"The children were watching, one week in New Orleans early this school year." "They were watching their parents struggle in fearful conflict over integration of schools." "By their parents' example, the children were learning lessons." "Deep lessons, taught and learned unconsciously but as powerful and direct as milk from mother to child." "This is a story of some events that took place that week in New Orleans." "But watch the children, and you may discover another story deeper than words, of how prejudice is passed on and how hope is planted in children." "How, in fact, one divided generation is passing its legacy of conflict to the next." "For some of these children are learning to be afraid, and to hate and some are learning to be confident, and to love." "This kind of learning begins with an adult's attitudes and ideas strongly stated, while nearby a child is watching, perhaps unnoticed." "What the child learns grows with him, gathering force." "And then the attitudes and ideas are ready to burst forth again." "Here, a woman shouts her beliefs protesting integration of a New Orleans school." "Here, Mrs. James Gabrielle speaks the convictions with which she marches through crowds of shouting segregationists to take her white child to an integrated school." "Here, attitudes expressed in the home of Tessie Prevost a six-year-old girl attending an integrated school." "Her grandmother is puzzled by the behavior of white neighbors." "...in the marketplaces, and we'd talk, and...shop talk, like women usually do." "And we'd talk about our children." "And then when all this come up, why, those same people just it's as if they didn't know me." "That I couldn't understand." "Because as I said, with my little granddaughter she was never taught that because a person was white they were any different from her." "She...we taught her that God created all people equal, and the color of your skin didn't make any difference." "It didn't make any difference with God, so why should it make any difference with other people?" "So, it didn't make too much of an impression on her when she had to be mixed with the other people." "Because she was taught that way." "A school day in New Orleans." "The Frantz School." "7 years ago, the Supreme Court of the United States decided that public schools must be open to all American children regardless of race, creed, or color." "Now, 4 Negro girls have been entered in the 1st grade of 2 New Orleans schools." "Most white parents have pulled their children out of classes." ""It's alright for him to go there, but their mama won't let them go."" "Now, they gather on schedule to harass the children still going to school with angry protests." "Lessons for their own children, looking on." "Because their mama don't want them to go with the niggers, that's why." " Why is that?" " Huh?" "She don't want them to go to school with the niggers." "They want them to go to an all-white school." "Why is that?" "Huh?" "You ask "why"?" "They're gonna go to school by next week." "They're, uh, figuring to, I don't know, fix a school for them." "You know, the 1st and 2nd grade." "A private school." "Yeah." ""We are the white people." "They are the Negroes."" "And, I mean, he said "Negroes." If I'd have been him, I'd have said "niggers."" "Because that's what they are: niggers!" "That's right!" "Y'all have come too late!" "Some mothers find meeting the schedule of a 1st grader is a problem." "I'm sorry, darling, I can't keep up with that little girl's schedule!" "They mess me up." "If they'd only put her in school and take her out on time I'd know when to get here." "Only the white children have to be there at quarter 'til 9 and get out at 3." "But them nigger gals in there will keep the white ones out of there, keep the white ones out..." "They need to bring them to a nigger school." "Shit." "They don't want to feed the white children in the public school." "They don't have room for them." "Yeah, come and try it!" "Please, fellas, let me have one of them shotguns I've got at my house." "I'm going to start shooting niggers." "U.S. marshals protect 6-year-old Ruby Nell Bridges from the crowd." "The same protection they offer Tessie Prevost." "Into the police car." "[unintelligible]" "See, the first day, I went out there and joined the crowd." "Cause I...and as much as I don't like crowds, and what was going on, but I did want some firsthand information of some of the reactions of people inasmuch as I know most of the people around here." "And I noticed some people went and got their kids out of school." "One lady did say, right in my presence, "Well, I don't know what to do."" ""Whether I should go get my kid out of school or not."" "But there was one man who said to her:" ""Well, if you don't go get him out..."" ""...of school, you may not even have a home when you get home."" "There he goes." "Oh!" "Uh-uh." "Who let him take a picture up there?" "Come on." "Put him out of here." " Let him walk." "Come on, boy." " Goodbye to mama." "Oh, now you start scratching