[unknown] - "Service of Concern for Atlanta's Children" (April 13, 1981)

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-	The church has been a place of strength	0:05
	in times of war and national trial.	0:06
	The church was a haven for conscientious objectors	0:12
	during the Vietnam War and has been in other times.	0:15
	A place of support for those who protest and speak out.	0:19
	The church was where the civil rights movement was launched,	0:24
	and it was in churches that the civil rights movement	0:27
	got its marching orders.	0:31
	So in spite of the pain	0:35
	and the deep desire that we	0:39
	pray God might not have had together tonight	0:42
	for the cause that brings us together,	0:45
	it is good to have such a place	0:48
	and it is good together.	0:50
	It was Unamuno who once said,	0:54
	"The temple is where we go	0:56
	when we need to share our common grief."	1:02
	So we've come not just to grieve,	1:07
	but to support,	1:09
	and to reach out from here to Atlanta	1:13
	and to other places to show our love and concern.	1:17
	Let us pray.	1:24
	Oh God in this moment we pray	1:28
	that you would bless the little children of Atlanta.	1:30
	Bless all the children of Atlanta.	1:35
	Bless the lives of those who have died	1:40
	and now live with you and your eternal presence.	1:42
	Bless those who are missing.	1:47
	Bless, oh Lord we pray, thee in special ways	1:51
	those who still live and walk and play and go to school	1:54
	and go about their daily activities even yet.	1:58
	But surely most do so in fear and terror	2:02
	so be very close to comfort	2:05
	and strengthen them we pray.	2:08
	Bless their families.	2:12
	Be very close to them to give comfort	2:15
	and hope, we pray.	2:18
	And now Lord, our blessed God, we pray	2:23
	that you would come into our midst this night	2:24
	in a very special way.	2:26
	That the word which comes to speak to us may be received	2:29
	into caring and concerned hearts and lives,	2:35
	and may we leave this place with a deeper commitment	2:40
	to show and express our love and concern	2:44
	for our fellow human beings.	2:49
	Speak now in a special way in this time	2:53
	in which we gather in your holy name.	2:56
	Amen.	3:00
	(clears throat)	3:03
	(organ music)	3:09
	(organ music)	3:11
	(organ music)	3:13
	(organ music)	3:16
	♪ Our Father ♪	3:17
	(organ music)	3:24
	(organ music)	3:26
	♪ Which art in heaven ♪	3:29
	♪ Hallowed be ♪	3:41
	♪ Thy name ♪	3:50
	(organ music)	3:57
	(organ music)	3:59
	♪ Thy kingdom come ♪	4:02
	♪ Thy will be done ♪	4:11
	♪ In Earth ♪	4:19
	♪ as it is ♪	4:25
	♪ In heaven ♪	4:31
	(organ music)	4:38
	(organ music)	4:41
	(organ music)	4:43
	(organ music)	4:45
	(organ music)	4:48
	(organ music)	4:50
	(organ music)	4:52
	(organ music)	4:55
	♪ Give us this day ♪	4:57
	♪ Our daily bread ♪	5:01
	♪ And forgive us our debts ♪	5:07
	♪ As we forgive our debtors ♪	5:13
	(organ music)	5:21
	(organ music)	5:24
	(organ music)	5:26
	♪ And lead us not ♪	5:29
	♪ Into temptation ♪	5:32
	♪ But deliver us ♪	5:36
	♪ From evil ♪	5:39
	♪ For thine ♪	5:44
	♪ Is our kingdom ♪	5:47
	♪ And the power ♪	5:52
	♪ And the glory ♪	5:56
	♪ For (mumbles) ♪	6:02
	♪ Amen. ♪	6:13
	(organ music)	6:25
	(organ music)	6:28
	(organ music)	6:30
	(organ music)	6:32
	(clears throat)	6:41
-	I would like to announce	6:42
	that there will be a reception following this service	6:43
	in the alumni lounge which is immediately	6:47
	to the right as you go out the main doors of the chapel.	6:50
	I have had the opportunity over the past two weeks	7:00
	to work with the group of people who planned this service	7:03
	and other programs designed to focus all of our attention	7:08
	on the situation in Atlanta.	7:12
	This group which called itself	7:17
	The Duke Community Concerned for Atlanta's Children	7:18
	was made up of a variety of people.	7:22
	It included Duke students, workers,	7:27
	administrators,	7:31
	faculty members,	7:32
	and individuals from the greater Durham community.	7:34
	These are people whose work and interests	7:39
	don't often bring them together	7:42
	in a common effort.	7:44
	If anything at all good can come	7:47
	from a tragedy, perhaps it is that it can begin	7:50
	to bring people together to work for a common cause.	7:55
	As a member of this planning group,	8:01
	it is now my privilege to introduce	8:03
	to you Mrs. Camille Bell.	8:06
	Mrs. Bell is a resident of Atlanta.	8:10
	She is now the President	8:14
	of The Committee to Stop Children's Murders.	8:16
	Her son Yusuf was the fourth child killed in this tragedy.	8:21
	Mrs. Bell, on behalf of all of us here,	8:28
	I would like to express our sympathy to you,	8:31
	your family, and your friends	8:35
	for all that you've been through	8:38
	and continue to go through.	8:39
	And also, thank you very much for being with us this evening	8:42
	and sharing with us your reflections on this tragedy.	8:46
-	I am Camille Bell,	8:59
	chairperson of The Committee to Stop Children's Murders,	9:02
	and the mother of Yusuf Bell who was the fourth child killed	9:06
	in the Atlanta murders.	9:11
	I came here today to tell the story	9:16
	of what happened in Atlanta,	9:20
	which is basically a two-fold story.	9:23
	One is the tragic story of children being snatched up	9:27
	and killed.	9:31
	The other story is the story of government that didn't care.	9:35
