Because you remember Meredith was walking along the highway there and somebody shot him.
I don't know how a fellow looks, when he meets somebody that he hasn't seen, hasn't heard of, don't know where they are, know nothing about the house, whatever.
People were walking and they had formed the car pools. People were driving folks to work. Others were walking to work, where it wasn't too far.
Right, right, he saw his power slipping away. And he said, "Now I'd better join the band here." They gave us their support. It was going along quite well.
Some teachers had been trained to work out at Southern because I carried two out there. I carried a lady down here from Palmer's Crossing, used to play piano, and Billy Carter.
That's where their office was, at the time, and talked with the manager about hiring two black drivers. He said he didn't have any openings.
The Voters League was, because you'd get ballots printed and they would have the people's names on the ballot, who was favorable to our movement.
They didn't know anything about the candidates and things of that sort. So they needed guidance. And that league was very instrumental in directing the people in the direction to go.
They just didn't have the sense of the strength of their vote. Just thought it wasn't necessary.
We said, "Because if you don't give us two drivers by Monday morning, we're going to shut your bus company down." Oh, he was a boastful kind. He said, "No Negroes want to stop riding my bus."
We used to hold those secret meetings at her house.
We went to Detroit. I wanted to see what was going on in some other parts of the world. You know, I was just traveling, like. I had a minister that lived here. He was in St. Louis and he said things was going so well and that it was such a wonderful place.
You know, I had spoke to Pugh earlier about joining the organization. Pugh told me he wasn't going to have anything to do with that mess.