It Is Our Right To Stay Here

The Only Thing I Really Feel Is Necessary Is That The Black People, Not Only In Mississippi, Will Have To Actually Upset This Applecart. What I Mean By That Is, So Many Things Are Under The Cover That Will Have To Be Swept Out And Shown To This Whole World, Not Just To America. This Thing They Say Of "the Land Of The Free And The Home Of The Brave" Is All On Paper. It Doesn't Really Mean Anything To Us. The Only Way We Can Make This Thing A Reality In America Is To Do All We Can To Destroy This System And Bring This Out To The Light That Has Been Under The Cover All These Years.

This Problem Is Not Only In Mississippi. During The Time I Was In The Convention In Atlantic City, I Didn't Get Any Threats From Mississippi. The Threatening Letters Were From Philadelphia, Chicago And Other Big Cities.

I Have Just As Much Right To Stay In America - In Fact, The Black People Have Contributed More To America Than Any Other Race, Because Our Kids Have Fought Here For What Was Called "democracy"; Our Mothers And Fathers Were Sold And Bought Here For A Price. So All I Can Say When They Say "go Back To Africa," I Say "when You Send The Chinese Back To China, The Italians Back To Italy, Etc., And You Get On That Mayflower From Whence You Came, And Give The Indians Their Land Back, Who Really Would Be Here At Home?"

I Always Said If I Lived To Get Grown And Had A Chance, I Was Going To Try To Get Something For My Mother And I Was Going To Do Something For The Black Man Of The South If It Would Cost My Life; I Was Determined To See That Things Were Changed.

Nobody's Free Until Everybody's Free.