	Both stories must be told	9:41
	because when they're not, history repeats itself.	9:46
	In Atlanta in July	9:54
	of 1979,	9:57
	two little boys, both 14-year olds,	10:03
	were found dead in the 1700 block	10:07
	of Niskey Lake Road,	10:09
	a little wooded area.	10:11
	They had both disappeared earlier in July,	10:16
	one the 20th, one the 25th.	10:20
	They were found 50 yards apart.	10:23
	Their passing was reported in the newspaper.	10:26
	It was covered in about ten lines on page 18A.	10:31
	In September, another little boy disappeared.	10:39
	His name was Milton Harvey.	10:43
	He was not found for a while.	10:46
	In October,	10:50
	October 21st, my son Yusuf left home going to the store.	10:54
	He got to the store.	11:01
	He bought what he was sent for.	11:04
	He started home,	11:06
	and he disappeared just like he dropped	11:07
	off the face of the earth.	11:10
	Fifteen days later a body was found.	11:15
	We were certain it was Yusuf	11:20
	because no one knew that Milton Harvey had disappeared.	11:22
	It wasn't.	11:26
	It was Milton Harvey.	11:27
	Three days after that, Yusuf was found	11:32
	in an abandoned school that should have been boarded up	11:35
	but wasn't.	11:38
	He had been strangled	11:40
	and thrown away.	11:42
	Time went on and Angel Lenair,	11:49
	a 12-year old,	11:53
	left home at around four o'clock in the afternoon	11:55
	going to visit a friend	11:58
	who lived two blocks away.	12:01
	She never got there.	12:03
	Her mother called the police.	12:09
	The police came out.	12:11
	They talked to her for about five minutes.	12:12
	They decided she was a runaway.	12:14
	Six days later they did finally get over	12:17
	to the school to find out what kind of little girl she was.	12:21
	At that point it didn't matter anymore.	12:26
	She was found raped, strangled	12:30
	and tied to a tree less than two blocks from home	12:32
	that same afternoon.	12:37
	The next day, Jeffrey Mathis disappeared.	12:42
	At that point, there were three 14-year old boys dead,	12:46
	two fifth grade boys dead,	12:53
	three, no, two fifth grade boys missing,	12:57
	one missing, one dead,	13:00
	three gifted students dead or missing,	13:01
	and three strangulations.	13:08
	Our police department did not see that	13:14
	as connections.	13:19
	Because they didn't, they didn't warn the community,	13:22
	Because they didn't, they didn't say	13:26
	that anything was happening unusual in Atlanta.	13:30
	And because they didn't, children continued to die.	13:36
	Later in May,	13:41
	Mrs. Mathis--Mrs. Taylor,	13:45
	who's Angel Lenair's mother, and I	13:48
	were introduced to each other	13:53
	by a lady named Mary Mapp.	13:55
	We decided at that point that we would form a support group	14:00
	because I knew in my heart that if	14:04
	I call Miss Taylor because I was down	14:08
	and she said "Babe, I know how you're feeling,"	14:11
	that she knew how I was feeling	14:14
	because she'd been there.	14:17
	And so we formed a support group	14:20
	and we sort of talked back and forth.	14:23
	A few days later in May, Eric Middlebrooks disappeared,	14:27
	a 14-year old boy.	14:31
	We went to visit his mother	14:34
	and she became part of the group.	14:36
	Early in June, Christopher Richardson disappeared.	14:39
	We went to visit his mother	14:44
	and she became part of the group.	14:46
	Later in June, LaTonya Wilson disappeared out of her house.	14:51
	We went to visit her parents	14:55
	and they became part of the group.	14:57
	Aaron Wyche supposedly fell from the railroad bridge	15:00
	but since Aaron was afraid of heights	15:05
	and since Aaron was seen getting into a blue car	15:08
	with a man in front of Tanner's Grocery Store	15:13
	that matched the description	15:16
	that Jeffrey Mathis was seen getting into,	15:18
	we considered him part of the cases,	15:20
	and we went to visit his parents	15:23
	and they became part of the group.	15:24
	At this point, we really didn't know	15:30
	about the first three children.	15:32
	And in not knowing about the first three children	15:34
	and with children continuing to disappear,	15:37
	we thought seven was just too many.	15:41
	And so we went to see our mayor,	15:45
	but he wasn't available, so we did see one of his aides	15:50
	and we told him what we thought might be happening,	15:53
	and he said that they didn't want to alarm the city.	15:58
	We went to our police department	16:04
	and we told them what we thought might be happening,	16:06
	and they said that they could see no connections	16:10
	between the cases.	16:13
	A few days later, in early July--	16:18
	July 5th--Anthony Carter, a 9-year-old, disappeared.	16:21
	No one knew he was gone,	16:27
	but July 7th his body was found on Well Street,	16:29
	less than four blocks from where I live.	16:36
	Thrown away behind a dumpster.	16:41
	I called Mrs. Taylor almost hysterical.	16:44
	By the time she got off the phone,	16:47
	she was almost hysterical.	16:49
	She called Mrs. Mathis and the parents	16:51
	at that point decided that this is the place	16:54
	where we call a halt.	16:56
	So we were going to city council to tell them about it.	16:59
	We decided that what we would do	17:02
	would be that we would research.	17:04
	We'd go back to the library.	17:05
	We'd find out what was normal.	17:07
