Please take a seat quickly and quietly.
[gavel pounds]
Proceed.
I saw three men standing over Dickie.
Can you identify those men?
Yes.
Two of them are over there.
Robert Teel, he had a shotgun,
and Larry Teel, he had a rifle.
Where's the third man?
Your Honor, none of the witnesses were able
to positively identify the third man.
[sigh]
[birds chirping]
[sigh]
Hey, Momma.
Hey.
I took my students to the Teel hearing today.
I heard.
Quite a show.
Yeah, it was a show, all right.
I just wanted them to witness the legal process, you know?
All they saw was the same old Oxford.
Every rich businessman in town sang that killer's praises
like he was the Lord Jesus himself.
I made a phone call today.
I called Ralph Abernathy.
He's sending someone to help.
[female voice sings spiritual type song]
♫ Mmm ♫
♫ Oh, freedom ♫
♫ Oh, freedom over me ♫
♫ Before I'll be a slave ♫
♫ I'll be buried ln my grave ♫
♫ And go home To my Lord and be free ♫
Good morning, gentlemen.
I thought I was coming to a funeral.
You fellows look like you're expecting an attack.
We're expecting a fellow from out of state to stir things up.
Stir things up? What's his name?
His name's Frinks.
Golden Frinks?
He's coming here?
Hoo-hoo, hell of a speaker.
That man can flat-out ring the bells of heaven
when you get him going.
You ever heard him preach?
No. Can't say that we have.
Hot as a pepper.
He was with the late Dr. King
in Selma, Montgomery, and Birmingham.
I heard he been arrested over 50 times
for his civil rights involvement.
And on top of all of that,
he's a hell of a sharp dresser.
You boys ever seen a picture of him?
No, sir.
He always wears a dashiki
with a big cross 'round his neck.
But stir things up?
Now, I don't know how you can stir up a funeral.
We can't let you in, Mr. Frinks.
I understand. I understand completely.
I see them watches.
You boys get them in Vietnam?
Yes, sir.
Well, you know Dickie Marrow was a vet, too.
He served.
He was a soldier, just like y'all.
And he deserves a whole lot better than all of this.
No, sir, Mr. Jones.
You're not too late. Go right ahead.
(pastor) ...one of the closest Scriptures in my heart,
and I say that--
[spectators] Praise the Lord.
I n the name of our Lord, the Almighty.
Amen.
(spectators) Amen.
Yes. Amen.
Pastor, could I say a few words?
Thank you.
This young man--
was a husband, he was a daddy.
He was a son, an uncle...
and a cousin.
For 30 years, l've been attending the funerals of soldiers.
Soldiers of the movement.
And l've had enough of it.
(several) Yes, sir.
Now, I know we're here to bury Dickie Marrow today,
but when I look in your faces,
I see there's something else that needs to be buried.
Discrimination.
(several) Yes.
Segregation.
(several) That's right.
(woman) Amen. Yes.
Bigotry!
(several) That's right!
And all the complicity
of pulling a people down.
(many) Yeah!
(man) That's right! Yes!
Now, to them downtown who put that statue up,
this young man here
is just another nigger dead.
(man) Yeah.
But it ain't gonna end that way
'cause what's gonna end up dead is Jim Crow!
Jim Crow's gonna be dead.
(Boo) Yes.
Now, I know we ain't got no permit.
We ain't got nothing.
But we are marching on.
(several) That's right. M m-hmm.
We're going to go march
to that Confederate monument downtown,
and we're going to tell that old soldier
it's time for him to come down.
(many voices assent)
And that South that he's guarding
for all those years is dead.
And we will tell him loud, like,
because he's a old man
and he has a hard time hearing these kind of things.
(man) Preach it now, preach it.
You don't represent us, and you never did!
(woman) Yes! Go ahead!
This here is our South, too!
(man) That's right.
We were born here...
grew up here...
work here...
raise our children here...
Yes, Lord.
and we ain't gonna be silent no more!
(many) No more!
And then we're going to tell him
that this young man here, Dickie Marrow,
didn't die for nothing.
Yes, sir.
He died for us.
(several) Yes, he did.
And we're never gonna forget it.
Never! Yes!
♫ Ain't gonna let Nobody know ♫
♫ Turn me around ♫
♫ Turn me around, I ain't Gonna let nobody know ♫
♫ Turn me around, We gotta keep On walking ♫
♫ Keep on talking ♫
♫ Walking up The freedom way ♫
♫ Don't you let nobody know ♫
♫ Turn it around, Turn it around ♫
♫ Turn it around And let segregation know ♫
♫ Turn you around, We gotta keep On walking ♫
♫ Keep on talking ♫
You're Elizabeth Chavis' boy, aren't you?
