WEBVTT

1
00:00:16.980 --> 00:00:19.140
You put up a superficial front.

2
00:00:19.760 --> 00:00:24.260
You, like I said before, you just let all the exceptions and say, look niggas, why can't

3
00:00:24.260 --> 00:00:26.000
y'all be like these people over here?

4
00:00:26.260 --> 00:00:28.340
They have succeeded, why can't you succeed?

5
00:00:29.680 --> 00:00:31.340
This is Henry Jordan.

6
00:00:32.240 --> 00:00:35.960
He thinks the Negroes who succeed in America today are exceptions.

7
00:00:36.540 --> 00:00:39.940
But most Negroes still have little chance of making it.

8
00:00:40.460 --> 00:00:41.860
That's what this film is about.

9
00:00:42.420 --> 00:00:43.140
Making it.

10
00:01:36.480 --> 00:01:38.600
Henry Jordan grew up in the street.

11
00:01:39.140 --> 00:01:41.800
Played in it, fought in it, learned from it.

12
00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:43.300
Now he's a man.

13
00:01:43.980 --> 00:01:48.300
He wants to pull himself up, out of the streets, into the world.

14
00:01:49.100 --> 00:01:52.160
But like many young men, he doesn't really believe he has a chance.

15
00:01:53.160 --> 00:01:54.900
This film is about his chances.

16
00:01:54.900 --> 00:01:58.700
It's about the changes that have been made and the problems still remaining.

17
00:01:59.780 --> 00:02:01.760
It's about men who are making it.

18
00:02:02.060 --> 00:02:04.280
Some of them, the first Negroes in their fields.

19
00:02:04.920 --> 00:02:10.640
How they feel about the problem, what they think the chances are, and what they think the changes have been.

20
00:02:11.660 --> 00:02:14.840
Most of these men do not consider themselves exceptional.

21
00:02:15.600 --> 00:02:18.880
Except that they found out what they wanted to do and did it.

22
00:02:22.560 --> 00:02:28.500
There are a lot of people who don't seem to be exceptional when you see them walking down the street.

23
00:02:29.120 --> 00:02:34.080
Who are. I can recall in my own experience that as a student, when I was a teenager,

24
00:02:34.340 --> 00:02:37.960
no one would have considered me particularly exceptional as a student.

25
00:02:38.140 --> 00:02:43.880
Certainly I was exceptionally bad. Exceptionally disoriented.

26
00:02:46.520 --> 00:02:52.280
But once I found something to which I felt suited, something that attracted my interest,

27
00:02:52.360 --> 00:02:57.800
then I was able to stretch out and develop myself in that way.

28
00:02:58.480 --> 00:03:01.320
And whatever exceptional qualities I had came to light.

29
00:03:01.440 --> 00:03:08.700
But if you'd see me in botany or trying to hold down some of the clerk jobs,

30
00:03:08.700 --> 00:03:13.580
or shipping clerk jobs that I got as a youngster, I wasn't at all exceptional.

31
00:03:15.900 --> 00:03:25.320
So I think what I'm trying to say is that it's hard to determine what a person might be able to do if you gave him an opportunity.

32
00:03:25.780 --> 00:03:29.980
I think illness breeds illness and failure breeds failure.

33
00:03:30.340 --> 00:03:35.920
And I think that if you've lived in the ghetto, you've constantly been exposed to failure.

34
00:03:35.920 --> 00:03:40.120
You know, continually all your life you've never had success.

35
00:03:40.900 --> 00:03:44.760
You know, you've never experienced success. No, have you ever saw a success?

36
00:03:45.140 --> 00:03:50.020
It's a, how are you going to be a success? I mean, how can you recognize opportunity?

37
00:03:52.360 --> 00:04:00.860
Well, of course, that's a pretty good question. I mean, I don't see how they're going to be expected to have that either.

38
00:04:00.860 --> 00:04:04.560
If you, and if you look in the neighborhoods, if you look in the communities,

39
00:04:04.620 --> 00:04:13.320
and if you look at what they see, the estimates that they are allowed to have of themselves are not very inspiring, generally speaking.

