Speech by Charles Evers at UNM

Thank you very much, thank you very much, thank you so much, first I just want to say I'm honored to be down here down here in Mexico. Is it? Is this new or old? Which one is it? Newer. All right, well, we don't learn much back in Mississippi by geography, so we just saw it. Go. I want to express our appreciation to those who have invited us out and from all of us in Mississippi, we just honored that you care enough to ask us to come. I certainly want to thank the faculty and staff and students for coming out on the night. I know we're competing against the president and his long promise weight piece announcement and have this

minute, we must not be doing too bad because I'm sure he's going to say it's just around the corner, pieces at hand and they've been in hand now for about four years and we haven't got in our hand yet. And next thing I don't know why I was invited because I'm saying not a public speaker. I met again, I never had any training in public speaking and I haven't had that kind of education to be talking to a university of this sort and with all the brains you must have out there. I don't know how I figured it, how you figured that the poll war for Mississippi come and tell you anything. But I'm here and I said nothing, I'm here for two reasons. Number one, because the money you give us, you pay, helps to run our town. We take it to use it for matching funds in our town to keep our pool blacks and whites from having to go around and raise taxes and float bond to being able to pay. And

we were able to last year to raise $107,000 to put with $317,000 from the federal government to build us a multiple percent of our people. So we appreciate coming and that's the main reason I'm here. And another reason I think I'm here because somewhere we've got to keep saying that this country was built for all of us and somewhere we've got to keep trying to let our white brothers and our black sisters and brothers understand that no one group of people has a right to this country. That's all of ours. And somebody got to say it in a week of voices, a little somebody, a big somebody, just in between. And I came tonight to say it and it won't take long because I've learned long time, long drawn out species that don't mean nothing. I think how long you talk is what you say while you're talking.

And I want you to know that in Mexico is no different from imagine from another part of this country. But there are people here who are deprived and there are people here who need, who have been shut out, who have been felt that we are nobody. There are white sisters and brothers. I know you heard this a million times. I know you've been blamed for everything that's been done. Well, everybody come and blame us white folks. You're right, we do. Because it just so happened, unfortunately, that the whole country has been controlled by our white sisters and brothers. The Senate, the Congress, the shares, the school boards, superintendent of education, the mean old mayors, the dirty old deputy shares, the mean old clan, all of these mean things who have created so much suffering, all of the big industry. So we have to blame the person who controlled that, who haven't been white. But we feel

that it's come a time that we gotta let our white sisters and brothers know that you who got to change and you young people here can do that. Mom and dad and grandma and grandpa have missed a boat in the case because they were taught that hatred and racism was right. You gotta teach them that hatred and racism is wrong for this white racism or black racism is wrong because we all got sure. They created all of us after his own image and they nobody got no right to make no bad stuff like we black folks have suffered. And no race got a right to make young blacks walk to school three and four miles while the white kids ride the big shiny buses and go to a one room shack. And no race have a right to do that to any group, drive the Indians in the Mexican from their land and take it over time to grazing

past it just because they got the guns and the powers to do it. That's wrong. And somebody gotta say that and you gotta be the one to say it. You're gonna be the next governors and the next mayors and the next congressman and the next whatever this country gonna be, you gonna be there in a few years and whatever you artist what this country gonna be. And ain't many of them more of us left around old fellows and we had another sad stroke like just yesterday when one of America's great men went on in. I don't care what you think about Lyndon Johnson but let me tell you something. Lyndon Johnson was the best president we ever had in this country for black folks and poor folks. You can believe it or not. He did more to bring us give us a chance and other minorities than any president we ever had, including President Kennedy. Because President Kennedy only got his started. I think

we blacks got to understand. Those who stood by us and stood out for us, we can't forget them. It's unfortunate that the war destroyed all the good he'd done. But ain't been many presidents who stood in a black college as he did in Harvard and said we shall overcome together. Ain't been many. I think it's only been one. I was Lyndon Johnson. I didn't come into utilize, utilize, utilize Lyndon Johnson but I think somewhere we got to let people know there are a few whites in this country who have changed and made it better. Like there are a few many, many blacks who have fought and died to make it better. So it shows that we are all in it together and Lyndon Johnson goes to his grave in a few days. I think we blacks should remember him as one thing that had it not been Lyndon Johnson. They wouldn't be the number of black rares and elect officials in this country today.

