it was locked. Had to have a ticket to go to the bathroom;
-Different train stations;

-Fighting for it, just like opening lunch rooms (46:19);
-12-14 places where people could eat. Waiting for people to get up from their tables. Having to go in the back;
-Youth fixed that, just going sit down. Bring their lunch, sitting for 4-5 hours. Punching cigarettes in the back of girls;

Oliver Bush?:

-People are learning to live together as a result of being around each other. Debunking false stereotypes;
-New Orleans race relations used to be worse. It's not 100%, but it's better;
-Courage Black parents had to have to send their children to all white schools to desegregate;
-Making final decisions regardless of the consequences. The price might be well worth the cause;

-He would do it all again (50:48);
-No gain without pain. Someone has to do these things. Don't expect others to do something you wouldn't do yourself;
-Paying the price for progress;
-Do the youth appreciate what was done in the past for them. They're told about these things;

***TWO CHANNELS PLAYING AT THE SAME TIME***

Robert Perry Jr:

-Junior NAACP chapters in high schools;
-Only one restroom facility for all Blacks (men and women);
-No services for Blacks. Going to a filling station and they said they lost the key to the restroom. Gave it to the next guy that asked for it;
-Not selling Blacks gas. Going to visit his son at college. 11 PM, closing the bathroom. No key to the restroom. Having to take it;
-Late 1940s. Stopping outside of Mobile, Alabama at a Hamburger stand on a hill. 15-16 people in line, it was a good place. The young lady said they couldn't serve colored people there. Not stopping until they got to New Orleans;

-Blacks couldn't drive a brand new car. Had to get a second-hand car (56:13);
-Negroes not allowed to ride motorcycles in the mid-1930s. They could ride bicycles;
-Chief of police stopped the man from New York who came down;

Daniel Lee Byrd:

-Standard Oil, right next to the old state Capitol. 2 AM, letting that fellow use the toilet. Not selling to negroes.
-Negro pay is just as much as White pay. Negroes buying gas to take a leak. Use the Courtesy Card. Charging gas on this car. No one was looking;

Robert Perry Jr.:

-These were the things they had to go through, they were strong. Not letting it affect their children. Children going to Sunday school/church by street car/ferry.
-Policeman telling them to get out of Audubon Park. He was embarrassed for his kids, not himself.
-His son wanted to go ride the train and he said it wasn't running today. Right when he said that, it came down the track. He felt terrible;
-They would've made money off of negroes;
-Hoping youth appreciate what poor parents did to give them an education. Difficult for that now;

-About 20 seats on the side. Screen to separate Blacks and Whites. College students would steal them in the 1940s. Blacks having to ask to move the screen, but Whites could move it. Sitting in the White section was illegal for Blacks to do (01:02:58);
-Knowing one man who never sat down on the street car, he always stood up;
-Davis vs. Orleans Parish School Board--ended segregation per se in intrastate commerce. Public service;
-Reservations to ride the train, nothing but colored people. Having White friends get Blacks train tickets;
-Chicago coach. All the colored people rode on there;

-Going to New York from New Orleans. First call for dinner, colored people dining. Waiter giving better treatment to some (01:07:05);
-People are people;
-Reverend Alexander tried to even the cafeteria at the city hall. Bounced him down the steps. When Morrison came. Victor H. Schiro was the mayor then (between 1961 and 1970);
-Largest NAACP membership in Louisiana was about 15,000-16,000 in the 1940s when they were the most active. Struggle was the greatest;
-Doing something about it. Struggles bring people's support. Example of building a park;
-40+ branches in various cities around Louisiana. 1946;
-Southern Christian Leadership Conference never took here;
-President. Opposition to getting together. Support from the churches;

-Catholic churches. St. Francis strictly all White parish, not stopping there if Blacks were Catholic, go to your parish. Now, it's all colored. Youth morning mass. Black cultural influence on the music and vestments, liturgical practices (01:12:54);
-Integration of Catholic schools. Archbishops Rummel and Cody (Chicago). Cody was offered to integrate the Catholic schools, but he turned it down because it was too early for him. Teuro? very much a catholic;
-When Teuro died, Thurgood Marshal did part of his eulogy along with the Archbishop. Differences in archbishops;
-Attorney Teuro always felt like he owed something to his people. Going to Howard, stuided law, and owed his people. Not charging anything for any Civil Rights law suit in Louisiana;
-Mr. Teuro's place to do it. Walter White getting something for his people. Going to no ends to get things for his negro people. He'd do the same for a White man in the same situation because he thinks he deserves the opportunity;
-Teacher salary suit. Old Courthouse/Old Post Office. The Judge appreciated his authenticity and knowledge. Courtroom was as quiet as a mouse and packed as sardines. Standing room only.
-Order the whole time;

Daniel Lee Byrd:

-Voter Registration drives in the late 1940s. Black leaders/machine;
-Blacks losing their right to vote? A few always voted since Reconstruction. Tricky registration form;
-Byrd personally going 17 times to register;
-Answer all the questions correctly (how many bubbles in a bar of soap/peas in a peck?);

Robert Perry Jr.:

-Byrd worked with the boy scouts from 1942-1947 as Scout Executive. He didn't feel like a man over here because he couldn't vote. Getting registered in his boy scout uniform (01:22:25);
-Poor ignorant people. Told not registering negroes today. Tellling things just to prevent their registration;
-Getting the ballot and not using it, like women;
-$180 just in fees alone;
-Of the 95 that voted, only 43 colored voted. 300-something people in that precinct, of that 200 are colored;
-Voting vs. giving away hams. People would show up to get the ham regardless of the weather. Not voting;
-Man dragging his wife out of the car. The nature of people;

Daniel Lee Byrd:

-Living through prejudice without voting--cause of lack of voting?;
-Leadership among negroes has died out in Louisiana. A few politicians getting a few dollars and jobs out of it;
-Dedicated leadership gone. Youth that would be leaders thinks there are no longer any important problems to solve?
-Lady with briefcase full of money. Giving a dollar to everyone who votes. She didn't have a dollar bill after 2 days. She wasn't voting for the one she was doing that for;

-Campaign to make youth aware of issues that still need to be fought for (01:28:34);
-Teaching less about 1814 in the schools and more of 1940 and 1978-1979;
-High school students 18 years of age should be registered to vote, understanding the responsibility to vote;
-Orleans Parish Progressive? someone in there wanted something for himself and it almost killed it;
-Young pastors with the same sort of leadership. Most powerful influence;

Robert Perry Jr.:

-Only a few ministers can be depended upon. Minister has one day a week to systematize his people. Showing the minister that they are bringing outsiders to join, selling point. Filling the church for a meeting with people who may join, selling point;
-Southern University uprising. People making a grab for power. Having to close the school. Some people involved never finished college;
-Rev. Robert Tucker trying to persuade students;
-School never really recovered from it;
-Later than when the two students were shot;
-He was the editor of the LEA Journal. Trying to see what was happening. Collecting money. People never received benefits, because of selfish people;
-Youth disillusioned. It took a long time to recover;
-Power struggle, money;
-Students very impressionable and emotional, particularly young women. Fathers follow;
-Gift of gab;

-Volunteering to file this suit because he saw the inadequacies in the school system (buildings/facilities/working materials);

Robert Perry Jr., Daniel Lee Byrd, Oliver Bush?