his head and you'll never get rid of him." "He loves that." "Well, I've been talking to her." "I told her that I'd like for her to be a nurse." "But of course, we'll have to leave that up to her, you know?" "She'll be the one that decides what she wants to be." "Yes indeed, because I know that has always been my ambition, from young." "I wanted to be a nurse." "But I couldn't, because the opportunity didn't present itself." "And I wanted my daughter to be a nurse." "I mean, up until she finished high school, she was going to be a nurse." "And then, all of a sudden, out of the clear blue sky, she just said:" ""Mother, I don't have the patience to be a nurse." "I want a business career."" "So that's what she is." "She's in the business world and she wouldn't have anything to do with being a nurse." "So I says, your ambition is not always your children's ambition." "That's right." "The best thing to do is provide for them." "Provide for them and let them get their own." "Get them prepared for whatever they want to be." "And that's the hope of this..."separate but equal," it's never, never equal." "The only true way I think it can be equal is on an integrated basis." "Then, I mean, the kids...they're there for themselves, you know?" "I mean, they all go to the same school and they have the same teachers." "And they'll learn according to their ability." "If...the way the world is changing, things will change around here because there's no doubt about it, there is a time for a change." "Armand Duvio, a PTA director represents leadership to the white children of Frantz School." "Forced into this matter, as I said before." "They don't want this integration." "They want to live their own lives, just as they're doing here." "You see how they like to live." "They like to play eat drink a little bit, and go to sleep." "They...." "Half of them aren't interested in bettering their selves." "The Prevosts are proud of Tessie's schoolwork." "And I looked at it, and I said, "Tessie, did you write this?" And she said "Yes."" "And then, when her mother came home and I told her mother about it her mother asked her to spell some of the...you know, nine, ten, and so forth." "In other words, they just put the numbers there." "A friend of ours was here, and she was telling me..." "She said that, um, "Oh, I took F-I-V-E out his pocket!"" "We used to could spell, you know." "We can't spell around her anymore." " Now, she gets the sound of it." " Grandma spells, because she...." "The main thing about this movement, down here I believe the people think it's a prejudiced movement." "This is not a prejudiced movement." "This is a movement to block this forced situation against the white, and a forced situation against the colored." "This, we believe, is a communist movement." "So..." "Definitely, we feel that this is a communist front movement pushing these colored people to try and destroy our nation." "If this was a prej...." "If we felt that this was a prejudiced movement we would've objected to the colored people on the buses when they integrated the buses." "We did not voice an opinion of integrating the buses." "We didn't voice an opinion of integrating the city park." "But now, our children are at stake." "They know no better." "We're voicing our opinion now." " Clarence Laws, NAACP official:" " Our feeling is that segregationist leaders, who are for the most part politicians, have instilled fear into them." "They say that Negroes will take their jobs." "They talk about intermarriage and other things, and..." "Many of these people do little serious thinking of their own." "They seem to think that if these leaders say these things, that maybe they do constitute a threat, and that might be the reason that they are afraid, and that they have hate in their hearts." "Leander Perez, looked up to by Duvio as an acknowledged leader of Louisiana's segregationists." "The public school crisis in New Orleans is the same crisis which confronts our public education system throughout the country." "The communist conspiracy is hell-bent on destroying public education of our youth." "As to that there can be no doubt." "And the people are contributing to us, to get our schools started." "If we can get this we will survive, and the rest of the nation will survive, this communist movement." " How are you doing, kiddo?" " I'm here, kiddo, [unintelligible]." " Gotta fight to keep 'em white, folks!" " "Fight to keep 'em white" the segregationists' battle cry, serves Duvio to convince passing motorists that they should contribute money for segregated schools." "Thank you, neighbor!" "Gotta fight to keep 'em white!" "Let's fight to keep our children white!" "Let's fight to keep our children white!" "Gotta fight to keep 'em white!" "Armand Duvio is head of the Dads' Booster Club of the Frantz School PTA." "Duvio rallies parents to support the mechanics of segregation:" "Private schools." "And chartered buses, to take white children to segregated schools in a nearby parish." "...bus the children