	As crazy as it may seem, normal for Atlanta	17:10
	and children dead and missing.	17:12
	So we went back and we researched	17:17
	and we found that one to no children dead and missing	17:20
	and the cases unsolved was normal for Atlanta.	17:23
	At this point we were talking 11 children dead and missing.	17:30
	This was too many.	17:35
	And so we went to city council	17:39
	and we demanded,	17:41
	yes we did,	17:44
	we went to city council and we demanded a task force	17:45
	be formed and we asked for the FBI,	17:48
	the GBI, that's the Georgia Bureau of Investigation,	17:52
	the Atlanta Police Department,	17:55
	the Fulton County Police Department,	17:57
	the DeKalb County Police Department,	17:59
	and all surrounding small cities and towns	18:01
	that everybody provide a man	18:06
	and give us a really viable task force	18:08
	that was gonna go to work on these cases.	18:10
	A task force was formed.	18:16
	It consisted of one Atlanta police sergeant	18:19
	and four Atlanta police investigators.	18:25
	Things moved along.	18:33
	We discovered that not much warning was gonna	18:34
	be done by this so we wrote a little pamphlet	18:37
	called "Seven Ways to Keep Your Child Alive,"	18:40
	and the parents got out in shopping centers	18:43
	and passed them out.	18:45
	It wasn't very effective	18:51
	but it was the best we could do at that time.	18:53
	It did get the word out.	18:55
	Finally another child died	18:59
	and another child died	19:02
	and August came.	19:06
	And August 21st, a little boy named Clifford Jones	19:07
	who was visiting his grandmother for three weeks	19:12
	in the summer went out to pick up some cans,	19:15
	and while he was out picking up cans,	19:22
	someone snatched him and threw him away	19:26
	after strangling him to death behind a dumpster.	19:29
	Fortunately for the children of Atlanta,	19:33
	in Cleveland at the time Clifford was killed	19:36
	was a Shriner's convention,	19:41
	a black Shriner's convention.	19:43
	And when the newspapers hit the stands	19:46
	about the thirteen (counting Clifford)	19:48
	murdered and missing children in Atlanta,	19:52
	someone else other than Atlanta people knew.	19:55
	And because someone else knew,	20:00
	because a Cleveland child had died in Atlanta,	20:02
	the task force moved from five children,	20:05
	I mean from five policemen,	20:08
	to seventeen policemen immediately.	20:11
	It was a little bit upsetting--	20:21
	even though we were glad the task force moved up--	20:23
	to find that	20:26
	Atlanta children weren't important enough	20:31
	to put seventeen children in,	20:33
	seventeen people on the task force,	20:35
	or twenty people on the task force,	20:38
	or twenty-five or whatever it took.	20:39
	It took a child from out of town,	20:44
	but we thank Clifford for that	20:46
	because nothing would be happening	20:47
	if it had been just Atlanta children	20:50
	and it could have been kept an Atlanta secret.	20:53
	Things moved along	21:00
	and one of the local television stations ran the story	21:02
	of the guerilla warfare camp	21:07
	of the Klan in Marietta.	21:12
	Backed it up back-to-back with the story	21:15
	of the murdered and missing children in Atlanta	21:18
	for a week.	21:21
	I at this point do not know whether one has anything	21:26
	to do with the other, or does not,	21:29
	but they left the impression inseared in people's mind,	21:31
	this connection.	21:35
	Then a daycare center in Bowen Homes,	21:40
	a housing project,	21:43
	had a boiler to explode.	21:45
	People immediately assumed it was a bomb.	21:49
	People also immediately assumed it was planted	21:53
	by the Ku Klux Klan.	21:56
	And people came out in the streets	21:59
	in massive numbers, and anytime people come in the streets	22:01
	in massive numbers, national news media shows up.	22:04
	And people were saying "I'll bet the same people	22:08
	"that killed (at that point) those fifteen children	22:13
	"are the same people that blew up the daycare center."	22:16
	Four three-year olds were killed in that explosion	22:24
	and one adult.	22:27
	The city of Atlanta and several Vietnamese veterans	22:32
	did a careful check into what made the boiler blow up.	22:37
	The first thing that they found out is	22:42
	that the boiler was declared unsafe	22:44
	three years previously,	22:50
	but the idea of it being unsafe merely meant	22:54
	to most people that it would probably break down.	22:57
	And had it broken down,	23:01
	no children of any value would've been cold,	23:04
	and so it was let to stay where it was	23:10
	until someone turned it on on a cool October morning	23:15
	and children died because it blew up.	23:21
	After that, because national news media was there,	23:29
	and because the publicity was there,	23:33
	the task force jumped immediately to thirty-five people.	23:36
	The first legislative move that our city government made	23:43
	at that point was to institute the 11 o'clock curfew.	23:49
	Now that sounds like it makes an awful lot of sense,	23:53
	and it probably would have, except that not one child	23:57
	who was dead or missing at that time would've fallen under	24:04
	that 11 o'clock curfew.	24:08
	The children were disappearing and dying in the daytime.	24:11
	The next move as we went on along	24:19
	and children continued to die	24:22