How you doing, Mr. Frinks? I'm Ben.
Call me Goldie.
Come on, everybody. Unh. Ungawa.
(all) Unh, unh, black power.
Say it again.
Unh. Ungawa.
Mean it.
Unh, unh, black power.
Unh. Ungawa. Unh, unh, black power.
[repeating]
Vernon, I believe your damn has burst.
Ungawa. Black power.
[soul music]
So what's your plan, Goldie?
My plan?
Ben, look all around you.
See these young people?
They are alive and energized
because they had a taste of some of that freedom wine.
[chuckling] And they liked it.
Their spirits are flying right now
with the possibilities
of all that that wonderful drink can bring them.
My plan, as you call it,
is to keep that wine flowing.
And how are you going to do that?
We. How are we gonna keep it flowing?
We start off by getting hold of a mule.
A mule?
[female voice sings]
♫ Hold on, I'm coming ♫
♫ I'm on my way ♫
♫ Your lover ♫
♫ If you get cold, yeah, I will be your cover ♫
♫ Don't have to worry ♫
♫ 'Cause I'm here ♫
♫ Don't need to suffer, baby ♫
♫ 'Cause I'm here ♫
♫ Just hold on ♫
♫ I'm coming ♫
♫ Hold on ♫
All right.
Come here, baby. [laughs]
Here we go. All right.
You okay?
Well, y'all be good now.
(boy's voice) All right, momma.
lf you get thirsty, you go and help yourself, all right?
All right?
Don't worry. Ain't nothing gonna happen.
Seventy people.
A man is murdered, and we got 70 people to march to Raleigh.
It's not where you start.
It's where you end that counts.
Let's go.
Come on.
That's what I'm worrying about.
M ight not be anybody left by the time we get to Raleigh.
[no audible dialogue]
Get back on. Keep on keeping on, sister.
All right.
How long they been back there?
About a half hour.
They just been watching?
They ain't offered me a ride yet.
[tires screeching]
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
(man) Yee-ha! [gunshots]
[women, children scream] [gunshots]
[unintelligible shouting] [shooting continues]
Come on, let's get back on the road.
It's gonna take a lot more than that to stop us.
Is everybody okay?
You all right?
Check everybody out. Check everybody out. Help them out.
It's gonna take a lot more than that.
Let's get back in line and let's keep on marching.
Come on.
It's all locked up.
Thought someone was supposed to be here.
Maybe they got the message that it might not be healthy.
Come on, come on.
You think this is bad? This ain't bad.
You'll know bad when you see it.
What exactly does bad look like?
Fellas, fellas.
Sorry we're late.
Better late than never.
All right then, my brother.
Let's get in here, man.
Hey, guys, bring some food.
Everybody's probably hungry.
So I heard the Klan had meetings all around us last night.
Well, at least somebody knows we're out here.
Come on.
All right. You okay? All right.
Hi!
(little girl's voice) Hi!
Who's this?
I made some calls down east.
Thought it was time to prime the pumps a little bit,
get our numbers right.
Hey, y'all. Right on time.
Welcome, welcome.
Glad y'all here.
Welcome now. Welcome.
I know, baby. I know you don't want to get back on that wagon.
But we just got one more day, okay?
And then we'll be all right.
I love you.
[female voice sings slow song]
♫ Wandering road lead me ♫
♫ To finding my own ♫
I got here as soon as I could.
♫ Place that Was meant For me ♫
So glad you came.
♫ I'm not alone ♫
You okay?
Yeah.
♫ A darkness is parting ♫
♫ How far we've come ♫
♫ A new hope's arising ♫
♫ Leading us on ♫
[no audible dialogue]
♫ Wandering road behind me ♫
♫ Finding my stride ♫
♫ Struggle and pain, sorrow ♫
♫ Till arms open wide ♫
♫ The darkness has parted ♫
♫ No turning back ♫
♫ A new hope's arising ♫
♫ Leading us on ♫
[cheering continues]
Now this is what I'm talking about.
[drumming]
[cheering continues]
Power.
This is a great day
in the history of black people in Raleigh.
[cheering, drumming]
ln North Carolina.
(crowd) Yeah!
Everywhere.
Right now,
Ben Chavis and Henry Marrow's widow, Willie Mae,
they're going to go have a meeting with the Governor.
[crowd cheers]
Yeah!
This is a day for us to come together for justice.
(crowd) Yeah!
[knocking]
Jesus rode into Jerusalem
on the back of a donkey.
Ain't nobody in there.
Willie Mae and her two beautiful daughters--
I thought you said Mr. Frinks contacted the Governor.
That's what he said. That's what he told me.
So many long, hot miles.
50 long, hot miles to bring us right here today.
