thumbnail of American Experience; Freedom Riders; Interview with Henry (Hank) Thomas, 4 of 4
Transcript
Hide -
If this transcript has significant errors that should be corrected, let us know, so we can add it to FIX IT+
mississippi was determined to show was a brutal isis out of view of the public so when you saw was on the film clips be a rich ok when we were rescued mississippi was determined brutalize us view of the public when we were arrested and taken to jail it was done in an orderly way to do yeah well the the humiliation of us occurred while we were injured and to give you some idea that when we were finally transport department state penitentiary that's when a dehumanizing process starting what they would do strip you of all the nickels and make you walk down a long sailed law naked and that's to wait and a few closed
that you head were in the cell block that you were assigned to and those clothes consisted of a pair of under shorts and a t shirt that's all you will and there was nothing more humiliating so we say that just you watch them down they fit in group of people just want to mention i'm never forget seen some of these dignified man just parading down the cell block make it gives it so well parson and we learned it was a place where a lot of blacks did not return from it had a brutal reputation of blacks and maybe white prisoners been beaten to death and barrett beretta no no we were told that we would be straightened out
and part of the g old guard's in the city of jackson's age as woody oh good portion of their straight go out and i'll show you concerned about that and again we was post say yes sir and no sir to the jewels which we did not do until we made it a point of addressing them by their first name which is a no no or dress white people by their first name or if it was bob jones it was mr bopp and we made it a point not to not to do that so it was a long before i got in trouble and i get put in solitary confinement three different tact and input in what they call the holding is no fun it's a young black dark black when the list the word when i'm a sell sell or it's pitch black in there the toilet facilities a hole in the floor and a bucket there for
water and thank you were given a slice of bread two times a day along with fellow maybe a couple water each time i went into solitary confinement because i would stop singing i would lead to songs in the afternoon and i was told to stop my work and stop so we shall overcome one i learn from the kids in nashville it goes like this only go well simply world over me anytime i go around town and set for tea or build bed sheets where whites they yell down with civil rights legal waldo school while we're meeting the new rules
anyone was encouraging white folks to think about immigration horses my old lover you'll go and you'll go mind though of in a while can we sit under their poetry which you will totally at me you will woke weird me that as we let them go oh we had one big fat file a look like oh mississippi prison guards will wait until he did say to me one time lisa tables in a way for somebody who didn't the cockroach when you've been in hearing you say all right what are just reluctant to right your city
yeah we had to lend them some time we thought that we would convert someone else at one of the things that i'm nervous all of the guards was they were not accustomed to black folks not doing what they told them because the job of a prison guard didn't pay very much money today he was at the bottom of the ladder social ladder spokespeople for in terms of education and in time to pay so it isn't only sense of being was the fact that he was white and he could be the pulse of black folks who can make black folks get over and here we were we were a different kind of negro to the sports they've never heard and a button topic to them and who would just talk to them even example they stand the way that a black person especially if you're in prison supposed to reports part of prison authorities if they ask you
sudden you got eyes isaiah and that was the way you're supposed to respond not the icu fraud it doesn't make sense but that also a part i'll be around if you've gone to see one of these african tarzan movie beyond the african always refer to the white man is blah yes water us border yes master and so as the piazza was a wheel stand yes master and and the black prisoners who they had to do that they had to do that to supply it had tested the tests trusty robot could do just about anything to our public pressure beat him up and a lot of them did and sold legally it's psychologically they just didn't know how to handle us now i'm pretty sure they took out their frustration on male the black christians and as i look back on things that's probably something that i do regret that so
were and they get met with me they couldn't do much to meet separately in the hole cause they were not allowed to be true and then you know you talk about some of the black person was silly at all social movements military campaign saying is a part of what you do it it's a galvanizing effect it's there are warm marches that soldiers saying when they marched people saying when they work so or movements throughout the years had songs that were part of that movement in war war wanted to over there over there over white cliffs of dover a white cliffs of dover and yankee doodle and of course the battle hymn of the republic so that's what