to school." "The buses will leave from William Frantz School every morning, for 7:30." "Now, there's somebody kept spreading the rumor, scaring the people away, that it's going to cost 25 dollars a month to send your child to the private school we're setting up." "This is entirely untrue." "It's not gonna cost a dime to send your child to this school we're setting up." "1 of the chartered buses arrives back at the Frantz School, returning children to their excited parents after a day's schooling in the next parish." "They don't belong together, know what I mean?" "For one little nigger, that's 500 children gonna be taken out of a school." "Let them niggers have it, boy!" "Let them niggers have it!" "Come on, folks, get on outta there!" "Let them niggers have this school here." "Let them niggers have this school here!" "Come on, folks, get on outta there!" "Let them niggers have this school here." "Let them niggers have this school here." "Let them niggers have it!" "Let them niggers have it!" "[chant continues...]" "And we'd rather that school, better than the Frantz School going to school with the niggers over there." "Duvio's children, this week out of school altogether." "They're not missing anything, and how anyone can say the children are losing, or are going to be the only ones hurt, is absolutely beyond me." "These people, as far as I'm concerned, are full of bull, are all wet!" "Or any way you want to put it." "I guess I could find a few other choice words in saying it." "But we'll use that right now, for the present time." "For instance, I know Maria from watching her, coming home in the evenings, she's always at her desk here." "She's always asking different questions about her globe, and..." ""Where's the North Pole, and the South Pole?"" ""And how come the South Pole's on the bottom, the North Pole's on the top?"" "You nigger lover!" "Mrs. Gabrielle braves a hostile crowd on the way to school to pick up her six-year old daughter, Yolanda." "A reporter talks to James Redmond, superintendent of New Orleans schools who comments on Mrs. Gabrielle:" "Mrs. Gabrielle had a tough time yesterday." "That's what I read in the paper and saw on the TV." "I think it's a darn shame that these people who want to go, and have a right to go, back to school are being intimidated by people of a different mind." "I'm all in favor of those people, with all their courage and just plain guts." "Mrs. Gabrielle holds Yolanda, to protect her from the violence she fears will strike her daughter." "[various shouts of "nigger lover"]" "Go back where you come from!" "Nigger lover!" "[child's voice]" "Hey, get off the..." "Violence." "And Mrs. Gabrielle fights back." "You cut it out, will you?" "Get your hands off of her." "Maria Gabrielle, 14, watches horrified as the crowd menaces her mother." "[assorted chants of "nigger lover"]" "Hello!" "[unintelligible]" "Safely home, Mrs. Gabrielle is relieved, even happy because she believes more white parents will join in taking their children to Frantz School." "Put your things down." "The crowd is growing louder outside." "Mrs. Gabrielle's son Jimmy is somewhere out there, trying to get home." "Her husband is away at work." "She has no phone." "But she keeps a calm exterior, tries to distract Yolanda from the din." "[Tyrone's?" "] amazing." "But Maria won't be distracted." "Now the crowd is hammering on the door and windows." "I feel worried about my boy." "Mrs. Gabrielle considers sending for help." "You need to run to go get the cop we were offered." "Tell them they're knocking the doors and windows over here." "They're here but don't want any trouble." "The cop's out there, but you don't see him doing anything." "Where are...where are the policemen?" "[unintelligible]" "I don't see any around here." "Because...whatever breaks over here, we're paying for it." "Mrs. Gabrielle looks for the police." "[unintelligible]" "They woke her up knocking on the windows." "Bad!" "Aww." "They woke you up, huh, with that hollering and..." "They're knocking on them windows, huh, baby?" "[unintelligible]" "The police department has been misunderstood..." " ...by some members of our community." " Police chief Giarrusso." "I have here a federal court order, which restrains the police department from interfering with school integration." "Our job was, and is, to maintain the peace." "Ah, shove off!" "Big nosy lout." "Would you like to have one like this and take her here, and yell, and spit?" "Would you like it?" "I wouldn't." "We gave those niggers all what they've got!" "They got paid from the white, not from the niggers, no!" "I have children, three of them." "Whether they're in this school or not they'll be affected in times to come by what takes place right here." "Mine's in this school!" "Mine was in that school." "You'd better believe it." "Mine entered that school, and they won't go no more!" "What takes place here is going to affect the entire state." "So I'll be here until this crisis is over." "We was born and raised here, and worked to