American Reckoning: The Legacy

MALE PASTOR: I pray someday that we will come to the realization that Black lives matter. We suffer the effects of slavery, of abuse.

DENISE JACKSON FORD: It’s been years, and even though I try to say that I’m over it, the less talk that I do, the better off I am.

MALE PASTOR: Some of us suffer it mentally. Some suffers it physically.

DEBRA JACKSON SYLVESTER: I actually had a hatred for white people for a long time. It’s like I blamed every white person that I came in contact with.

MALE PASTOR: Lord, we say thank you.

CONGREGATION [in unison]: Thank you.

WHARLEST JACKSON JR.: It took my life down a different avenue. It’s been real hard, but you move on, you persevere.

JOHN LEWIS: During the height of the civil rights movement, when people were murdered or beaten, did people get counseling? No. We were left on our own.

SHELTON CHAPPELL (SON OF JOHNNIE MAE CHAPPELL, KILLED IN 1964): This is my mom on the morgue table, my father standing over her. The pain that my family suffered then, we still suffer it now.

TEXT ON SCREEN: Atlanta Civil Rights Museum
Hate Crimes panel

DEBORAH WATTS (COUSIN OF EMMETT TILL, KILLED IN 1955): There’s a sense that families like ours, we should just get over it. But we have to admit the truth first.

JOHN LEWIS: You can have memorials, yes, but memorials cannot clothe and feed a family.

DENISE JACKSON FORD: I was only what, 10 when my father got killed. They had five children, four girls and one boy. And of course, you see the baby behind me. [Laughter] Those of you who seeking justice, you all are not alone. We all in this together.

WHARLEST JACKSON JR.: It’s not an easy journey, it’s a difficult journey, so sometimes you’ve got to step back and take a look and even take a break, because this can be very exhausting sometimes.

MARTINEZ SUTTON (BROTHER OF REKIA BOYD, KILLED BY AN OFF-DUTY CHICAGO POLICE OFFICER IN 2012): What really hurt me about today is hearing y’all’s stories, man, to see that y’all still fighting. You know, it should’ve—

WHARLEST JACKSON JR.: It should’ve been automatic.

MARTINEZ SUTTON: Oh, brother, that—

WHARLEST JACKSON JR.: Justice. The death of your sister has created a bond with you and I and with all those that are involved in the civil rights era and so forth. And you’re going to have some dark nights and dark days because of your sister’s death, even as I have had with my father’s death. And I want you to know I want to be that person that you can call and talk to.

MARTINEZ SUTTON: Man, bro. Feels good to hear that, man, because it’s a lot of times when you just feel like you out here by yourself, all alone.

WHARLEST JACKSON JR.: I was so angry, the only thing I could get. I was so frustrated, I was so revengeful that I couldn’t stand myself. So don’t get like that, brother. Let love rule and reign in your life. It’s a cruel world, but you be that light.

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