	was to institute the 9 o'clock curfew.	24:26
	Only three children, all 14 years of age or older	24:34
	would've come under the 9 o'clock curfew.	24:39
	The final move was to institute the 7 o'clock curfew	24:43
	and even at this point the 7 o'clock would only cover six	24:47
	of the 25 children who are dead and missing.	24:52
	But the purpose of the curfew was not to protect children.	24:59
	The purpose of the curfew was to protect image.	25:05
	The purpose of the curfew was to say	25:11
	if those sorry parents would keep their children	25:15
	in the house and off the street all hours of the night,	25:19
	then maybe they wouldn't be dead.	25:24
	When that failed to penetrate the brains	25:29
	of most of America properly,	25:32
	then it became necessary for key figures in Atlanta	25:36
	to go around the nation and say things like	25:44
	"Well, these little children are nothing	25:47
	"but street kids anyway."	25:49
	I'm sure all of you've heard the street kid thing.	25:52
	Most of these kids,	26:03
	three of them do have juvenile records of some kind.	26:05
	And those three records are status offense records.	26:11
	What status offense means is that if they were adults	26:16
	what they did wouldn't be a crime.	26:21
	Couple of 'em got picked up for playing hooky	26:24
	and one got picked up for running away.	26:27
	Those are status offense crimes.	26:32
	The other children, even though they are inner-city children	26:35
	and we are talking about 9- to 16-year old boys primarily,	26:40
	don't even have a juvenile record,	26:45
	have never seen the inside of juvenile hall.	26:49
	But my mayor, some of our most	26:55
	outstanding black leaders,	27:03
	have gone from place to place around this nation	27:08
	and described these children as pushers,	27:12
	as "street kids," which is a	27:16
	drop phrase for anything,	27:21
	as hustlers,	27:24
	as varying other things that are not true.	27:26
	And I have a difficulty with people slandering dead babies	27:31
	who don't have a chance to come back	27:35
	and say what they are and what they are not.	27:38
	Now some people say to me,	27:47
	Black people especially,	27:52
	that I am being rather unfair	27:55
	and that I really shouldn't say that my mayor	27:59
	did not do his job, because it will leave people thinking	28:05
	that black people can't do the job.	28:09
	And my answer to that is that it is not	28:14
	that black people can't do the job,	28:18
	but it is that white people have no monopoly	28:21
	on incompetence.	28:25
	If a black man is incompetent he's just incompetent.	28:31
	We're human, not superhuman,	28:34
	and then I go back and I point to Houston.	28:37
	In Houston, Texas,	28:41
	twenty-seven children	28:44
	disappeared from an area called The Heights.	28:49
	Most of these children were lower-middle class	28:54
	to poor.	28:57
	All of these children's parents reported them to the police.	28:59
	The police decided arbitrarily	29:05
	that these children were runaways	29:07
	even though their parents said they were not.	29:10
	I think this happened over a two-year period,	29:16
	if I'm correct, or maybe a three-year period.	29:18
	When finally a boy named	29:23
	Henley I think it is,	29:28
	shot and killed Dean Corll	29:30
	who was collecting these children	29:34
	and torturing and killing them,	29:39
	and burying them in various places around the country.	29:42
	The story came out as to what was going on.	29:47
	Nobody warned the people of Houston.	29:53
	Their mayor didn't stand up and say,	29:55
	"we've got a problem here."	29:58
	Their police department didn't stand up and say,	30:00
	"I think these things might be connected"	30:02
	or any of those kind of things.	30:07
	I contend that the mayor of Houston	30:09
	and the police department there was incompetent	30:13
	and was not concerned about poor children at that point.	30:17
	I contend the same thing about Atlanta's mayor	30:24
	and police department.	30:28
	Incompetence and lack of concern are not a disease	30:35
	that merely strikes any one racial group.	30:39
	Convention dollars in Atlanta became more important	30:44
	than children's lives.	30:47
	Industrial money and industries moving into Houston	30:51
	at that period became more important than children's lives.	30:55
	How you gonna get a convention into a town	31:02
	where you have to admit that the kids can disappear	31:04
	off the street in the daytime	31:06
	and be killed and thrown back on the streets?	31:08
	And Atlanta had just gotten over the image	31:12
	of being the murder capital of the United States,	31:15
	which it picked up in early '79.	31:21
	So when I looked at what was happening there,	31:28
	then I had to go back, and I had to look at Chicago	31:30
	and the Gacy children.	31:34
	And the same attitude was true.	31:36
	And I had to look at other areas.	31:40
	I had to look at the fact that there are five boys missing	31:43
	in Newark, New Jersey who disappeared on the same day	31:46
	in 1978, August 20th.	31:52
	Anybody know anything about that?	31:56
	But the hue and cry didn't go out.	32:01
	As a good neighbor,	32:05
	I feel that it is necessary	32:10
	for me to go from place to place	32:12
	and tell the story,	32:15
	and tell the whole story as accurately as possible	32:17
	because when Chicago happened,	32:22