40
00:04:14.240 --> 00:04:21.320
It seems evident, first of all, that the children don't have a sense of belonging to the society.

41
00:04:21.580 --> 00:04:25.940
That they don't have a sense of being a part of its history, or not of a positive nature.

42
00:04:27.240 --> 00:04:30.760
Their contributions are not credited in the history that they're told.

43
00:04:31.260 --> 00:04:35.260
The Negroes were brought here and dehumanized and taken away all their African qualities.

44
00:04:35.980 --> 00:04:38.160
So you see, Negroes have nothing of their own.

45
00:04:38.500 --> 00:04:43.640
Negroes can't look back on past generations and say that if I go in here I can make it, I have the opportunity to succeed.

46
00:04:43.680 --> 00:04:46.980
They haven't got anything to look back on that tells them that they can succeed.

47
00:04:47.200 --> 00:04:51.580
This is what is obviously needed. They need to know who they are.

48
00:04:51.580 --> 00:04:56.780
They need to know where they have historically been in the world.

49
00:04:56.840 --> 00:04:59.700
Not just in this country, but before they came to this country.

50
00:05:00.120 --> 00:05:03.780
They need to know what they came to this country with, what their forebearers were.

51
00:05:04.580 --> 00:05:10.940
This is obvious in the welfare of peoples. This is an obvious advantage.

52
00:05:11.020 --> 00:05:18.760
That's why the British have Westminster Abbey and all those kings and stuff interred there, you know, that you can go and witness.

53
00:05:18.760 --> 00:05:22.660
This is where it all came from. He beat up this one and this one conquered that one.

54
00:05:22.740 --> 00:05:27.160
He knocked over so and so and this is what we've come from and this is who we are.

55
00:05:28.020 --> 00:05:34.740
We feel that entertaining means of carrying their heritage to them have to be devised.

56
00:05:37.060 --> 00:05:44.620
And that this has to be, their heritage has to be incorporated in the school system as an important part of the curriculum,

57
00:05:44.620 --> 00:05:52.500
as a vital, as a central part of the curriculum because the great disadvantage that a Negro kid has is that he goes to school

58
00:05:52.500 --> 00:06:01.800
and does never get a chance to feel a part of the real thrust and the heroic story of the forging of America.

59
00:06:02.040 --> 00:06:09.700
He doesn't know, for example, that there was a time when cotton was king and who had made it king? Black people.

60
00:06:09.700 --> 00:06:20.280
It's not acknowledged, for example, that young black children for generations have created the popular dances that this country has used to recreate itself.

61
00:06:21.200 --> 00:06:26.140
They're not credited with that and they're not given any cash for it and they themselves don't consider that.

62
00:06:26.260 --> 00:06:28.600
They don't recognize what they have actually done.

63
00:06:29.160 --> 00:06:38.840
But from the black bottom through the Charleston through the jitterbug and the boogie woogie right on up to the Watusi and the twist and the boogaloo of today,

64
00:06:38.840 --> 00:06:50.700
they have been the ones in the ghetto situations, in the slum situations, who have from their own genius created these dances and these means of communication, these songs.

65
00:06:51.680 --> 00:06:55.380
Meanwhile, Benny Goodman is considered the king of swing.

66
00:07:08.840 --> 00:07:09.380
Oh,

67
00:07:11.740 --> 00:07:13.260
I say,

68
00:07:15.660 --> 00:07:16.660
now, baby, you're

69
00:07:16.660 --> 00:07:22.440
you got me to.

70
00:07:24.460 --> 00:07:29.320
I just look at me

71
00:07:29.840 --> 00:07:33.620
when you wear your high boots with your hip.

72
00:07:33.620 --> 00:07:36.680
All right.

73
00:07:37.160 --> 00:07:38.520
You're out of sight.

74
00:07:40.600 --> 00:07:42.620
With your brother's love.

75
00:07:44.020 --> 00:07:45.220
Admit it.

76
00:07:45.820 --> 00:07:47.540
I can't dig it.

77
00:07:50.140 --> 00:07:51.160
Now, baby,

78
00:07:51.200 --> 00:08:00.700
you take one person, one exception and say all of you are supposed to be exceptions.

