When I Liberate Others, I Liberate Myself.

Now Many Things Are Beginning To Come Out And It Was Truly A Reality To Me When I Went To Africa, To Guinea. The Little Things That Had Been Taught To Me About The African People, That They Were "heathens," "savages," And They Were Just Downright Stupid People. But When I Got To Guinea, We Were Greeted By The Government Of Guinea, Which Is Black People - And We Stayed At A Place That Was The Government Building, Because We Were The Guests Of The Government.

In Coming To Atlantic City, We Believed Strongly That We Were Right. In Fact, It Was Just Right For Us To Come To Challenge The Seating Of The Regular Democratic Party From Mississippi. But We Didn't Think When We Got There That We Would Meet People, That Actually The Other Leaders Of The Movement Would Differ With What We Felt Was Right.

Actually Since The Convention I Have Gotten So Many Letters That I Have Tried To Answer But Every Letter Said They Thought This Decision, Not To Accept The Compromise, Was So Important. There Wasn't One Letter I Have Gotten So Far That Said We Should Have Accepted The Compromise - Not One.

I Remember, And I Will Never Forget, One Day - I Was Six Years Old And I Was Playing Beside The Road And This Plantation Owner Drove Up To Me And Stopped And Asked Me "could I Pick Some Cotton." I Told Him I Didn't Know And He Said, "yes, You Can. I Will Give You Things That You Want From The Commissary Store," And He Named A Huge List That He Called Off. I Picked The 30 Pounds Of Cotton That Week, But I Found Out What Actually Happened Was He Was Trapping Me Into Beginning The Work I Was To Keep Doing And I Never Did Get Out Of His Debt Again.

I Think There Will Be Great Leaders Emerging From The State Of Mississippi. The People That Have The Experience To Know And The People Not Interested In Letting Somebody Pat You On The Back And Tell Us "i Think It Is Right." And It Is Very Important For Us Not To Accept A Compromise And After I Got Back To Mississippi, People There Said It Was The Most Important Step That Had Been Taken.