Because he's a man who walked the voter rights bill through. He said many times, if you give the black man and the minorities the vote they can change condition for themselves. And I'm just here to tell you the things of changing Mississippi. Not completely but a whole lot. And because we got the vote in 1965 and we ain't stop running yet. We know that an old mean racist chef who dips enough for breakfast and chewed tobacco for supper. If he knows that you can put him in office to take him out, he won't beat you on Saturday night. And we have gotten together and started doing that. And we know that those mean mayors who used to allow their policemen to beat not only black folks, but long-haired young white folks who look different. If we can change him every four years, he won't lie as polis into that anymore. That's what the vote is done to us. Then we know that there have been

whites in this country who still believe that black folks and other minorities ain't got a right to be equal. And you're so wrong. And you're so wrong, they're not you who are sitting here. Don't take it personally. If you're guilty, then I'm talking to you. But I'm talking to those who are guilty. You're so wrong to believe that any one of us are in and out in the rest of us. And you've been so wrong to begin to get black folks as I've said many times. Please white folks, don't make black folks begin to hate. Once black folks begin to hate in this country, America's true. All we need is two extreme hate groups and none of us survive. And that's why we've got to keep telling our white brothers. That's why I tell some of my black brothers. We don't need no black cocks. Let's tell the white folks. Tell them. Don't have them or say you can't come white folks. Come on in here. Let's talk about

the problem, which is white folks problem, black folks problem, Mexican, Chicano, all of our problems. And let's try to solve them. Because we've had too many divisions too long. You're younger people don't know the suffering that blacks have gone through because of racism. And that's why we got to tell you and keep reminding you that it hadn't been long before that a black man of Mexican can hardly get a decent drink of water at a water fountain, Mississippi. Just a few years ago, my brother was killed ten years ago this June. Only because he tried to get black folks to write the register, the right to vote, the right to decent education. He was shocked down in front of his own house for those only reasons. But thank God we can say that it didn't stop nothing. It made us much more determined to go out and make sure that that kind of insane person will have that privilege anymore.

And that's what you got to do. You got to make sure that black folks don't be a shame and a afraid to walk the streets in this country, not here. And black folks, you got to make sure that we don't have white folks afraid to come and walk the streets of this country. Because fear is fear. And I think about the young man in New Orleans last week or four, a couple of weeks ago. That's a good example of what hatred can do. He said, oh, that was a terrible thing. It was a terrible thing, but what drove him to it? Look at the cause. A young man who'd been born black, who lived in a community who didn't accept him because he's black, who went and fought in an army, in a war, scour and navy ships. It could never be no more than a seaman on because he was black. And then come back home after serving in a war that's undeclared and that's sinful and

moral and ever other kind of way is wrong. And come back home to his own folks who he'd fought to say. And they said, just because you're black, we don't need you. You got to understand what that does to some people. All of us ain't as strong as others. So the young man decided his own way, maybe I can get quite America to understand. And black America to start looking that I go out and sacrifice myself. And that's why he did it. I'm not justifying it, but maybe and I hope to God that that he did would touch the hearts of some of our mean white folks and shake the conscience of some of our blacks who began to hate and let them know that it's wrong, that we got to get together and learn to love each other. And while America is you who got to change in morning and body awesome,

but you have been the ones who have made so many folks suffer and so many folks unhappy. We got to remember that. We have no more business in Vietnam that we have trying to go back to the moon with $24 billion, but we're down there killing innocent folks and destroying property, breaking up families, taking young 19 and 20-year-old men from our country, sending them down to die for nothing. You got to change all of that. Now if you're going to scoot and don't get a degree and do nothing, go back out and do the same thing that all of us have done, you're wasting your time. But you got to make this country, we try to make fear, a place of safety, a place of love and a place of respect. And you got to take the blame, young white, for all that your grandmother and grandparents did. It's just that simple and always tough,