79
00:08:00.700 --> 00:08:02.100
Why aren't you like him?

80
00:08:02.880 --> 00:08:04.480
If he could make it, you could make it.

81
00:08:04.520 --> 00:08:11.600
Of course, you picked him up and you gave him all the qualification that is necessary to make it and he made it because of that or because he was going to make it anyway.

82
00:08:12.520 --> 00:08:15.820
There are some examples of people who would have made it regardless.

83
00:08:17.060 --> 00:08:20.500
But for the most part, I think it's just

84
00:08:21.040 --> 00:08:25.140
they're just people who decided that they wanted to do something and sought out, you know,

85
00:08:25.240 --> 00:08:29.120
set to establish a program and then accomplish things step by step.

86
00:08:30.300 --> 00:08:39.600
However, it is true that opportunities are shorter and they're much fewer for Negro kids.

87
00:08:40.740 --> 00:08:43.140
And consequently, you have to take advantage of every opportunity.

88
00:08:44.360 --> 00:08:46.040
They have to look at the future of the country.

89
00:08:47.420 --> 00:08:49.120
And the Negro is a part of this country.

90
00:08:49.720 --> 00:08:51.400
So long maybe forgot.

91
00:08:52.600 --> 00:08:55.280
But right now is really needed in the country.

92
00:08:55.360 --> 00:09:02.220
And maybe it's through a need that the people really look up and say, well, let's open doors up and whatnot.

93
00:09:02.900 --> 00:09:06.760
And because the doors open, you know, everybody looks for the insta Negro true.

94
00:09:07.460 --> 00:09:11.580
And the insta Negro is not a tokenism job.

95
00:09:12.400 --> 00:09:17.620
He's the first Negro and he's the one there to justify whatever conscience that, you know,

96
00:09:17.740 --> 00:09:21.820
upper management has or lack of conscience they have about the Negro community.

97
00:09:22.420 --> 00:09:29.220
And they make an effort to garner the attention of the Negro community

98
00:09:29.220 --> 00:09:33.380
and their acceptance for their product or service by having a Negro.

99
00:09:34.500 --> 00:09:40.580
It's typically a case that they want Negroes who are visible to the Negro community as being Negroes.

100
00:09:40.730 --> 00:09:43.630
Well, these Negroes lost their identity too.

101
00:09:44.130 --> 00:09:48.130
Now before you can get, well, chances like this, you must first turn white.

102
00:09:48.610 --> 00:09:50.270
And you know what I mean by turning white.

103
00:09:52.430 --> 00:09:54.830
Well, I think they call it uncle Tom.

104
00:09:55.290 --> 00:09:56.730
You got to become an uncle Tom.

105
00:09:57.170 --> 00:09:58.290
You've got to be yourself.

106
00:09:58.490 --> 00:10:00.850
That's the only way you can execute what you have to do.

107
00:10:01.310 --> 00:10:02.870
You don't lose yourself.

108
00:10:03.890 --> 00:10:06.870
Rather, you find out more about who you are, you know,

109
00:10:06.870 --> 00:10:10.070
because it takes that in order to dedicate yourself to what you're doing.

110
00:10:11.750 --> 00:10:17.590
You can't be expressive by, you know, being a lucky or yes man.

111
00:10:18.310 --> 00:10:20.410
Not only you, but no one, you know.

112
00:10:20.410 --> 00:10:24.750
You know, you that's abroad you, you know, meaning, you know, Negro kids, if that's what they feel they have to be.

113
00:10:25.070 --> 00:10:27.750
There are many token jobs. I don't want to rule that out.

114
00:10:27.930 --> 00:10:34.950
But there are many opportunities for the American Negro today just on the basis of some of our laws that have been passed.

115
00:10:34.950 --> 00:10:40.050
And not only that, much government money is being spent.

116
00:10:40.630 --> 00:10:44.390
And quite often companies hire Negroes and they can't hire them in a token capacity.

117
00:10:44.750 --> 00:10:47.030
They have to hire more Negroes.

