An Army Rising Up

- [Narrator] Action.

There's an army rising up There's an army rising up, yeah To break every chain, break every chain To break every chain (bell dinging) - [Man] I forgot again, tell me your name again?

- [Bri] Bri.

- [Man] Brianna.

Brianna.

- [Bri] Bri.

- [Man] Bri, yup.

- [Bri] Just Bri, just Bri.

- [Man] Just Bri, Brianna, Bri, okay, Bri.

Bri, can you set it to me.

- [Bri] I'm trying to move the mic.

(indistinct chattering) - In terms of being a school teacher within the Mississippi Delta, one of the more disadvantaged areas in the nation economically, there's really a lot of issues along the lines of not having adequate resources.

So, therefore, you have to be creative and sometimes you literally have to pull a rabbit out of the hat to meet certain goals, certain desires as a teacher that you have for your students.

- [Man] I wanted a high five with you.

(hands clapping) (all laughing) - Germaine teaser of West Tallahatchie.

- [Man] Can you say that again?

- In 2016, we got a fairly large grant from the Kellogg Foundation who has kind of a special mission with the Mississippi Delta, in terms of granting dollars to organizations like ours.

We're gonna bring you up and we're gonna show you how to make films and documentaries.

We're gonna work hard, but again, we're gonna have fun doing it.

So, welcome to what we're doing.

When they become storytellers of those particular Delta stories, they own them.

This is my backyard.

This is my place.

And you got a notebook full of ideas.

- My name is Shiann McDanail.

I'm 16 years old and I'm from Tupelo, Mississippi.

On the first day this filmmaker workshop, I feel nervous and almost scared and excited.

I felt excited because I was coming to learn things that I didn't know about, and I learned quite a lot.

Scared was because I'm meeting new people, and I don't know them, and when you don't know people, you don't know what their intent is.

And nervous because, it's like, "What if I do this and somebody judge me?

Or what if I do that and somebody judge me there?"

I'm like, I'm not sensitive, but in another way I am sensitive and insecure.

That made me nervous.

- We're here, Mississippi.

- Sumner, Mississippi.

- Mississippi.

- We do this.

My name is Corderion LeSean Stephens, I am from Philipp, Mississippi, I'm 18 years old.

Hopefully, I learn so much from this workshop.

Hopefully it can inspire me to go and actually pursue my dreams of being an actor.

As I was growing up, my mom and them would normally say I was a character and I was like, "That should be something I should do."

So, I feel like I've been acting a little bit, I just never put it out there, so I feel like I could do a good job of it.

If I don't be a actor, I know I can work a camera good, so, hopefully I could get into either one of them.

- My name is Samaria Washington, I attend West Tallahatchie High School, I'm 16 years old.

How I felt on the first day, I felt happy because I knew I was finna learn something that I been wanting to know about.

To meet new people, I was happy.

To get to know my instructors, I was happy.

Then again, I was nervous because I walked in there not knowing much about the cameras and you know, setting up stuff, I didn't know much.

But from like first impression, I was so happy.

- So it's a little bit of a challenge just letting them get to know us and what the expectations are, what they're gonna be learning.

But once they're in, once they see, you know, what we're about, once they get their hands on the cameras, the mics, the lights, the editing, they get super excited.

(upbeat music) - If you want to be represented and if you want to be able to tell your own stories, if you wanna be able to tell things that interest you, then it's a good idea to be able to control the machines and the cameras and know the concepts to be able to tell your own stories.

Because again, if not, then that story may never get told.

- What is life without the wind, and who are we without committing sins?

What is life without the sun and who am I to not be someone?

Young, curious, and excited, but I'm ready to be enlightened.

Through the bridges, roads and railways of this land is where I find my plan.

To excel, blossom and bloom in the world as a Black girl that they say don't have room.

Lights, camera, action, it's my time to shine, and behind the camera, I star in my grind.

Reading and writing and the nights goes by and working hard every day to say that I try.

Who am I that they know not of?

I'm a Southern girl with a lot of love.

Who am I that they know not of?

I'm a Delta girl who can't be pushed or shoved.

Who am I that they know not of?

I'm a pretty Black girl whose drug is knowledge.

Who am I that they know not of?

I'm a West Tally student headed to college.

It's not my fault that you don't see me, but I'm gon be who I'm gon be.

Mic check, one, two, one, two, 2022 is when I'm through, word!

(chuckles) I am Samaria Washington.

(soft music) - My long term goals are to become a nurse and to study music.

Nursing because when I was in the seventh grade, my brother got shot on church ground in Wells, Mississippi, and the ambulance to me, I feel like the ambulance could have done better.

They didn't make it in time and that made me wanna pursue nursing because I wanna be there for the people.