because you have got to change it. They have planted the bitter seed of hate that has hurt this country so bad. And there's killed men like Martin King, only because he wanted to be free. And have killed men like my own brother, Medgar. And have killed men like Robert Kennedy and John Kennedy, who tried to make it better for the minority and the left house. Hey, Trigg, you got to change that. If you're going to school just to get a degree and go back and do nothing, then you're just as guilty as those who pulled the triggers before. And fear, and we said, we proudly bragged that nobody had to worry in that time. No white person, our black, since we've been mayor and both of all of us, and we run that town and make it clear for you to confuse. We run the town like it should be. But no person can ever say

that because I was white, that they mistreated me in fear. But we know what it's been like to mistreat folks. And you got to do the same thing. Got to make sure that in New Mexico and in Texas and in Colorado and all over this land, that you make sure that you're not guilty of depriving one black or one other person, white or black, the right to live in this country. You don't beat somebody out of flagpole because they want to raise a hay mass of flag. You got to understand that. You got to understand that whatever black folks are in today, white racism have driven us to that. And you got to change it and you can. And black, you got to be willing to keep your hand out there. And those who are willing to change and become human beings and join us, we've got to cling on to that hand. Because we got to save this country. We've got to save ourselves.

There's been too many folks been buried beneath the soil because no one cared. I mean, I'd be the kind of mayor that you expected. But my whole thing is you need mayors who care and who love his fellow man. You need mayors who are going to stop and fight for the rights of people regardless of what color they are. If you get enough of you to do that, then you would have done your share. And it's making life just a long time ago. It ain't any important how long we live. It's what we do while we're here. My whole mom used to have us to say, remember, son, what you're sending to a lot of others, somebody come back into your own. So while America, we beg you. Stop changing and hating those who are less fortunate. Stop denying. We ask black America, let's get in the mainstream. We've got to become a part of our communities. You've got to quit shutting us out. Because if you don't quit shutting us out, it's going to be chaos

in this country, beyond repair. And every last one of us going to be a part of it. We'll be lacking on that. So come to faith when you want to. You can feel free because you've got mayors and you've got all of us who care. We have built the clinic that take care all of the sick, you know, cause them a dying white folks, black folks, Indian, Mexican. We don't get what color they are. We build it because there are poor folks who need help. Then we go a little further. We build streets and sidewalks and sewers for folks. They have a decent place to take a bath and a decent place to walk. And just because we control the time, we didn't run the white folks out. They did us. They said, no, this is your land. You stay here with us. We're going to prove to you that we are somebody and we cannot do to you what you've

done to us. Cause hate and sin and abuse and brutality is wrong. And ain't no policeman, the whole three and a half year we've been mayor have a beat one person because we don't allow it. On the other hand, you better not mistreat the policemen. Of course, the mayor is the judge. The judge decides you're a destiny. But you got to have that. You got to be honest and fair. And then when blacks don't understand our whites, you got to understand, again, white people. There's a reason for it. Because we have been taught too that white folks are different. Like you've been taught that blacks are different. But we ain't no different. The same thing that hurt me, it hurt you. And I want the same thing that you want. And you want. And my folks want the same thing. And we ain't going to suffer nothing less.

And we mean that. We blacks ain't going to hardly go back no more. We'd rather be dead and inhale three times than to suffer the kind of something we've suffered in the past of this country. I think we've tried to say it in all kind of ways. And all we're asking is a chance. Not a way of fair. Not a hand-me-out, but just a chance. The University of Mexico, whatever it is, here should have a whole lot of blacks in here. You get to know us by associate with us. You know, my old dad turns to look, a association partner. A association brings on accumulation. And the more you associate, the more you know people. And if you stay separate in a partnership, I'm going to ever know us. You read all the more dirty things about us. And that's all they print. It's the meme thing. Nothing good. They don't print about E-Log with the stole the pattern of the cotton gin. You thought of black, you thought of white

