Southern Rites

1

(music playing)

Keyke Burns:
The day you

met me, when you asked me,

you know, did I go to

school? Was I in high school,

went to prom together,

I knew what it was about.

And, yes, I was excited,

because finally, you know,

story is getting out,

and hoping for a change

and, you know, I was really excited

and my daddy was really excited.

We was all just excited.

We was just wanted... we really

wanted you to see our side.

I got in a lot of trouble

with some of the students

for trying to integrate it.

They told me, "What are you

doing? It's not the parents."

It is us, we don't want it together

and you need to stop trying

to do this." I got cussed out.

I talked to my boyfriend and I

said, "Let's just go to both."

But when I went to buy the tickets

to the white prom, I was not allowed.

I was told that if my

date was going to be black,

he wouldn't be let in.

So we just went to the black prom.

And I feel like the rest of

the world will look at us like,

"What in the hell? They

go to school together,

they play basketball together,

they cheerlead together.

They're best friends.

You know, it's happening everywhere,

why can't it happen in

a small town like this?"

Woman:
This community

and this school system

is fine like it is. We

don't want to change it.

We want to live the way

our grandparents lived

and the way our great-grandparents lived.

Why change something that has worked?

Just leave it alone.

And then, even with the little kids

in elementary school, they

pick a black elementary girl

and a white elementary girl.

They even make the

little kids be segregated.

It's so sad, I didn't even notice it.

The little kids don't even know,

but they're making them, you know,

learn that you are black, you are white.

It's sad. I didn't even notice that.

Gillian Laub:
Until just now?

Yeah, I guess I didn't

recognize it till now

that they are actually teaching kids

to be, you know, segregated, to be...

be black, be white. No, be

a color instead of a person.

Be your color, act your

color, know your place.

Man:
My grandma told me

red birds and blue birds

don't nest together.

They'd come out with a

red head and a blue ass.

I mean, I just don't feel like it's right,

that's what my grandma told me

and I believe she was right.

- Laub:
Hey!

- Do not put that in my face.

And the problem is, you are not

supposed to be on school property

- unless you are signed in.

- Oh, okay.

Hey, what newspaper are you with?

Laub:
What?

What newspaper are you with?

(Laub screaming)

Hey! No, no, no! What are you doing?

- Man:
This is our property.

- Laub:
No, no, no, no!

- Sanders:
You got problems, honey.

- Laub:
I'm sorry, I'll leave.

-

- (thunder rumbling)

(cheering)

Hey!

(horn honking)

Calvin Burns:
This is south Georgia.

The further you go north, Atlanta,

everything's pretty well normal.

The further you go south, Miami,

everything's pretty well normal.

This is middle Georgia,

Mount Vernon, Georgia.

Things going to stay the way it is.

Female:
It's our heritage, is what it is,

and it's not racist.

It's just the Southern way.

So we start our babies out

hunting and wearing camouflage.

All these people that run around

screaming the Confederate flag is racist...

in my opinion, they're not

stupid, they're ignorant,

because ignorance is the absence

of really knowing what happened.

I'm not going to hide it for nobody.

If I want to show the rebel flag, I'm

going to, because that's my heritage.

Peoples in Michigan, New York,

Virginia, they ain't got a

clue what we talking about.

You got to come here

and live to understand.

The problem is done too far gone.

If you got to...

like that tree right there,

if you don't like that tree,

you can go take a limb off of that tree,

cut it off, that tree ain't going to die.

It'll keep growing.

But if you get down there to the root

and cut that root, it will die.

And that's what's going on.

People ain't going to the...

to the major problem, they just

messing with the little branches.

Get to the root of the problem

and then you can fix it.

Operator:
911.

(Norman Neesmith speaking)

Operator:
What's wrong?

With... with who?

Is this Mr. Neesmith?

You and your daughter?

No?

Okay.

All right.

Well, that's good to hear.

Operator:
You think you shot him?

You don't know who

it was, Mr. Norman?

It was a black boy.

Is he still there?

He hit the woods?

Just talk to me, Mr. Norman, okay?

Did you shoot him in the residence

or outside the residence?

In the house?

Do you need an ambulance, Mr. Norman?

-

- Okay, okay.

What kind of... what kind of

gun did you shoot him with?

A .22?

A .22 pistol, right?

Shot him with a .22 pistol?

I'm going to let you know

when... yeah, a black male.

Do you know what he had on, Mr. Norman?

A dark jacket?

And baggy britches.

Okay, Mr. Norman, listen to me.

I want you to walk away from the gun, okay?

Because the deputy's there, I want

you to go meet him at the door, okay?

Neesmith:
I will. I will.

My first love was Justin Patterson.

I was 14.

He was my ninth grade homecoming date.

For the very first year

we was going together,

we did not speak at all.

He was so shy and I was shy,

we never talked.

So it took a whole year

before we even did anything,

kissed, hugged, said,

"I love you," anything.

We dated, like, straight

on for, like, two years,

and then on and off my whole high

school career until 12th grade.

Justin Patterson was my first everything,

everything.

(laughs)

Yeah.

My best friend was Justin Patterson,

but we all called him Pat.

That's Justin. That's me.

We started in kindergarten together,

and we grew up, did a

lot of things together,

met a lot of different people,

played basketball, and...

(sighs)

... when he died, it just...

it just changed everything.

That top says, "RIP Pat,"

and it has his name, Justin Patterson,

his birthday, January 23rd, 1989,

the day he died, January 29th, 2011.

And it got his last...

his last Facebook status, "Why me?"

Why me?

Laub:
What happened the day

that you found out that he died?

Keyke:
My mama woke me up maybe around

6:
00 and told me, "You

know, Justin got shot."

And I was like, "Okay, he

okay?" She was like, "No."

I said, "What do you mean no?"

And she's like, he died

about 3:
00 that morning.

And I just...

in shock, I couldn't really get

up, I just stayed in bed for hours.

Neesmith:
I ain't never been scared.

I ain't bragging or nothing, but the...

the person I'm scared

of ain't been born yet.

I ain't never been scared of nobody,

you know, really scared,

because if you had a problem with somebody,

you know, you could walk up

to them and talk about it.

But see... but now, you can't do that.

You can't talk a problem out

if you and somebody have a disagreement.

You can't do it no more, that's

what I'm telling you about,

the way this country's getting

or the people in this country.

I remember when a head shake...

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