(crowd) Yes!
All those people who walked
thought we were talking to the Governor.
My girls rode all the way here.
For what?
What?
Please, just get me out of here.
Come on.
Okay.
(Frinks) We will not stop till we have justice! No!
And because blood done signed our names.
Come on! [cheering]
The blood of Martin Luther King.
Blood of Malcolm X.
(many) Yes!
The blood of Medgar Evers.
The blood of Dickie Marrow
brought us here today.
Wait, they're back. Let's hear what they got to say.
Tell us what the Governor said.
Ben Chavis is going to tell us what Governor Scott has said.
(man) Brother, speak!
[clears throat]
Governor Scott has chosen not to meet with us today.
(many) What?
Come on, man.
Neither he nor the Lieutenant Governor
nor any of their staff, though they were told we were coming,
chose to make themselves available!
What the Governor just told us by his absence
is that to the white power structure,
Dickie Marrow's just another nigger dead!
(crowd) No!
Well, Governor, you mark this day on your calendar.
Because the day for begging for black people
in North Carolina is over!
And you will never forget this day again!
[cheering and drumming]
[female voice sings slow song]
♫ Let us praise God together ♫
♫ On our knees ♫
♫ Let us praise God together ♫
♫ On our knees ♫
♫ When I fall on my knees ♫
♫ With my face To the rising sun ♫
♫ O Lord ♫
♫ Have mercy on me ♫
(Frinks) So you see what we accomplished today?
If we stick together and stand together,
there's nothing we can't do.
See you on the bus.
You told Willie Mae that we was going to meet with the Governor
when you knew he wouldn't see us, didn't you?
I told her the truth.
I told her I notified his office that we were coming.
You let her and her girls ride on top of that fake coffin
for 50 miles, knowing that meeting wasn't gonna happen.
That don't bother you?
You think Dickie Marrow's murder
is the worst civil rights lynching ever?
It doesn't even come close to the things I've seen.
And you think her pain is any different
from the pain of those other families?
Now, what's special about his death is
that it gives us an opportunity to make things better.
Who do you think I am?
I'm not Dr. King.
I'm not one of his golden boys.
I'm a stoker, man.
You understand?
They send me in to the towns to keep things hot.
That's my job.
I'm just a stoker.
(anchorman over TV) In Raleigh today,
groups of blacks marched in protest
over the killing of a Negro Oxford man last week.
Governor Scott's refusal to meet with black leaders
has reportedly angered many of the marchers.
Local police in Oxford continue to claim
that the situation there is under control.
Shit, man, put that damn thing out.
Okay, now we sync watches.
Sync on five,
four,
three,
two, one.
(driver) We got a call. Come on.
[siren wails]
Let's go.
[glass smashing]
(Eddie) Go, go, go, go. Go!
Come on.
Hurry up. Hurry up!
Eddie, what you doing, man?
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Something's wrong.
Maybe it didn't catch.
Just give it a second.
Shit. It didn't catch.
Eddie!
Eddie.
[creaking]
I think it worked.
[distant siren wails]
Daddy?
It's big.
Daddy, is it coming here?
(Vernon) Oh, no, honey.
It's okay.
Ain't nothing gonna happen unless you make it.
I've presided over several racially charged cases.
I harbor no prejudice against Negroes.
I was raised in a mainly black county.
I ate with them. I played with them.
We had an instinctive love for the Negro race.
(crowd) Black power!
My secretary is black.
That should show you how I feel about them.
I have heard the arguments
that this community is too turbulent for a trial.
But I do not feel they present
an adequate reason for moving these proceedings.
[all talking at once]
Does it concern you that only 9 of the 100 juror candidates
examined for this trial were black?
No. Why would that concern me?
Because Warren County, from which the jury pool is drawn,
is in fact more than 2/3 black.
This is a fair and impartial jury.
And it'll be a fair and impartial trial.
Mr. Burgwyn, is the prosecution ready?
Yes, we are, Your Honor.
We call Dr. Page Hudson to the stand.
The deceased had two serious fractures of the skull,
one on the top of his head, the other on the back.
He also had bruises and abrasions all over his body,
both .41 0 and 12-gauge shotgun wounds on the backs of his legs,
as well as a .22-caliber bullet wound in the center of his forehead.
I'd been hanging with the fellas
in the shed at the old fish market.
Suddenly I hear Dickie and a white man arguing.
That's when I saw Mr. Teel
come out the store with a shotgun.
And what did you do?
I ran!
I mean, we all ran.
I heard about two or three shots.
And, uh, then I came back.
I saw Larry Teel
standing over Dickie with a shotgun.
I--yelled at him.
"Stop before you kill that boy."
Finally, I heard the shot.