118
00:10:48.990 --> 00:10:53.330
And even though a Negro may go in on a job as a token Negro,

119
00:10:54.630 --> 00:11:01.970
many companies have discovered just through hiring this token Negro that he's really been missing out on something by not hiring Negroes.

120
00:11:02.590 --> 00:11:06.930
I've worked at companies where, well, even at Eastern here, we have another Negro.

121
00:11:07.630 --> 00:11:11.150
In fact, he's the one who was most instrumental in getting me hired here.

122
00:11:11.350 --> 00:11:13.910
There's a Negro who happens to be assistant vice president of marketing.

123
00:11:24.910 --> 00:11:27.930
O'Hare approach Eastern 523, Nile 6000.

124
00:11:29.890 --> 00:11:34.130
Radio contact, squad 0400, low with transponder.

125
00:11:34.570 --> 00:11:39.810
Depart Nile, setting 360, for a radar vector to the one floor right Nile, this final approach.

126
00:11:41.070 --> 00:11:44.410
The present O'Hare weather is indefinite form and obscured.

127
00:11:45.310 --> 00:11:51.950
The derailing visibility, one-half mile, light visible in fog, RBR is 6000 feet.

128
00:11:53.110 --> 00:11:54.370
Gear down, final check.

129
00:11:55.750 --> 00:11:58.430
Roger, left turn heading, train camp, sir.

130
00:12:05.870 --> 00:12:08.750
There's no problem of becoming a pilot.

131
00:12:09.030 --> 00:12:10.130
It's just a matter of going out.

132
00:12:10.130 --> 00:12:14.850
If you want to become one, you can go out to the airport and start taking flying lessons.

133
00:12:14.950 --> 00:12:16.570
Of course, education does help.

134
00:12:17.010 --> 00:12:18.010
Most definitely helps.

135
00:12:18.730 --> 00:12:25.190
But obviously there's more personality than anything else because the education, it's no big problem really.

136
00:12:25.270 --> 00:12:30.350
If you have the goal qualities to yourself, you can get the education.

137
00:12:30.910 --> 00:12:34.690
There's more free ways of getting the education now than anything else in this world.

138
00:12:35.430 --> 00:12:40.910
So it's not having to be a brilliant student or anything to be able to get what you want.

139
00:12:41.090 --> 00:12:46.130
It's just that you have to have this goal quality of going after yourself,

140
00:12:46.130 --> 00:12:48.390
that you want to do something and just go and do it.

141
00:12:48.550 --> 00:12:54.030
And when the obstacles come, work around them, go through them if necessary to get what you want, that's all.

142
00:12:54.890 --> 00:12:56.710
But you got to live for yourself, that's for sure.

143
00:12:57.910 --> 00:13:01.970
The opportunities as far as I'm concerned are excellent for a Negro to become a pilot.

144
00:13:02.850 --> 00:13:05.610
The job openings are tremendous, believe me.

145
00:13:06.170 --> 00:13:12.490
It's one of the biggest things I found with Eastern Airlines is the fact they are looking for Negro pilots

146
00:13:12.490 --> 00:13:14.670
and they're continually calling me for Negro pilots.

147
00:13:14.670 --> 00:13:23.550
And the few that I do know are in the service and they're deciding to stay in now rather than come out because of their retirement situation.

148
00:13:27.830 --> 00:13:33.330
I can't see anyone being afraid to try because you just don't know until you try.

149
00:13:33.390 --> 00:13:37.550
I didn't realize it was this open until I tried.

150
00:13:37.550 --> 00:13:44.070
The thing that would please me most would be to see another Negro try for their apprenticeship.

151
00:13:45.270 --> 00:13:47.770
Fellas don't seem to realize how much a trade pays.

152
00:13:48.810 --> 00:13:52.950
They don't realize that the trade is a coming thing.

153
00:13:53.610 --> 00:14:01.290
It was a thing in years going by and it's a job that automation does not catch up to because you create automation here.

154
00:14:01.290 --> 00:14:08.010
This is where anything that's made, anything that's designed, anything that's built has to be made first time by a tool maker.

155
00:14:10.350 --> 00:14:17.850
Now I make $256 an hour and by the time I do graduate, the graduation rate will be somewhere over $4 an hour or close to it.