singing dance whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa there's tremendous we free black americans we began the process of free and black americans we destroy it did a lot of damage to the myth of the door so to a black folks there were white people who consider them people of goodwill there are religious people who fought segregation was god's will and that black folks were fine and happy with it and we know that's a kind of a psychological mechanism that all oppressors you use when you're trying to discuss what they are doing they say the people that they are doing that too really prefer that way so why people thought that that's the way black people liked it but like people of course never did like it always lived in fear of white folks and now they're seeing
black folks young people defying white people and so we help to get rid of that myth of fear importance on upon a well or not you can do anything about your condition and so it then it just is the crack occurred in the berlin wall this crack start to occur in the apartheid wall in the south and obviously we begin the least the floodgates opened the genie was out of the bottle and support his own black inferiority is scott simon and white superiority and that we began to destroy that system and that's what the freedom rides that that's what the sit in movement started to do and the freedom riders just increased the momentum but
first oh the first you know low before that but this is the first time that you can tell us your own reasons why the news this is the national peace manhattan and i'm blue very good point when i talk with young folks and i've had an opportunity to talk with black and jewish teenagers i let the black teenagers no i'm staying with a jewish teenagers that the civil rights movement was an integrated movement and i usually start up whenever you dress jewish groups set list i forget the old jerusalem that when you talked about the national character of the freedom ride in the protest that yes you have large numbers of people from all over the country and from the north
wants to come down and become a part of the movement and yes that was this national character now op when we had people coming down from cities in the north cities out west that made the freedom ride a national movement that's very important and that's when i think the freedom ride gave whites of goodwill whites who want to do something who were charging who knew that this whole system which raul and so now they have an opportunity to become a part of something that's changing the country so that was the good work of collateral effect of the freedom ride
well you're right it's part of a national movement we had people from all walks of life the four corners of the united states and internationally to come to this country two warner wanted to get fought involved in and the human rights movement and that's what the freedom much that we have to people of various religious faith obviously black and white young and all to get involved and so on it
became a national movement
Series
American Experience
Episode
Freedom Riders
Raw Footage
Interview with Henry (Hank) Thomas, 4 of 4
Contributing Organization
WGBH (Boston, Massachusetts)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/15-4j09w09v1b
If you have more information about this item than what is given here, or if you have concerns about this record, we want to know! Contact us, indicating the AAPB ID (cpb-aacip/15-4j09w09v1b).
Description
Episode Description
Henry (Hank) Thomas was a Student at Howard University, NAG volunteer on CORE Freedom Ride, May 4-17, 1961
Topics
History
Race and Ethnicity
Subjects
American history, African Americans, civil rights, racism, segregation, activism, students
Rights
(c) 2011-2017 WGBH Educational Foundation
Media type
Moving Image
Duration
00:13:50
Embed Code
Copy and paste this HTML to include AAPB content on your blog or webpage.
Credits
Release Agent: WGBH Educational Foundation
AAPB Contributor Holdings
WGBH
Identifier: barcode357571_Thomas_04_SALES_ASP_h264 Amex 1280x720.mp4 (unknown)
Duration: 0:13:41

Identifier: cpb-aacip-15-4j09w09v1b.mp4 (mediainfo)
Format: video/mp4
Generation: Proxy
Duration: 00:13:50
If you have a copy of this asset and would like us to add it to our catalog, please contact us.
Citations
Chicago: “American Experience; Freedom Riders; Interview with Henry (Hank) Thomas, 4 of 4,” WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 29, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-4j09w09v1b.
MLA: “American Experience; Freedom Riders; Interview with Henry (Hank) Thomas, 4 of 4.” WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 29, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-4j09w09v1b>.
APA: American Experience; Freedom Riders; Interview with Henry (Hank) Thomas, 4 of 4. Boston, MA: WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-4j09w09v1b