	nobody warned me	32:25
	and the children died	32:31
	and the country went back to business as usual.	32:34
	When the freeway killer in Los Angeles came through	32:39
	and did his thing and children died,	32:43
	nobody warned me and the country went back	32:46
	to business as usual.	32:50
	The same thing with Houston.	32:52
	The same thing with Newark.	32:54
	The same thing with New York City.	32:57
	The same thing with the handful	32:59
	of children over in Birmingham, Michigan.	33:01
	If you put the children together who've died	33:06
	in the last ten years in this country	33:08
	at the hands of people who walk in	33:14
	and swoop them up and kill them off	33:17
	and throw them away,	33:19
	you would have a well-populated high school.	33:23
	And the country would go back to business as usual.	33:31
	We are responsible for each other,	33:37
	and in our responsibility,	33:41
	we have to take the time	33:44
	to discover what is normal in our communities.	33:46
	Once we've gotten to know each other,	33:51
	gotten to know who's there,	33:53
	gotten to meet our neighbor,	33:55
	then we can go on from there	33:59
	to knowing what's unusual when the unusual occurs.	34:01
	Unfortunately, in Atlanta,	34:07
	we as a city have gotten so cosmopolitan	34:11
	and it is so fashionable not	34:16
	to know who lives next door to you.	34:18
	I've heard people say it.	34:21
	"I don't know those people."	34:23
	But what is the possibility	34:28
	of those people calling the police	34:30
	when they hear you screaming in the night?	34:33
	'Cause they don't know you either.	34:36
	What is the possibility of getting a call at work	34:39
	that there is a van backed up	34:42
	to your front door loading everything you own	34:44
	from those people.	34:49
	We have got to pull together as communities.	34:56
	We have got to look at the kind	34:58
	of government that we elect,	35:01
	and we've got to demand responsibility from it.	35:05
	And basically the main thing that we've got	35:12
	to do is protect the children.	35:15
	Now when people hear me talking about	35:18
	these kinds of murders, they feel like,	35:21
	well hey, you know, that's maybe thousand kids	35:23
	across the country,	35:28
	maybe 2,000 in ten years.	35:30
	Odds aren't so great on that,	35:34
	but what are the odds on your putting a child	35:37
	in first grade today unable to read	35:40
	and pulling them out of 12th unable to read?	35:43
	That doesn't seem like murder from here,	35:47
	but it is.	35:49
	We live in a highly technical society.	35:50
	Children who cannot read and write,	35:54
	even though they have pieces of paper,	35:56
	are being murdered educationally in this country.	35:59
	An area that we really must approach	36:02
	and do something about.	36:05
	And most people will say to me,	36:06
	"well hey, that's the school system."	36:08
	I can't do anything about that.	36:10
	You might not be able to affect the entire country,	36:12
	but you can affect the school up on the corner.	36:17
	Our kids' little brains are being drowned in drugs.	36:23
	And you may say to me, "hey, that's the Mafia.	36:29
	"I can't do nothing about that."	36:31
	You might not be able to stop the drug flow	36:36
	into this country, but you can make it very clear	36:38
	to whoever's pushing to your children	36:42
	that he will not sell any drugs on your block.	36:45
	And that he won't have to ask who turned him up	36:48
	if you see him selling drugs.	36:51
	You'll look around	36:56
	and if enough blocks pull together that way,	36:57
	you could have a drug-free town	37:01
	or maybe a drug-free state.	37:05
	But it requires the work of individuals.	37:07
	I said to myself when all this was going on,	37:13
	where are the leaders?	37:17
	'Cause if any of you remember this in the beginning,	37:20
	there was conspiracy of silence	37:23
	from not only the black leaders,	37:26
	but from the white leaders.	37:29
	Nobody was saying anything.	37:32
	But I looked around me	37:37
	and I discovered the leaders.	37:40
	There was Mrs. Taylor.	37:44
	There was Mrs. Mathis.	37:47
	There was me.	37:49
	There were other people in other communities.	37:51
	There were the people that pulled this thing together here.	37:54
	The leaders were there--	37:58
	the leaders have always been there.	38:00
	The leaders are us.	38:02
	The leaders are the people that had enough get up	38:05
	and go to get up and get out tonight	38:08
	to find out what was going on.	38:11
	That's where the leaders are.	38:12
	And that's where the leaders have always been.	38:19
	Another thing that strikes me as very, very strange	38:26
	that we're gonna have to deal with	38:29
	if we want to make a difference in this country	38:31
	for our future, is that we only have one tool,	38:36
	one weapon with which to fight bad government	38:42
	that is valid,	38:47
	and the only weapon we have is the vote.	38:49
	And we are throwing it away wholesale.	38:53
	We have a man in the White House today	38:57
	that one-fourth of the	38:59
	eligible-to-vote population elected	39:02
	because half of the people who were	39:09
	eligible to vote said "nobody I want can win,"	39:12
	so they didn't go to the polls.	39:18
	Another half of the people scattered their vote around	39:23
	through whoever was there.	39:26
	And that other small fourth,	39:30