They feel like the doctors can't be there, but I wanna be there for them.

And music, I wanna pursue music because music makes me feel alive or sometimes like certain songs tell certain stories.

And like, you could be feeling sad or something and that song right there, it just helps you through your emotions.

There is power in the name of Jesus There is power in the name of Jesus To break every chain Break every chain, to break every chain Break every chain, to break every chain (bell dinging) - There's so much history here, and a lot of the kids don't know a lot about that history.

For example, a lot, this group didn't know a lot about the Till case.

And yet here we are in Tallahatchie County where they pulled his body out of the river.

And where the courthouse is here, and we have the Emmett Till Memorial Complex over here, and we have the Emmett Till Memorial Project over here, and we have the Memorial Commission and the Interpretive Center.

And so, they're quite literally surrounded by Till here in Tallahatchie County, and it's kind of urgent for me that they know a little bit about what that name signifies.

Injustice, it signifies a moment in our collective history that's become, in an interesting way, a touchstone, to begin to teach civil rights history, on the note of this injustice.

And in some ways, Emmett Till's story still is very much at the center of the Mississippi Delta, for a lot of people.

He would be 80 in July.

July 25th will be his 80th birthday.

So, you know, he'd be a grandfather.

(somber music) - The significance of Emmett TIll's story is profound to me.

The shock that it provided to the system, America known as "Land of the free, home of the brave," this great democracy, and yet one of the most gruesome acts of injustice ever in it's history occurred and no justice whatsoever was given to the family.

And it all occurred here within this building, within this very room.

I think some of our local community members don't necessarily consider how important this place was.

It's not just the old courthouse in Sumner, it is the location that helped spark the civil rights movement in the United States of America.

- Well, this 14 year old boy walked in a store, they say he whistled at a white woman, we don't know if it's true or not.

You know, back then they was lying, you know?

So, one night, you know, those people, they came and got him and he never returned.

Body came up, was beat up pretty bad, you know, used lashing and all the other stuff.

Couldn't get justice in court for, you know, what they did to him and now it's just a historical moment because it's cruel and it's not right.

(bell dinging) Perfect timing.

- Tell me what you know about Emmett Till.

- I know that Emmett till was a boy that lived in Chicago, was from Chicago, and he came to Mississippi to visit his family, and he was brutally murdered and dumped in a lake, river.

And I found out that his mom wanted to take pictures, even though it would be hard for a parent to look at their child being brutalized and turned into a monster.

She wanted to take pictures to show the world how her son had been treated.

- [Samaria] Would you want your body to be seen by the world to teach everybody a lesson or just to view it as you know, what goes down in Mississippi?

- If that happened to me, I would want my body to be shown to show so people would see, and so they wouldn't just have to imagine a brutalized body.

They would actually see it in front of them.

- [Samaria] If you were in Emmett Till's shoes, how would you react?

What would you do?

- I believe if I was in Emmett Till's shoes, I would've been killed earlier because I would have tried to escape earlier.

And I would've thought about if I whistled at a white woman and known my situation, known my surroundings, then I would have been on a run.

Or if I had known someone at the door, I would have, you know, been cautious of who was at the door, and I would've probably tried to run away and he might've shot.

- [Samaria] If you was the judge during that time, what would have been the decision that you would have made?

Even though you didn't have enough sufficient evidence to prove these men guilty.

- I would've prolonged the investigation and I would've made it so that it was enough time to show evidence because it's a sensitive case.

So I would have made sure that they had enough time to gather their evidence.

And I would have slightly bended the rules because I know that you were supposed to be registered to vote, to be in a jury, but a lot of people were scared for their lives.

So I would've made it fair.

(lively music) - [Man] Hold up.

Order, order in the court.

The jury is back with deliberation, have you guys come to a verdict?

- [All] Yes.

- [Man] And what have you found?

- We the jury have found him-- - [All] Guilty.

- And sentence him to death.

(all clapping) - We wanted to teach civil rights because we just feel that it's very important for students to know their history, and to know what took place here, and to know some of the stakes and some of the people that have sacrificed for all of the rights and freedoms and privileges that we have today.

And it's a shame that some of these students don't know anything about Emmett Till, or don't know anything about Fannie Lou Hamer, because like I said, they're from their town and they were very instrumental in the civil rights movement.

So, I think starting with people that were right in their backyard kind of gives them a sense of history and a sense of pride that some place like Mississippi really was very instrumental in the fight for civil rights.

- I'm Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer and I farmed on the Marlow Plantation for 18 years.

I had charge of keeping up with the time and paying off.

And I went down the 31st of August to try to register, and after I had gotten back home, Mr. Marlow told me that I would have to go down and withdraw my registration or leave because they wasn't ready for that in Mississippi.

