Blood Done Sign My Name Page #8

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was fractured.

Did you hit

him with it?

I refuse to answer on the grounds

that it may incriminate me.

Who told you

to say that?

Who told you to plead

the Fifth Amendment?

My lawyers.

Mr. Watkins.

And did they tell you that

all the witnesses had testified

that Larry was holding the gun?

And that if you said

that you shot the rifle

and that it

was an accident,

that your father and brother

might not have to go to prison?

I refuse to answer on the...

Your brother shot that

boy, didn't he, Roger?

And you and your daddy

helped kill him, didn't you?

They let you stay home with

your wife and your baby.

Now you're supposed

to help them

and say that

you shot him

because they know there

isn't a witness anywhere

that can testify

to that effect.

Nobody but your wife

and your attorney,

and neither one of them

can testify against you.

But I'm sure they told you

that, too, didn't they, Roger?

No further questions.

[hubbub of voices]

(female voices)

Lieutenant Williams,

why wasn't the third man indicted?

There was a

third party mentioned

from time to time

during the investigation,

but none of my witnesses

were able to make

a positive identification

of a third person,

and they all saw the defendant,

Larry Teel, fire the fatal shot.

[clears throat]

Three men beat

Dickie Marrow

while he helplessly

begged for his life,

more than a hundred feet

off of their property.

First they shot him

as he was running away,

and then, when he was

flat on his back,

they beat him,

and they kicked him.

And they stomped him

and hit him in the

head with a shotgun butt

over and over.

Then they put a bullet in his head,

just like you or I

would kill a snake,

and they called it

self-defense.

Then, after the state

proved beyond any doubt

that this killing

was by no stretch

of the imagination

an act of self-defense,

they came up

with a new story.

An accident.

Or what

they might call...

accidental self-defense.

Of course, there is no such

category, ladies and gentlemen,

and nothing remotely

like that happened.

This case is one of

the most serious cases

ever to be tried

in this state.

And the outcome will affect

events in this community,

the state of

North Carolina,

and across the nation.

We cannot tell the world

that we have one system

of justice for Negroes

and another for whites.

We must face the truth

and we must act upon it

or be damned

by our lies forever.

[baby crying]

(female voice)

Shh shh shh.

[baby gurgles quietly]

I...I hear that baby cry,

and I can't help but

think about a little girl

going to have

to grow up now

without knowing

her father.

And I can't help

but hear that cry

as a cry from

Dickie Marrow,

saying, "Don't

let them kill me...

"and just tell the world

it was an accident.

Please!...Don't let

them do that to me."

And if you do,

ladies and gentlemen,

well, you may as

well hang a wreath

on the courthouse door on the way out,

because you just as

clearly say to the world

that justice is dead...in

Granville County.

[indistinct music

on jukebox]

[sigh]

What's your plan, Ben?

What's my plan?

M m-hmm.

You mean

for tomorrow?

The day

after tomorrow.

I haven't really thought about it. Why?

There's been a killing

down in Louisiana.

Young girl. They need

a stoker down there.

That's not what they

need here anymore.

After tomorrow...

they need a leader.

The jury's coming back!

[excited chatter]

(girl)

Hey!

[organ]

(judge)

Mr. Foreman,

has the jury reached

a unanimous verdict?

We have, Your Honor.

[organ]

[church bell tolling slowly]

Will the defendants

please rise?

We, the members

of the jury,

unanimously find the defendant

Larry Teel not guilty...

[indistinct angry shouting]

[gavel

pounding continuously]

[shouting, pounding continues]

Let us pray.

Father, we have

been tempted

to love things

and use people.

When we have

been called

to love people

and use things.

We ask Your forgiveness

for our complicity in these sins

and in the evils

of our own time.

And pray Your healing

upon our hearts.

Amen.

[female voice

sings in choir]

a You've got

To know a

(choir) a You've got To know a

a Well a

a It may be hard a

a You may be poor a

a You may be rich a

a Now when we all a

a Get ready a

a You gotta move a

a You've got

To move a a

[sigh]

Why?

Why?

Why?

[murmuring]

No, not...not... not

why did this happen,

'cause we know

the answer to that.

Yes, that's right.

Why do we do

what we do?

Every day

in this town.

(man)

We know better.

[chattering]

Why do we watch movies

at white-owned theaters

where we still must

sit in the balconies

and enter and exit

through a side door?

Why do we spend our money

in stores where blacks

are only welcomed as customers

and never as employees.

That's right.

That's right.

And why do we put our money into banks

that refuse to hire

blacks except as janitors,

and are loathe to give us loans

for anything except automobiles.

Why is there only one

African-American on the police force

and none on the

fire department?

[indistinct],

grocery store workers...

Yet we make up 40% of the

population of this county.

Why?

Why do we

do what we do

every day

in this town?

Fear?

Tradition?

No, that's not good enough, not anymore.

Power concedes nothing without a demand,

and we need to start

demanding some things, people.

And I'm not talking about

sometime in the future,

it's a change that needs

to happen right now.

Right now.

Until that change comes,

we need to take

our money elsewhere.

(woman) He started the change.

That took strength.

That took a

lot of strength.

The women held

it together.

Mostly, we shopped

out of town.

Went to Henderson.

Yes. Durham.

Durham.

It took a while.

About three months.

Yeah, about

three months.

It worked.

Because we took dollars away from here

and took them

somewhere else.

Exactly.

After the tobacco

warehouses was destroyed,

the tobacco market

moved on down to Kinston.

And everybody felt it,

especially the white people.

(Vernon) Dick? What you doing out here?

Hey vErnon.

Vernon.

Gray.

C'mon in.

Close the

door, please.

That's a right good-size hole

you're digging there, brethren.

Yeah. We're digging a hole

big enough so we can bury

every sorry sumbitch

in Oxford.

(man) Well, that's the stupidest

damn thing l've ever heard of.

Who's going to be left

to cover us all up?

[laughs] That's good. That's real good.

(Vernon) And they have

sand dunes in Wilmington.

White, white sand dunes.

Where it's the ocean

in the distance there.

And we're gonna run

over them sand dunes

and we're gonna

run in the water.

And we're gonna just go

crazy. You in? You in?

You in? Yeah?

[sniffles]

[sigh]

[openly sobs]

Hey, $5.00, please, and

can I borrow that air gauge?

C'mon, pumpkin.

Thank you.

Daddy?

Did we get run

out of town?

Of course not.

We've been offered a

new church in Wilmington.

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