	actually not even a whole fourth	39:33
	because I think it was like less than 49%	39:35
	of the entire voting,	39:38
	of the people that voted,	39:40
	so that really gives you just a little bit less than half,	39:42
	those people	39:45
	voted for Ronald Reagan.	39:49
	So he got elected.	39:53
	So what that basically boils down to is	39:54
	75% of the people in the country who were eligible	39:56
	to vote didn't want the President that got elected.	39:59
	I mean who were registered to vote.	40:05
	But that doesn't even count the massive numbers	40:10
	who are not even registered.	40:12
	Anybody that's sitting in here	40:16
	or in this area wearing a green ribbon	40:18
	that is over 18 years old and not registered to vote,	40:23
	I personally would appreciate it if you take it off	40:27
	'cause you're part of the problem.	40:30
	Now that may seem strange	40:36
	but you can't tell me	40:38
	that you are concerned	40:42
	about children in this country	40:44
	when you are the only people who can make change	40:46
	for children in this country,	40:51
	and you refuse to pick up the weapons	40:53
	that you have to work with.	40:55
	I don't know.	41:02
	Sometimes, sometimes I'm angry,	41:03
	and sometimes I'm just a little bit saddened	41:06
	by what's happening.	41:08
	Because I'm watching budget cuts	41:10
	that will allow children to go hungry.	41:17
	I'm watching budget cuts that will allow	41:22
	families not to be able to maintain a breadwinner.	41:27
	I'm looking at even Social Security cuts	41:34
	that will cut off educational benefits	41:38
	to children whose fathers died	41:41
	to give them those educational benefits.	41:44
	And that sort of bothers me,	41:51
	but these things are going on	41:54
	because the bosses of the politicians	41:57
	refuse to boss.	42:01
	And you're saying to me, who are the bosses?	42:04
	The people are the bosses,	42:10
	and the people are not going back	42:13
	to those politicians and saying we want this	42:16
	and we will have it,	42:20
	and not saying it forcefully enough.	42:23
	I just sort of halfway believe	42:28
	that certain things could be straightened out	42:30
	if people across the country said	42:32
	to the people who are presently	42:34
	in the Senate and the Congress,	42:37
	now we can't recall Ronald Reagan 'cause he's the President.	42:38
	We'd have to impeach him,	42:42
	but either you all get this nonsense straightened out	42:43
	or we'll recall every man jack of you.	42:46
	I bet it would straighten out,	42:49
	and I bet it would straighten out quickly.	42:50
	But that requires the people standing up	42:54
	and that requires believing in the Constitution	42:57
	and believing that the American way works.	43:00
	And then going out and making it work.	43:04
	A lot of people see that lack	43:11
	of situation as a racial issue.	43:13
	I basically see it more as a class issue	43:19
	than a racial issue	43:23
	because a lot of people are looking at the Atlanta problem	43:26
	from the point of view of what's happening	43:29
	to Blacks in this country,	43:32
	where I am looking at it from the point of view	43:37
	of what's happening to poor people in this country	43:40
	and what's happening to the nearly poor in this country.	43:45
	I basically really wonder whether	43:55
	there is a true racial issue	43:57
	in America or whether it's all a class issue,	44:01
	whether it all boils down to people who control	44:07
	the wealth and power in this country pitting	44:11
	people who control very little of it against each other	44:16
	to keep them fighting	44:20
	so that they won't recognize	44:24
	what they're doing without.	44:30
	I basically feel sorry for most people who are the rank	44:33
	and file of the Klan	44:36
	because if I had to believe that the only thing	44:38
	that I had going for me,	44:42
	discount your good sense,	44:46
	discount your ability to do anything,	44:49
	discount any talent,	44:53
	the only thing you got going for you that matters	44:54
	is the color of your skin,	44:57
	I believe I'd go out and shoot myself.	44:58
	If the only thing going for you is something	45:02
	that you can't control,	45:04
	then you have seriously got a problem.	45:07
	If I have a brain, I can learn to read a little bit more	45:10
	and maybe learn a little bit more if that counts.	45:12
	If I have a talent, maybe I can develop it if that counts.	45:15
	But if all I have going for me	45:19
	is something that I can't make any lighter, any darker,	45:23
	any thicker, any thinner,	45:28
	something that was just handed to me when I was born,	45:31
	and that's all I've go going for me,	45:33
	then I am in serious trouble	45:36
	and that's what a lot	45:38
	of the children who are being raised by	45:40
	and trained by people within the Klan are being taught.	45:45
	Yes, they're dangerous.	45:48
	I'd be the last person to say that they weren't dangerous.	45:52
	But they're also more to be pitied than censored.	45:57
	And to the organizations,	46:06
	especially the organized leftist groups	46:08
	that would seek to fight and destroy them,	46:12
	I think you'd do them a favor to go and organize them	46:20
	and teach them and work with them and train them	46:24
	because they're looking for the same thing I'm looking for.	46:27
	I have a whole lot more in common	46:30