156
00:14:18.990 --> 00:14:25.130
And by that time the top of the grade will be somewhere near and over $5 an hour, which is darn good pay.

157
00:14:25.130 --> 00:14:31.870
You get a tremendous, well I get a tremendous amount of personal satisfaction out of completing something well.

158
00:14:34.010 --> 00:14:41.310
This trade, when you work within a couple thousandths of an inch or it starts cracking a thousand, breaking it into ten thousandths of an inch, then you're working well.

159
00:14:42.090 --> 00:14:44.510
This kind of thing, it just moves me, you know.

160
00:14:44.690 --> 00:14:46.150
I go all the pieces over it.

161
00:14:57.550 --> 00:15:10.070
When I first started here it seemed to be, well I guess the work was kind of hard at then, but I had to put it in my mind that I had to work because I needed the money to go to school.

162
00:15:10.070 --> 00:15:17.930
And so I just got so I liked it, that's all.

163
00:15:18.530 --> 00:15:25.730
So I decided I would venture out a little bit, learn how to operate most of the machinery which they have around here.

164
00:15:27.410 --> 00:15:34.650
So I would ask most of the fellow, the older fellows which was here, can I operate the machines for a while.

165
00:15:38.730 --> 00:15:49.130
So by me messing around and learning how to operate the machines, I got a better job on one of the machines which they call a palletizer.

166
00:15:49.910 --> 00:15:52.450
It's not a bad job, it's a living.

167
00:15:54.730 --> 00:16:07.150
And the pay is not bad, which I think I could save enough money to continue my further education in drafting engineering by working at this job.

168
00:16:10.250 --> 00:16:26.170
And I figured if I can't take the job as a drafting engineer by going to school, maybe my possibilities of making supervisor here at this company wouldn't be so bad, you know.

169
00:16:26.230 --> 00:16:27.550
I would take that.

170
00:16:32.070 --> 00:16:36.290
You might look at me and say, gee, that cat is real heavy and electronic.

171
00:16:36.530 --> 00:16:38.730
But the thing is, what are you heavy in?

172
00:16:39.690 --> 00:16:49.110
You should look for your own identity because even though we are all alike for being human beings, we each have separate identities.

173
00:16:49.870 --> 00:16:53.990
And I think your key to success would be your discovery of your identity.

174
00:16:54.230 --> 00:16:57.490
You know, what makes me tick, what makes me swing, you know, what do I like?

175
00:16:57.770 --> 00:16:59.650
You know, and I think this is the real key to it.

176
00:17:26.910 --> 00:17:40.170
To be determined to want to make something of oneself is something that has to develop within.

177
00:17:40.990 --> 00:17:42.230
But I am ordinary.

178
00:17:44.170 --> 00:17:47.550
I just want to be something.

179
00:17:47.810 --> 00:17:50.050
This doesn't make me an extraordinary person.

180
00:17:51.350 --> 00:17:54.110
I should think that there are a lot of people like myself.

181
00:17:55.490 --> 00:18:03.210
Maybe some just don't try hard enough, but I happen to be the most persistent one who refuses to give up.

182
00:18:03.950 --> 00:18:15.150
I put six years in the post office and after I was there for two years, I was ready to leave it.

183
00:18:15.490 --> 00:18:25.290
But while I worked at the post office, I bought a limousine and part-time work.

184
00:18:25.610 --> 00:18:29.430
I hired myself out as a chauffeur with my own car.

185
00:18:29.430 --> 00:18:34.370
I made $3.50 an hour, you know, half the time sitting in parking lots, really, in the car.

186
00:18:36.790 --> 00:18:43.930
This enabled me to invest in a two-floor building that had some income and then pretty soon another building.

187
00:18:47.610 --> 00:18:53.270
But even then, you know, at 20 years old, I was stretched out so far as hours go.

188
00:18:53.830 --> 00:18:55.950
So here he is. Let me bring him on out.

189
00:18:55.950 --> 00:18:58.050
This is Lou Butch Baker, the Batman.

