The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974) Movie Script
1
Happy Birthday to
you Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday, Miss Jane,
Happy Birthday to you
( applause )
Enoch, what you put all
these candles on this cake for?
( laughter )
Never mind, just blow
'em out. Just blow 'em out.
I ain't got enough breath to
be blowing out these candles.
See that?
- ( clapping, laughter )
- 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.
( laughing )
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?
( chuckles )
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."
( laughs )
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.
( laugh )
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?
( chuckles ) 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. ( laughs )
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--
( laugh )
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.
( horse neighs )
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.
( rifle fire )
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?
( horse whinnies )
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.
( horse neighs )
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!
( bell tolling )
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:
To wit: 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.
( laughter )
( overlapping happy chatter )
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.
( laughter )
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.
( murmurs of disapproval )
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.
( chuckles )
She even kissed me. ( chuckles )
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.
( rocks clacking )
( flames crackling )
( quiet chatter )
Come on, Jane.
Come on.
Paterollers! The paterollers!
Get up!
( gunfire )
( screams )
( baby crying )
( gunfire )
( sobbing )
( sounds of a beating )
Hit him again!
( screams, shouting )
Get that man there!
Hit him!
( baby crying )
Stupid animal!
( attack grunts )
( groans )
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.
( dog barking )
There wasn't much left of
the South in those times.
All that the Yankees
couldnt lift and take with 'em,
they burned.
Once in a while, though, youd
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.
( dog barks )
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.
( dog barks )
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!
( sobs )
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.
( birds chirping )
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.
( laughs )
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.
Man: 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!
- ( screams )
- You want an education?
We're gonna give
you an education!
No, don't! No!
( sobs )
No!
( sobbing ) No!
Oh, oh, no!
No, no!
( baby cries )
( sobbing )
Oh, my God!
No!
( sobs ) Oh, my God!
My God!
( baby cries )
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!
( gasps )
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.
( birds chirping )
Mama...
Keep them for me.
Make sure they get to
Ohio the same time we do.
( sobs )
( continues sobbing )
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.
( gasps )
"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.
( laughs )
I ain't gettin' on
no horse or nothin'.
Yeah, you're comin'
with me, little mama.
( laughs )
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.
( chuckles )
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.
( horse neighs )
( giggles )
( laughs )
( laughs )
( laughs )
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.
( whistles )
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.
( knocking )
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 a.
This is why he ride the
horses, to prove something.
This is man's way.
You think that ol'
horse gonna kill him?
( sighs )
You want the true response?
Yes.
De l'argent.
Money.
( wind howls )
( rattle )
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 a.
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...
( bell tolls )
...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.
( sniffs )
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.
( chuckles )
I'm gettin' mad,
'cause I'm full.
( laughter )
Well, I made some
of my favorite puddin'.
Looks good.
That's you, Elizabeth.
( chuckles )
- And there's you.
- Thank you, Miss Jane.
- Oh, Mama, Mama.
- That's you.
( chuckles )
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.
( laughs )
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.
( laugh )
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. ( chuckles )
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."
( horse whinnies )
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.
( laughs ) 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.
( laughter, happy chatter )
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.
( applause )
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.
( gunshot )
They tell Albert
make you crawl first.
No!
Crawl! Crawl!
Get down and crawl,
and we get this over with!
No!
( gunshot )
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'. ( laughs )
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.
( chuckles )
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.
Man: We need another
one of those, uh, home runs.
Get in there in the field!
( happy chatter )
( cheering and clapping )
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.
( laughs )
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.
( laughter )
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-
( siren )
( police radio chatter )
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...
( phone rings )
Yes?
Man: 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.
( chuckles )
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.
( sirens )
( choir singing )
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!
( wails, sobs )
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.
( swallows )
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.
( tires screech )
On July 19th, 1962,
five months after the last of
these interviews was recorde,
Miss Jane Pittman
died at the age of 110.
Happy Birthday to
you Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday, Miss Jane,
Happy Birthday to you
( applause )
Enoch, what you put all
these candles on this cake for?
( laughter )
Never mind, just blow
'em out. Just blow 'em out.
I ain't got enough breath to
be blowing out these candles.
See that?
- ( clapping, laughter )
- 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.
( laughing )
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?
( chuckles )
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."
( laughs )
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.
( laugh )
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?
( chuckles ) 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. ( laughs )
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--
( laugh )
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.
( horse neighs )
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.
( rifle fire )
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?
( horse whinnies )
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.
( horse neighs )
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!
( bell tolling )
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:
To wit: 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.
( laughter )
( overlapping happy chatter )
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.
( laughter )
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.
( murmurs of disapproval )
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.
( chuckles )
She even kissed me. ( chuckles )
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.
( rocks clacking )
( flames crackling )
( quiet chatter )
Come on, Jane.
Come on.
Paterollers! The paterollers!
Get up!
( gunfire )
( screams )
( baby crying )
( gunfire )
( sobbing )
( sounds of a beating )
Hit him again!
( screams, shouting )
Get that man there!
Hit him!
( baby crying )
Stupid animal!
( attack grunts )
( groans )
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.
( dog barking )
There wasn't much left of
the South in those times.
All that the Yankees
couldnt lift and take with 'em,
they burned.
Once in a while, though, youd
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.
( dog barks )
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.
( dog barks )
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!
( sobs )
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.
( birds chirping )
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.
( laughs )
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.
Man: 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!
- ( screams )
- You want an education?
We're gonna give
you an education!
No, don't! No!
( sobs )
No!
( sobbing ) No!
Oh, oh, no!
No, no!
( baby cries )
( sobbing )
Oh, my God!
No!
( sobs ) Oh, my God!
My God!
( baby cries )
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!
( gasps )
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.
( birds chirping )
Mama...
Keep them for me.
Make sure they get to
Ohio the same time we do.
( sobs )
( continues sobbing )
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.
( gasps )
"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.
( laughs )
I ain't gettin' on
no horse or nothin'.
Yeah, you're comin'
with me, little mama.
( laughs )
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.
( chuckles )
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.
( horse neighs )
( giggles )
( laughs )
( laughs )
( laughs )
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.
( whistles )
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.
( knocking )
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 a.
This is why he ride the
horses, to prove something.
This is man's way.
You think that ol'
horse gonna kill him?
( sighs )
You want the true response?
Yes.
De l'argent.
Money.
( wind howls )
( rattle )
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 a.
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...
( bell tolls )
...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.
( sniffs )
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.
( chuckles )
I'm gettin' mad,
'cause I'm full.
( laughter )
Well, I made some
of my favorite puddin'.
Looks good.
That's you, Elizabeth.
( chuckles )
- And there's you.
- Thank you, Miss Jane.
- Oh, Mama, Mama.
- That's you.
( chuckles )
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.
( laughs )
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.
( laugh )
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. ( chuckles )
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."
( horse whinnies )
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.
( laughs ) 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.
( laughter, happy chatter )
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.
( applause )
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.
( gunshot )
They tell Albert
make you crawl first.
No!
Crawl! Crawl!
Get down and crawl,
and we get this over with!
No!
( gunshot )
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'. ( laughs )
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.
( chuckles )
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.
Man: We need another
one of those, uh, home runs.
Get in there in the field!
( happy chatter )
( cheering and clapping )
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.
( laughs )
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.
( laughter )
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-
( siren )
( police radio chatter )
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...
( phone rings )
Yes?
Man: 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.
( chuckles )
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.
( sirens )
( choir singing )
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!
( wails, sobs )
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.
( swallows )
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.
( tires screech )
On July 19th, 1962,
five months after the last of
these interviews was recorde,
Miss Jane Pittman
died at the age of 110.