	with a white mother who has to figure out	46:33
	how she's gonna come up with dinner tomorrow	46:35
	for her three kids	46:39
	than I do with	46:42
	a Jesse Jackson	46:46
	or a Benjamin Hooks who are never gonna have	46:47
	to worry about that kind of problem,	46:50
	even if she happens to be racist in her thoughts	46:53
	because that's the way she's been trained.	46:57
	And she has a whole lot more in common with me.	47:03
	And we have to reach across that line	47:06
	because the line is not that broad.	47:09
	We're both suffering under the same thing.	47:14
	Both of us suffer under the fact that we're women	47:16
	which means that if there's a job	47:21
	we not gonna get paid as much for it--no way.	47:23
	They're gonna tell us about	47:26
	men need more money because they've got	47:31
	families to support--which is an interesting philosophy--	47:33
	'cause I wonder what they consider	47:36
	those three little people that depend on what I do.	47:38
	She's gonna be just as likely as I am	47:45
	to wind up on welfare.	47:48
	If she's a single mother,	47:52
	she's going to catch just as much flack	47:54
	and be treated just as badly,	47:57
	have just as good a chance of her children being sick	47:59
	and not being able to go to the doctor	48:02
	because there's no money to pay for it	48:03
	and because doctors tend not to want	48:05
	to take Medicaid anymore.	48:07
	And also it's other things that go along with it.	48:08
	And so I see her	48:13
	as more of a waylaid sister	48:16
	who doesn't know what's happening to her,	48:21
	who needs you of the left	48:25
	who really are aware,	48:30
	who really are aware of what's happening	48:34
	in this country to go and talk to her.	48:38
	In the '60's the left was asked to go	48:40
	and organize the white community	48:44
	and it didn't.	48:47
	And now I see a lot of crying because the Klan did.	48:49
	That call's still out there.	48:54
	Go organize the white community.	48:56
	And to those of the center,	49:02
	you know, the middle of the road folks,	49:05
	you're gonna have to do some standing up	49:09
	and some looking at what's right and what's wrong	49:12
	and if what's right takes a step off	49:17
	to the left every once in a while,	49:19
	then step that way.	49:21
	And if what's right takes a step off	49:23
	to the right every once in a while,	49:25
	you're gonna have to step that way.	49:27
	You can't walk the middle of the road forever.	49:29
	You're gonna have to do what's right	49:36
	because it's right.	49:38
	Basically, during the Vietnam era	49:44
	it was wrong to napalm Vietnamese babies.	49:48
	That's a leftist statement.	49:53
	It was still wrong.	49:55
	In other times it was wrong to do things	50:00
	that were on the left side of the ledge.	50:02
	But they were still wrong.	50:06
	We're going to have to move whichever way is necessary	50:09
	to bring this country down the middle,	50:13
	to bring this country where it's supposed to go.	50:16
	And in doing so, maybe we'll be able	50:20
	to leave just a little bit of future here	50:23
	for the children of America	50:25
	because that's who's getting the short end	50:27
	of the stick in the long run.	50:29
	The children of America is who's dying.	50:32
	Thank you so much.	50:36
	(clapping)	50:38
	(clapping)	50:40
	(clapping)	50:42
	(clapping)	50:44
	(clapping)	50:46
	(clapping)	50:48
	(clapping)	50:51
	(clapping)	50:53
	(clapping)	50:55
	(clapping)	50:57
	(clapping)	50:59
	(clapping)	51:01
	(clapping)	51:03
	(clapping)	51:05
	This is the fourth time in three days	51:08
	that I have forgotten to announce the rally	51:12
	in Washington on the 25th of May,	51:17
	which is Memorial Day,	51:20
	in which The Committee to Stop Children's Murders	51:22
	and other groups of parents	51:26
	of children who've been murdered and or missing	51:28
	and other people concerned about children	51:31
	are coming together in Washington, D.C.	51:34
	and taking the bad check that Dr. King took once	51:38
	to Washington back to Washington.	51:43
	And you're all invited.	51:46
	It will be at the Lincoln Memorial	51:47
	at one o'clock in Washington, D.C.,	51:50
	and you're invited to come out.	51:53
	Please be there.	51:54
-	We do have to be out of here at eight	52:01
	or a little after for a rehearsal	52:04
	that is upcoming.	52:07
	There will be time for questions at the reception	52:08
	again immediately following.	52:12
	During the second hymn there will be a collection.	52:14
	The proceeds will be donated	52:18
	to The Committee to Stop Children's Murders.	52:20
	(organ music)	52:28
	(organ music)	52:30
	(organ music)	52:33
	(organ music)	52:35
	(organ music)	52:38
	(organ music)	52:40
	(organ music)	52:43
	(organ music)	52:45
	(organ music)	52:47
	(organ music)	52:50
	(organ music)	52:52
	(organ music)	52:55
	(organ music)	52:57
	(organ music)	52:59
	(organ music)	53:02
	(organ music)	53:04
	(organ music)	53:07
	(organ music)	53:09
	(organ music)	53:12
	(organ music)	53:14
	(organ music)	53:16
	(organ music)	53:19
	(organ music)	53:21
	(organ music)	53:23
	(organ music)	53:26
	(organ music)	53:28
	(organ music)	53:31
	(organ music)	53:33
	(organ music)	53:36
	(organ music)	53:38
	(organ music)	53:40
	(organ music)	53:43
	(organ music)	53:45
	(organ music)	53:48
	(organ music)	53:50
	(organ music)	53:53
	(organ music)	53:55