190
00:19:04.490 --> 00:19:06.810
Some of the older kids came up to me and they said,

191
00:19:08.550 --> 00:19:13.930
What are we going to do? We're getting a little old to keep calling ourselves teens with talent.

192
00:19:15.170 --> 00:19:18.990
So I said, well, you know, I really didn't know what I was saying. I was just giving them an answer.

193
00:19:19.450 --> 00:19:22.010
I said, well, you know all about the singing part of it.

194
00:19:22.010 --> 00:19:26.970
And you know how to handle yourself to accept money and whatnot.

195
00:19:27.250 --> 00:19:30.590
Why don't you form a corporation and set up your own business?

196
00:19:32.170 --> 00:19:35.650
They started with 500 bucks that they had made in this business.

197
00:19:36.270 --> 00:19:39.850
There was a lot of ups and downs in the very first three months, you know, which was really funny,

198
00:19:39.930 --> 00:19:41.690
because I didn't think they were going to make it.

199
00:19:42.330 --> 00:19:46.010
And none of them had any money and they had 100 bucks a month rent to pay.

200
00:19:48.210 --> 00:19:50.590
Well, it turned out to be a very successful thing.

201
00:19:50.590 --> 00:19:55.610
I'd sing it in the evening all over this land.

202
00:19:55.790 --> 00:20:00.790
I'd sing out danger, I'd sing out warning,

203
00:20:01.070 --> 00:20:08.850
I'd sing out the lonely dream, my brothers and my sisters all over the land.

204
00:20:08.950 --> 00:20:09.890
Oh yeah.

205
00:20:10.790 --> 00:20:15.530
Now I've got a hammer and I've got myself a bell.

206
00:20:15.530 --> 00:20:23.490
I've got a song to sing all over this land.

207
00:20:24.310 --> 00:20:29.890
It's the hammer of justice.

208
00:20:30.850 --> 00:20:36.910
It's the bell of freedom.

209
00:20:40.690 --> 00:20:48.990
It's the song about a lonely dream, my brothers and my sisters all over this land.

210
00:20:52.270 --> 00:20:53.890
How do you go into business?

211
00:20:54.410 --> 00:20:55.530
Go and buy your wits.

212
00:20:55.830 --> 00:20:56.830
This is the only way.

213
00:20:57.850 --> 00:20:59.550
If you don't have any money,

214
00:21:01.370 --> 00:21:04.730
then you'll have to think of other ways, if there are any.

215
00:21:08.470 --> 00:21:14.890
But, you know, I've, oh gee, when I was 20 years old, I owned a couple of buildings.

216
00:21:15.770 --> 00:21:21.230
It just came from work, you know, and investment at risk, naturally.

217
00:21:22.310 --> 00:21:27.150
Economic stability in the Negro community will be developed from the youth,

218
00:21:28.910 --> 00:21:33.570
from a stronger middle class being developed so that we can support our own businesses.

219
00:21:33.970 --> 00:21:37.830
Because the stronger the middle class is, the better chance you'll have to own your own businesses

220
00:21:37.830 --> 00:21:41.350
and to control your own destiny, you know, economically and then politically.

221
00:21:41.950 --> 00:21:43.830
And it has to start on an individual level, though.

222
00:21:44.190 --> 00:21:47.370
So the basic thought is, this is my community.

223
00:21:47.710 --> 00:21:52.850
I'm concerned with what happened in my community, and I'm going to do something about it.

224
00:21:52.970 --> 00:21:54.590
And this is easier than you think.

225
00:21:55.410 --> 00:21:58.870
Say, for instance, if we look at it from a school standpoint,

226
00:21:59.570 --> 00:22:03.210
you could be concerned about what is taught in your school.

227
00:22:04.150 --> 00:22:06.170
Now, this is something that you can really do something about.

228
00:22:06.550 --> 00:22:11.530
And I'm thinking about, for instance, a school in our neighborhood where people have gone out

229
00:22:11.530 --> 00:22:14.290
and insisted that Negro history be taught.

230
00:22:15.390 --> 00:22:19.770
And this has come about to some degree, just by their insistence.

231
00:22:20.050 --> 00:22:23.550
It takes work. It takes time. It takes sacrifice.