get what we got here!" "We ain't used to going around with niggers, and we don't intend to!" "Where do you live?" "They get better than what we got!" "But they wanna be white, and they're not white and they ain't gonna be with the white!" "And there are going to be plenty of problems before us." "I'll do what's within my feeble little power, and nobody can make me stop it." "Them niggers got it good here!" "Better than anywhere else." "What do they wanna do...you hear?" "We're tuned out to pressure like that around here, because we're white." "We was raised white." "We're doing what we can do, that's all we..." "Do you think violence is the answer?" "If it doesn't do any good, we'll at least know we died trying..." " ...and that to me is a victory." "Huh?" " Hmm, well, a little bit. -"Hmm, well!"" " What do you call violence?" " Do you want the Army here?" "[unintelligible]" "Shut it down, you Red!" ""We are the white people." "They are the Negroes."" "And, I mean, he said "Negroes." If I'd have been him, I'd have said "niggers."" "Someday you're going to rot in hell, you trash." "Go right to the nigger neighborhood and look how they live like animals." "As the children listen, Mrs. Gabrielle pronounces her Christian judgment on her neighbors." "People don't realize that by their actions, they are crucifying the Savior." "You know?" "They are crucifying Him as surely as if He was right here in front of them." "I say that's the true meaning of Christianity, what He stood for." "And they have forgotten it." "Come on, Jimmy!" "I wish Jimmy would come home, mom." "Mama, look what happened because we painted something to put on the..." "Outside, Jimmy is trying to get through the crowd." "I thought maybe something had happened to him." "Jimmy is safe." " Miss anything?" " Uh-uh." " Come on." "And Mr. Gabrielle arrives." "They give you a bad time again today?" "Well, the same crowd, you know, was here yesterday." "And they're mad because..." " They're mad?" " The people are mad." "How many went to school today?" " They had about six." " Good." "I hope tomorrow they've got 10!" "Tomorrow they're gonna have more, and yes, the Swensons are gonna go back." "It's wonderful, I think." "[unintelligible]" "Some bad news." "Mr. Gabrielle tries to tell his wife without letting the children understand." "Fellow workers have provoked him into quitting his job, giving 15 days' notice." " You what?" " Gave them 15 days." " They gave you...?" " I gave them 15 days." " For what?" "I gave them 15 days, and I was resigning." "The father asks Yolanda what she did at Frantz School." "That's all we done, is just ate and painted." " Oh, that's nice." " Did you enjoy it?" "What color did you use on it?" "As the crowd shouts, and Mrs. Gabrielle realizes what it means for her husband to be out of work with 6 children to feed the Gabrielles keep up their courage and show concern for what their children are learning." "Five...." " Seven." " What do you want me to do with the colors, honey?" "About the colors." "Alright, that's a girl." "There, you've got them now." "...12, 13, 14, 15, 16." "Mrs. Gabrielle encourages Yolanda to keep learning and wonders what the children outside are learning." "...their mothers want to keep them away from school?" "They're not learning anything, they're gonna be bad and you're learning all the time." "This is worth it, Yolanda, huh?" "What are the children outside learning?" "They'll vote with 'em, and they'll grow up with 'em and they won't know the difference." "We've got to stop it now, before they have to dance with 'em and sit with 'em." "Hey, tell 'em to bring the Confederate army in here!" "Would you like for your daughter to bring home something black like that?" "You have seen the story of some events from that week in New Orleans." "The story of the people at a point of conflict." "These are not all the people of New Orleans." "The majority has yet to be heard from." "As for the events:" "Armand Duvio and the Frantz School parents have kept up their boycott." "Tessie Prevost and 3 other Negro girls still attend nearly empty schools." "The Gabrielles finally were forced to move away." "They've started a new life near Providence, Rhode Island." "As for the children, watching:" "Perhaps you have discovered in them another, deeper story of their legacy of conflict, handed down as it has been for generations but now with some changes." "Now, for the first time, there are the Tessie Prevosts, and children  following in the footsteps of Yolanda Gabrielle, watching too." "Watching their parents, supported by the law of the land in calm and determined opposition to the fury spent against them." "What all the children are now learning as they watch will only be discovered when they become parents, and their children, in turn, are watching them." "With a ha-ha-ha, and a oh-oh-oh, we are six...we are six..." "and to school we go!" "...are six..." "We are six years old!" "...and to school...and to school...and to school we go!" "subtitles by adimond @ kg"