	(organ music)	53:58
	(organ music)	54:00
	(organ music)	54:03
	(organ music)	54:05
	(organ music)	54:07
	(organ music)	54:09
	(organ music)	54:12
	(organ music)	54:14
	(organ music)	54:17
	(organ music)	54:19
	(organ music)	54:22
	(organ music)	54:24
	(organ music)	54:27
	(organ music)	54:29
	(organ music)	54:31
	(organ music)	54:34
	♪ When you walk through a storm ♪	54:37
	♪ Hold your head up high ♪	54:44
	♪ And don't be afraid of the dark ♪	54:51
	♪ At the end of the storm ♪	55:03
	♪ Is a golden sky ♪	55:08
	♪ And the sweet sliver song ♪	55:14
	♪ Of the lark ♪	55:21
	♪ Walk on through the wind ♪	55:28
	♪ Walk on through the rain ♪	55:34
	♪ Though your dreams be tossed ♪	55:40
	♪ And blown ♪	55:47
	♪ Walk on, walk on ♪	55:54
	♪ With hope in your heart ♪	55:59
	♪ And you'll never ♪	56:05
	♪ Walk alone ♪	56:09
	♪ You'll never ♪	56:17
	♪ Walk alone ♪	56:22
	♪ Walk on through the wind ♪	56:32
	♪ Walk on through the rain ♪	56:38
	♪ Though your dreams be tossed ♪	56:44
	♪ And blown ♪	56:51
	♪ Walk on, walk on ♪	56:57
	♪ With hope in your heart ♪	57:02
	♪ And you'll never ♪	57:08
	♪ Walk alone ♪	57:12
	♪ You'll never ♪	57:20
	♪ Walk alone ♪	57:26
	(organ music)	57:34
	(organ music)	57:37
	(organ music)	57:39
-	I'm going to ask that you remain seated	57:49
	while we engage ourselves in the benediction.	57:52
	(clears throat)	57:56
	Two things I got from this talk,	57:57
	particularly from this mother.	58:00
	She said we need each other,	58:03
	and we are responsible for each other.	58:08
	And as we look into this sick world,	58:13
	all of the killings,	58:16
	attempted assassinations,	58:19
	riots and violence everywhere,	58:23
	we would ask God's blessings upon us.	58:26
	Second thing she said,	58:31
	a lot of us go out and do business as usual.	58:34
	(chuckles) I heard her say that.	58:37
	Many of us are going back to do business as usual.	58:40
	I'm gonna ask therefore,	58:42
	you need each other,	58:44
	that you would reach out and get a hand.	58:46
	Yes, with the person next to you,	58:49
	and bow your head.	58:51
	Reach out and get a hand.	58:53
	Go up here (mumbles).	58:54
	That's right.	58:56
	(mumbles)	58:56
	No I think they can just be seated,	58:58
	be all right.	59:00
	You all in the audience just be seated,	59:01
	bow your head, and get a hand.	59:03
	And bow with me and whatever you feel,	59:06
	the blessing that you need particularly,	59:10
	so that we will not go out of here	59:12
	and do business as usual.	59:15
	You can ask God's richest benediction upon you.	59:17
	And may we bow for our benediction.	59:21
	You listened oh God	59:28
	to a message.	59:30
	And we ask you now as we leave this building,	59:33
	as we leave this church,	59:39
	as we leave this sanctuary,	59:40
	and as we even creep up to Easter Sunday morning	59:44
	and before we get there as we creep up to Friday	59:50
	of this week,	59:52
	we are reminded of other killings.	59:55
	We're reminded of even the killing	59:59
	of your son, Jesus Christ.	1:00:01
	So now we pray that as we live in this sick world	1:00:06
	we will not be helpless.	1:00:10
	Not be hopeless.	1:00:13
	That somehow you will get into us	1:00:17
	and let peace and harmony	1:00:20
	and justice start with us right now.	1:00:22
	As we pray for this university,	1:00:25
	those who responsible for getting us here,	1:00:27
	the parents of those children,	1:00:30
	the relatives and friends of all of us,	1:00:34
	may we go out of here with a greater determination	1:00:38
	that you are not dead.	1:00:42
	You are not dead.	1:00:43
	You are not dead.	1:00:44
	Some of us wonder where are you?	1:00:45
	What are you doing?	1:00:47
	But may we resolve in ourselves that we will let you in	1:00:48
	and we will not walk alone.	1:00:52
	Will we depend upon you to walk with us,	1:00:54
	to change us and the situation.	1:00:57
	Let us all say Amen.	1:01:00
-	Amen.	1:01:02
	(mumbles)	1:01:03
	(paper rustling)	1:01:04
	(mumbling)	1:01:07
	(mumbling)	1:01:12
	(mumbling)	1:01:15
	(mumbling)	1:01:17
	(mumbling)	1:01:19
	(mumbling)	1:01:21
	(mumbling)	1:01:24
	(mumbling)	1:01:26
	(mumbling)	1:01:29
	(mumbling)	1:01:31

Item Info

Title:

[unknown] - "Service of Concern for Atlanta's Children" (April 13, 1981)

Description:

Sermon start time: 08:59. Sermon end time: 50:38.
In this moving speech, a mother of one of the children murdered in Atlanta during a serial spree speaks to the congregation about how this situation has demonstrated the inequalities facing Black and underserved children. She testifies about her work to bring justice to the children and urges the congregation to be politically active. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: "The leaders were there--the leaders have always been there. The leaders are us. The leaders are the people that had enough...to get up and get out tonight to find out what was going on. That's where the leaders are. And that's where the leaders have always been." (37:58)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4g44j55k

Date:

April 13, 1981

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-1150
ref7516_5r2
uachapelsermaud
duke:320864
dcrau002027
ark:/87924/r4g44j55k
60b7e596-614c-4127-aecf-998285794f23

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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