232
00:22:24.710 --> 00:22:30.210
It takes money, which is something that we are beginning to learn

233
00:22:30.210 --> 00:22:32.710
that has to go along with these processes of change.

234
00:22:33.290 --> 00:22:36.830
You know, we must give our time and our money to them.

235
00:22:37.930 --> 00:22:40.410
Dollars are important, but that doesn't begin there.

236
00:22:40.430 --> 00:22:46.290
It begins with individual responsibility of each person taking out time

237
00:22:46.290 --> 00:22:47.690
to figure out what he wants to do.

238
00:22:47.710 --> 00:22:51.790
And then when he does that, then he will contribute dollar-wise to the community.

239
00:22:51.790 --> 00:22:55.910
Because the stronger the middle class is, the better chance you'll have to own your own businesses

240
00:22:55.910 --> 00:22:59.410
and to control your own destinely, you know, economically and then politically.

241
00:23:00.790 --> 00:23:06.790
Being here, having this job, is only because I had a little bit of insight as to

242
00:23:08.230 --> 00:23:10.470
what it took to have this type of job.

243
00:23:10.590 --> 00:23:12.790
I mean, I took this kind of thing in high school.

244
00:23:14.190 --> 00:23:19.890
I dropped out of high school. At least I was kicked out.

245
00:23:19.890 --> 00:23:24.290
And maybe rightly so, because I was stealing, trying to make it.

246
00:23:25.730 --> 00:23:31.970
And I never really gave it a thought until I got to be 22 years old.

247
00:23:33.010 --> 00:23:35.010
And I said to myself, you know, where am I going?

248
00:23:37.750 --> 00:23:42.750
Where am I headed? What will I be in a few years?

249
00:23:42.830 --> 00:23:45.990
I guess when you've got a wife and a kid, you begin to think things like that.

250
00:23:47.770 --> 00:23:53.990
And after I made up my mind to that point, then I decided, well, one thing, I'd have to have an education.

251
00:23:57.210 --> 00:24:01.750
I think here's where I began to start going back to school to get a diploma.

252
00:24:02.930 --> 00:24:05.850
I don't say I got a college degree. No, I don't have one.

253
00:24:06.290 --> 00:24:08.010
But I figured out what courses I needed.

254
00:24:08.130 --> 00:24:13.050
And dealing with people, I felt I needed English courses.

255
00:24:13.050 --> 00:24:19.030
So this is what I went over to junior college and got English courses so I could learn to talk to people

256
00:24:19.030 --> 00:24:24.330
without talking in street language, which I was accustomed to.

257
00:24:26.130 --> 00:24:31.770
And well, then it's just a matter of doing a job to get ahead of it.

258
00:24:32.090 --> 00:24:34.870
And it's hard. It's nothing easy.

259
00:24:43.550 --> 00:24:49.370
To make it up from the streets, it's hard. It's nothing easy.

260
00:24:56.210 --> 00:25:01.870
But in the past 10 years, more than a million Negroes have moved into the kind of work that demands skills

261
00:25:01.870 --> 00:25:04.590
and provides equal rewards.

262
00:25:05.470 --> 00:25:09.310
It's the hope of those who are making it that many young people will follow.

263
00:25:11.350 --> 00:25:17.330
I sort of feel like a guy standing in the door with his foot in it, waiting for the youth to come forward

264
00:25:17.330 --> 00:25:20.170
and be brave enough to venture out and try to come in.

265
00:25:32.490 --> 00:25:38.250
It takes work, but the dignity of each individual comes from each individual.

266
00:25:39.050 --> 00:25:41.290
Each of us makes it in his own way.

267
00:25:48.970 --> 00:25:53.290
The power of a community is the sum total of the individuals in it.

268
00:26:05.430 --> 00:26:10.690
When one person makes it, the community as a whole finds a stronger place.

269
00:26:32.870 --> 00:26:35.670
Look here.

270
00:26:38.050 --> 00:26:53.890
Oh, no.

271
00:27:05.410 --> 00:27:15.210
You take me home and make my long house turn up.

272
00:27:15.210 --> 00:27:18.490
Oh, my.