April 13, 2025 • 56 mins
From the shadows of segregation to the frontlines of protest, Ralph Canty Sr. takes us on an extraordinary journey through the civil rights movement in Sumter, South Carolina. Born in 1945 just blocks from Lincoln High School, Canty emerged as a fearless young activist whose determination to dismantle racial barriers would forever change his community.
With remarkable clarity, Canty recounts the pivotal moment when he and two fellow students staged a sit-in at the Holiday Inn on July 27, 1963—an act that triggered immediate arrest and launched what became known as the "Sumter Movement." Despite opposition from both white segregationists and hesitant Black community leaders, Canty and his colleagues meticulously planned their strategy, understanding they might pay "the ultimate price" for challenging the status quo.
What distinguishes Canty's narrative is his nuanced portrayal of Sumter's unique racial dynamics. While segregation cut through town "like an apple pie," the community largely avoided the brutal violence seen elsewhere in the South, thanks in part to law enforcement leaders who maintained what Canty calls a certain "nobility" in their approach. This environment allowed for strategic civil disobedience that gradually eroded segregation's foundations.
Among the most fascinating revelations is Canty's simultaneous employment at a white-owned business throughout his activism. Despite leading boycotts by day and organizing protests by night, the Jackson family never fired him—a testament to both his exemplary work ethic and the complex economic interdependence that sometimes transcended racial lines.
Canty's story bridges past and present struggles for racial justice. Reflecting on the 2020 protests following George Floyd's murder, he observes a profound shift in focus: while his 1960s activism fought for equal privileges, today's movement fights for the fundamental value of Black lives themselves. This perspective offers a powerful framework for understanding how far we've come and the critical work that remains.
For anyone seeking to understand the courage it takes to stand against injustice, the strategic thinking behind successful movements, or the personal cost of fighting for change, Ralph Canty's testimony provides an essential, firsthand account of history in the making.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Thank you for being with us this morning.
This interview will be recordedand transcribed and will become
part of our collection our oralhistory collection at the
University of South Carolina andalso with our Center for Civil
Rights, History and Research.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Well, it's such a pleasure to have you visit the
campus of my alma mater, lincolnHigh School, and my pleasure to
have the opportunity to havethis conversation.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Let's begin by stating your full name and when
and where you were born.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I'm Ralph W Canty Sr and I was born here in Sumter,
south Carolina, really not veryfar from this site, at 553 South
Main Street, on October 9th of1945.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Tell me a little about the Cantu family, your
parents and their background.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
My parents were ordinary hardworking people.
My dad, by calling, was aclergyman, preacher of the
gospel, but he was also, bycraft craft, a blacksmith one of
(01:28):
the last blacksmiths in thisarea.
As a matter of fact, he builtthe gate at Morris College and
we still cherish thatcontribution that our family
made.
For a long time my mother was ahousewife and a supporter to
(01:54):
local educators, because when Iwas a child there were very few
cars around and we werefortunate to have one of those
cars and my mother would drivemany of the teachers to their
(02:16):
schools each morning and onSunday afternoons.
For those who worked out in thein the county, she'd take them
on Sunday, pick them up on onFriday.
So we've been always Engaged.
(02:39):
My Oldest brother was a graduateof Florida A&M and was a
pharmacist.
My second brother had adistinguished military career
and was a Tuskegee airman andafterwards a deputy
(02:59):
superintendent of a schoolsystem.
And my next brother operatedhis own dry cleaners business
before they began to fade offthe scene.
And, of course, I serve as apastor and the owner of a local
mortuary.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
What were your parents' names?
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Benjamin Franklin Canty Sr was my dad and Rena
Smith Canty was my mother.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Will you say a little bit about your educational
journey, your earliest schoolingon to college?
Quite a journey, educationaljourney.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
your earliest schooling on to college.
Quite a journey.
My first three years were spentat Savage Glover Elementary
School, around the corner fromwhere we lived.
That school was named for twoAfrican-American educators, miss
(04:15):
Savage and Miss Glover, andMiss Maggie Glover, who lived
right across the street from us,also partnered with my parents
in giving me my name.
So when I was in fourth gradewe moved to the west side of
(04:41):
town and I went to LibertyStreet School and St Jude
Catholic School and on to juniorhigh school at Lincoln High
School and I took a year awayfor private education up at
(05:08):
Matheter Academy in Camden andthen came back and graduated
from Lincoln.
It was quite a journey, quite ajourney, and now I'm very
grateful for that journeybecause I made so many friends
by being in so many differentschools.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
So, part of our task today is to learn more about the
history of segregation and thechallenges to that in Sumter.
