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Content
A listing of transcripts of the dialogue and narrative of this section.
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Structure
The list provides the transcript, info about the text, and links to references contained in the text.
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Special Report
Transcripts for Section 5 of Episode 19
| Time | Summary | | | 31:12 | American talk show host, Oprah Winfrey is very popular in South Africa. I recently watched a very moving show on confession and forgiveness that I thought very appropriate to our situation. It is not about gross human rights violations, it is about something we South Africans know very well: racial prejudice and discrimination. In 1954 the United States Supreme Court made its historic and very unpopular decision to end school apartheid. It was opposed by politicians and angry mobs of whites. The people who suffered most in this angry war on racism were the black school children. Nowhere was this more evident than in Little Rock, Arkansas. Here are a few scenes from Oprah’s programme. | Full Transcript | | 31:59 | 1957 Arkansas. The nation was riveted by the Little Rock Nine. Nine black teenagers were sent to integrate Little Rock senior high school. But it seemed the entire state of Arkansas had to stop them. The governor called on the national guard not to protect the students but to block their entrance to school and threatening white students jeered them at every turn. Finally the black students were allowed to enter the school through a side door and the white mob erupted ….. | Full Transcript | | 32:34 | Mob …Cannot be allowed to override the decisions of our courts. | Full Transcript | | 32:40 | President Eisenhower sent over 1001 members of the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock to escort the students to school. Each student was issued their own federal bodyguard just to attend class. But once inside the school house doors the Little Rock Nine found that their struggles for respect and equality had only just begun. | Full Transcript | | 33:01 | Seven of the original Little Rock Nine are here today and in a few moments they are going to come face to face for the first time in 38 years with some of those white students at Central High School who tormented them. One who chanted protest outside the school, another white student who hurled a bowl of soup on a black student and yet another who witnessed it all but stood by in silence. They come today asking for forgiveness. But first, you know there’s a saying that goes like this ‘if it doesn’t kill you, it will make you stronger.’ I think that’s especially true of the first black students to integrate Central High School. Terrence Roberts is now a Professor at Antioch University in California, who recalls the pain of that era but also an act of kindness that he says he will never forget. Melba Pattillo Beals was only 15 when she integrated Central High School. She chronicles her battles in a book called Warriors don’t cry. Ernest Green recalls each day was like going ...more | Full Transcript | | 34:40 | When we finally got in we had armed escorts, we had people with guns standing outside the classroom. // The first day we got in we went in with the 101st Airborne. I remember the click clack of the soldiers’ boots on the stairs and I thought OK this is why we hoist the flag. This is going to work out. If these soldiers just walk with us this first day into this school, it’s going to be OK. So we went in with armed guards with kids standing in the rafters just screaming. At one point it was totally silent and then all these children standing and bending out of the windows screaming ‘boo, boo!’ // It was an atmosphere of hostility and war. // That’s why my heel hurts because of people walking on the back of my heels, I carry scars on my legs from people kicking me; we all carry these scars in one form or another. // The boys all shared gym together and that was hell. That was hell week rolled up into an hour every day either locker rooms that get steamed with hot towels with ...more | Full Transcript | | 35:58 | Joining me now are three of the white students who admit in one form or another to being part of that ugliness in Little Rock. This is Ann Burleson as she appeared… in ’57 she was chanting the words ‘2, 4, 6, 8 we don’t want to integrate’ and Anne says she is now ashamed of that school yard chant. Jean Porter regrets being a silent witness to the crimes by fellow white students including seeing them put thumbtacks on Melba’s chair and also witnessing boys in gym urinating on the lockers of Ernest Green. And David Sontag came here today he says to apologise to Minijean for an altercation in the cafeteria. | Full Transcript | | 36:35 | You are now here because you were ashamed. // Yes, I am and I knew Colorado just because she had a locker close to me and we would … | Full Transcript | | 36:45 | I recognized you off the bat. // I remember you. I remember your smile, I remember your eyes. I remember your chuckle. You used to get me coming out of English class, you remember that? And I’ve never forgotten your name, I’ve never forgotten your name, never, ever // Was he not nice to you? // He was insidious because he was continuous, he was relentless. He never gave up. It wasn’t like he did this just one day, it was like every day. And he never really hit or anything but I always expected him to and he was just always there and he had the most vibrant eyes. And he really frightened me because every day he was there you know … today, Tuesday, Thursday. It will be every day. // Every time you see him you know it’d be trouble. // It was like Chinese water torture // It was like he had a day job // That’s right. He was on time, he was on time and on target every day | Full Transcript | | 37:40 | Does his apology mean anything to you? // I would like to come forward and … // A lot, it means a lot to me. | Full Transcript | | 38:04 | I was raised in a racist family and the main reason I wanted to be here today is to tell you how regretful I am for causing, what should have been the best year of your life, the most miserable. I went along, because I was afraid. You can’t imagine, for 38 years, how badly I have felt. That does not do anything for what happened, that does not … I’m just sorry. I’m very sorry. // And what are you most sorry about? The way you behaved, the way you were thinking, the way you were raised, what? // For not doing what I knew was wrong. I can tell you that every day of my life at Central was in fear. I cannot remember my … teacher’s name, but I can remember on the corner of 14th and Park street white men trying to turn over a 1954 Chevrolet with an elderly black man in it. The fear to this day, I get chill bumps. I did nothing. I went along, I never … My participation was chanting, but that was awful, and I was so afraid and I knew it was wrong. I was only 15, but at the time ...more | Full Transcript |
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