- Mrs. Hamer's good part of her civil rights activism was centered around voting rights.

And the incredible Byzantine, terrorizing, frightening mechanisms that were in place for her to just register to vote.

Not to vote, just to try to register to vote.

Telling that to kids and just kind of running them through the, "Okay, this is what she had to go through."

And these voting rights, we can't take them for granted, right?

We can't.

And we're seeing right now that, of course we can't.

Look at them being chipped away in several states.

Run, run, run, I'm on a run biding just above Run, run, run, I'm on a run biding just above - [Fannie] On the 10th of September, in 1962, 16 bullets was fired into the home of Mr and Mrs. Robert Tucker for me.

That same night, two girls was shot at Mr. Herman's Sisson's in Ruleville.

They also shot in Mr. Joe McDonald's house that same night.

Now, the question I raise, is this America?

- [Lady] Yes.

(crowd laughing) - [Fannie] The land of the free and the home of the brave?

Where people are being murdered, lynched and killed because we want to register and vote?

- [Crowd] Yes.

Biding just above, if I just - I feel that people should learn about her because she was a brave woman, and we have a lot of Black female politicians like Stacey Abrams.

And they probably could, I don't know, like if they scared to just, you know, speak out and do what's right for that people, they could look at her as like a role model or an example of how to become that person that just speak for their people rights.

- [Fannie] But just to show you that God want people to stand up.

- I know this, I know she went through the struggle for real.

She was a very good independent woman, but she was also wanting to help out a lot of people in her community too as well, so.

She was powerful.

Biding just above, I'd fly away - The things I know about Fannie Lou Hamer is she took a beating and she lost her house and her job, that she worked at for 18 years because she wanted to stand up for Black women and Black people in general, so they can have a right to vote, and so that we can all make a difference.

For your life, biding just Yes, I feel like I can make a change in the world today if I put forth the effort and like, if I make something out of myself, a little girl from Mississippi became something.

It's a little light, it needs a little light.

Some of the social changes I like to see in my community is better resources for school and like for our community because like the people say they're gonna get us like parks and stuff, but they never get us parks, and grocery stores.

And better job opportunity for the kids because like me now, it's hard for us to find a job, we had to go travel a lot just to get a job.

Like we don't get nothing, but they promise it to us, but we don't get it.

Biding just above - [Woman] Action.

- [Fannie] And the young people are the people that made this possible for us.

You know, I just about fell out with all the people my age, I'm 53.

And most of them my age are hopeless case.

(crowd laughing) But I'm 53 but I think 19.

(crowd clapping) I check myself sometime when I'm talking to the young people and they talkin' about how old people can't relate to them, I say "You're not kidding, I don't understand what's wrong with those people."

(crowd applauding) - Without further ado, Samaria Washington.

(all clapping) - Yes, I do see myself becoming a filmmaker in the future.

One, because I enjoy it so much, and two, when I'm not at this workshop, I go out, take pictures of any and everything that I see is beautiful and perfect.

(all applauding) - Ayesha.

- I gotta take a picture?

- No, we're gonna take a picture.

- I could be a good filmmaker, I can set up some good things and get good amount of people in there to do good jobs with it.

I have a good vision for what I do.

I want my words to rise up people.

I don't want nobody to be brought down, you know what I'm saying?

I want everybody to feel loved, everybody to feel like they can do anything they want if they just put their right mind to it.

(all clapping) - Yes, I could see myself as a filmmaker because I want to encourage other people and little girls and stuff to go out there and do what they wanna do because can't nobody stop you.

Because if that's your dream and that's what you wanna do, you go do it.

Don't let nobody sit up there and talk you down about it.

Just have a little faith, a little mindset.

- [Man] Short people in the front.

Everybody hold their diplomas up.

- [Man] Big smile.

- [Man] Smile.

- [Man] Bri, get that diploma, there you go.

(indistinct chattering) - Hold on, hold on, hold on.

- [Man] Everybody say "Fannie Lou Hamer" at the count of three, okay?

One, two, three.

- [All] Fannie Lou Hamer.

- [Man] Woo, yeah!

(all clapping) There's an army rising up There's an army rising up, yeah To break every chain, break every chain To break every chain Woke up this morning with my mind Stayed on freedom Ooh, woke up this morning with my mind Stayed on freedom Ooh, woke up this morning with my mind Stayed on freedom Hallelu, hallelu Hallelujah Walking and talking Walking and talking with my mind Stayed on freedom Ooh, walking and talking with my mind Stayed on freedom Stayed on freedom Walking and talking with my mind Stayed on freedom Hallelu, hallelu Hallelujah Singing and praying