Who was holding the rifle, Mrs. Downing?
Who was holding the gun
that fired the final shot?
Him there.
Larry Teel.
I was on my way to find everybody
when Willie and Jimmie and them flew by me.
Then I heard a shotgun blast.
And after they beat him, what happened?
There was one more shot.
Sounded like a cap pistol.
[gunshot]
No further questions, Your Honor.
Boo, have you ever been in any trouble?
Legal trouble?
Yeah. But I ain't on trial.
What kind of trouble?
Stuff.
Receiving stolen goods,
breaking and entering?
That kind of stuff?
Yeah, but I ain't killed nobody.
I'm sorry. I didn't say you did.
Did you serve time for those crimes?
Yeah.
In fact, you're on probation right now,
isn't that correct?
Yeah.
Mr. Chavis, do you see the man
that fired the shot that killed Dickie Marrow?
Yes.
Will you get up and go over and touch him?
Yeah, sure.
Please.
Touch him.
Thank you. That's all.
[general murmuring]
(judge) Is the defense ready, Mr. Watkins?
Yes, we are, Your Honor.
What did Dickie Marrow say to you?
He said, "Hey, white girl."
Huh.
Had you said anything to him?
No, sir.
And then what happened?
And then Larry told him, "Don't be speaking to her like that."
And then he came at Larry with a knife,
and I screamed for help.
(Larry Teel) He said, "Hey, white girl. Hey, you bitch ."
I said, "Don't talk to my wife like that."
And he said, uh, "Come on, I'm a soul brother."
Then he pulled his knife on me.
After he went down, what happened?
I hit him with my fists,
took the knife away from him, then stood up.
The rifle that shot him.
Were you holding the rifle?
No, sir.
Did you see who was holding it?
No. I was looking down at him on the ground.
Did you recognize the other men?
It was happening so fast.
The boy attacked me.
And I ran after him--
Larry--
did you recognize the other men?
My father was there.
I recognized his voice when he said,
"I'm gonna call an ambulance and the police."
And what about the other man?
I didn't know who he was.
(anchorman over TV) ln a surprise move here Thursday, Larry Teel,
son of a local barber, Robert Teel,
took the witness stand in Granville County Superior Court
and denied that he shot and killed a local Negro man.
(Watkins) Were you holding the rifle?
(Larry) No, sir.
(Watkins) Did you see who was holding it?
So tell me, Roger, one more time, what happened.
I heard Judy call for help.
I ran after my father.
When I got to the other side of the fish market,
I saw him and Larry and joined them.
Did Larry Teel at any time that night
have a gun in his hand?
No.
Then how could that last shot have been fired?
Roger?
I was holding it.
Someone bumped my shoulder, and the gun went off.
[weeping]
I didn't mean to kill anybody.
It was an accident.
No further questions, Your Honor.
(attorney) lf this was an accident,
why did you let your father and brother
stand trial for first-degree murder?
'Cause my lawyers told me not to say nothing.
Do you mean to tell this jury
that you let them sit in jail
without the privilege of bond for three months,
and didn't tell anybody that you shot this man
or that it was an accident?
Your father and your brother were on trial for their lives!
For their lives!
And you have not set foot in this courtroom
until today!
My attorney told me not to come.
That boy lay on the ground
begging for his life, helpless, Roger.
Did you kick him?
We was all kicking him.
And did you beat him
with the stock of that rifle, Roger?
His skull 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]
♫ You've got To know ♫
(choir) ♫ You've got To know ♫
♫ Well ♫
♫ It may be hard ♫
♫ You may be poor ♫
♫ You may be rich ♫
♫ Now when we all ♫
♫ Get ready ♫
♫ You gotta move ♫
♫ You've got To move ♫ ♫
[sigh]
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.
It's a good church, too.
Some of the kids at my school
said that you were the reason that everything happened.
They said their parents are glad that you're gone.
I imagine some of them'll be crowing about now, that's true.
But you know, the rooster crows and the sun comes up
and that old rooster thinks he done it all by himself.
But the Lord sees it a little bit differently.
I did what I had to do, little buck.
Let's go.
Everybody in the car.
We're on an adventure.
Thank you.
(male voice) Did you ever hear Golden Frinks?
Yeah, I heard Golden Frinks preach once.
Long time ago at a funeral.
He flat rang the bells of heaven, too.
Who's Golden Frinks?
[soft music]
[female voice sings softly]
♫ Wandering road lead me ♫
♫ To finding my own ♫
♫ A place that was Meant for me ♫
♫ I'm not alone ♫
♫ A darkness ♫
♫ ls parting ♫
♫ How far we've come ♫
♫ A new hope's arising ♫
♫ Leading us on ♫