man in the vendor cotton gin. He didn't do it. He stole the pattern of black man. They don't tell that that that the first blood was shedded and way up on the embossed in the tea party and it was a black man died for this country. It was black folks. They don't tell you that it was black folks who cut the route away from the east coast, clean to the west coast so that we could build railroads so you could travel over. And when we got to the end, the white man walked up and took the gold spike and drove it to get the credit. All you've been so mean to us. You ain't give us a chance. And nobody would tell you that coffee started now in Egypt. It didn't start in England like they claim it did. It started Egypt. The Egyptian brought coffee here and started drinking coffee. They didn't tell a black man in the vendor to clap. He didn't know all this. But we never get the credit. And you've got to start giving us a chance. Now, otherwise I ain't go begging like this. I'm 50

years old. I ain't got any lose. I know I'm begging for them. I don't want them how to do the same kind of suffering that I've gone through or that my parents have gone through. If I can go around with a country and beg white folks to change and tell you if you don't change is your choice than I've done my duty. And whatever course the young blacks take after that, we're not responsible. And finally, young blacks don't get hooked on dope. It's a joke. We've been hooked all our lives on nothing. This is another way to keep us nothing. I'll ask you to stay away from it. Let all of them get hired. I want to get hired. You stay away from them because you make you crazy and we already are. From Britain, from denial, from hunger. Stay away from it. You can get hired on something besides that. But get yourself together. And black folk, let me

say this to you. White folk respect black folks. The black folk respect. And we black folk get together to respect ourselves. They're going to demand to respect out of others. Tonight, it should be us and it's 300 black on this campus. They all should be here. I don't know about no bones about it. You go tell them I said it. They all should be right here. If nobody has been here tonight, there should be an every black student at universities or whatever they should be here. There's no excuse for that. And then white folk would begin to look at black folks. I said they're getting together because we got to be just like the Jewish people. A lot of folks say, well, I'm old Jews. Let me tell you something. If they ever get black folk black Jewish people, we got something. I'll tell you what you do. You go and plan about 10 bagel shops in Mexico here. Just put 10 of them and make 9 of them. Everybody else is in one of them a Jewish bagel shop.

And I bet you'll find every Jewish person in town will get one bagel shop owned by the Jewish people. You know why? It's just self and race pride. We got to do the same thing. Black talk is a joke. Action what count? Cust in white folks. And white ain't. They don't get you nowhere. I'll smart them. Cust them don't mean these when you cut them. That's nothing. You do it. But don't let them use us. Don't take this thing across the track. We're going to call a track all our life. Black folk. This is y'all over here. Now y'all get over here and take this. That's all we ever had. Nothing. But across the track. The leftovers. So it's time for us to get in the mainstream on some hilton's ends and on some downtown motor ends. On some catalyzed dealerships. On some Howard Johnson's. On some crocus. On Manifract some shoes. We buy most shoes and

then they buy new work. Our feet messed up. A guy had a go graphic so long. How some shoe manufacturing from. Let's help build help some. We drank more whiskey than anybody in the world. Let's have some distilleries owned by us. So what else we rarely used to bootleg. That's right. I sure did. Our sole whiskey just like everybody else who in Mississippi who to make a living, they saw whiskey too. And the sheriff who hadn't be white at PM 10 dollars a week and sole off whiskey. I want to sell. So we saw it together. Well, just me selling whiskey. Thus we pass that now. You can do something and you got a chance and please don't pass up that opportunity. And you can make white and other folk respect you by demanding the respect yourself. Please do that. And I ask you again, black folks, don't let the hate council grab you as it has grabbed our white brothers. Thank you very much.

You've been listening to a speech by Charles Evers. Mayor of a failure at Mrs. Zibby and brother of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers. The speech was recorded at the University of New Mexico on January the 23rd through special arrangement with the AS UNM speakers committee and produced through the facilities of KUNM public affairs in Albuquerque. Good evening.