So we realize that we havelimited time, so we will have
some future conversations aboutyour larger career beyond civil
rights.
So for those who may not knowSumter, how would you describe
(05:54):
race relations in your earliestyears and the system of
segregation in Sumter?
Speaker 2 (06:00):
something deep, divisive, but at the same time
(06:44):
it was so much a part of thelife of the community where
black people did not live andwhere they did not go unless
they went there to work.
There were places where we didnot go.
(07:09):
We knew that we couldn't gothere and we never attempted to
go.
It was the culture, it was apart of life.
The polarization, the isolationwas so thick that it could be
(07:32):
cut like an apple pie.
But to see the hazing and theabuse and the violence that
(08:00):
others saw where they resided.
If I'm honest about Sumter, Inever saw it.
I didn't even see it during thecivil rights movement and the
(08:30):
nobility of the segregationistspirit in Sumter that was
controlled and did not displayitself in hostile manner except,
I suspect, suspect in rarecases.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
In previous conversations on this issue
about the perception of Sumteras a moderate town.
You credit the Sheriff Parnelland Chief Strange and others as
being law enforcement officerswho set a certain tone.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
What was their tone?
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Well, they were definitely very strong people
(09:35):
and I believe that they had verystrong ideologies about the
separations of the race started.
A certain nobility emerged intheir leadership that set them
apart from law enforcementofficers in other places.
(10:03):
They were not of the demeanorof a Bull Connor and the lacks
thereof.
I remember the very first nightof the war Two friends and
(10:25):
myself sat in at the Holiday Innin Sumter.
It was a traumatic experiencefor all of Sumter White Sumter,
white Sumter, black Sumter, andyou would have thought we had
(10:58):
conducted a mass killing of sort.
Every city and county policethat was on duty came rushing to
the scene to pick up threecollege students and to take
them to jail.
(11:18):
But, mind you, I'll say this,doc, about those law enforcement
officers they were not violent,they were not violent, they
were not violent.
They never assaulted us.
We were insulted because theythought we should be arrested
for asking for the opportunityto have a nice dinner at the
(11:43):
Holiday Inn.
But they did not assault usphysically oh, there was the
verbal abuse.
And because they were excited,they really didn't know how to
handle these young folk who werecourageous enough to stand up
(12:09):
against the system.
So they hurried us away to thecity jail and while they were
processing us they were, oh boy,it was a whole lot of clamor in
the room clamor, clamor, clamor.
(12:31):
And when this elderly statesmanwalked in the room, the police
chief, chief Strange.
I heard him say all right, boys, we will not have that.
(12:55):
And where there was excitementand clamor, there was absolute
silence.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
So the police at that time were verbally harassing
you, and then the police chiefstopped it.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
They were not harassing us as much as they
were, because we were in anotherroom, but we could hear them.
You know these so, and so youknow taking over our town blank,
blank, blank, blank, blank,blank.
You know we could hear them,but they weren't verbally
(13:33):
abusing us as such.
But the point that I make isthat when the chief came, the
temperature, the temperament,the climate in the jailhouse
changed radically.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Let's look at this a little more closely.
Okay, so July 27, 1963, 9.15 pm, ralph Waldo Canty, john Calvin
Nelson, rosa Grace Denbo arearrested for trespassing at the
Holiday Inn.
That's correct.
(14:15):
Let's go back.
Why are you there and whatmotivated you to go to the
Holiday Inn?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
That was one of the places where we could not go and
we felt it was time for thewalls of segregation in Sumter
to come down and they needed tocome down in a hurry.
(14:46):
And they but that they wouldnever come down unless someone
pushed them down, force themdown, forced a collision and a
collapse.
And that was why we were there.
We weren't really hungry, notfor the food, we were hungry and
(15:12):
anxious for the privilege.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Leading up to that moment, had there been planning
and strategy sessions about whatcould or would happen?
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Oh, yes, oh yes, tell us about that.
Well, for a few months earlier,a group of college students
five or six of them and myself Iwas an upcoming college student
, I had just graduated from highschool we met in the basement
(15:53):
of Brawley Starks Hall on thecampus of Morris College and
carefully designed a strategicplan for the Sumter Movement.
As best I recall, we hadeverything conceivable in that
(16:27):
plan that might force a changein the climate in this community
Restaurants, sit-ins atchurches, wait-in at pools and
(17:58):
other recreational areas,sit-ins in the middle of
downtown beast and we understoodthat the results, the results
might not have been pleasant atall.
We understood we may have paida great physical upon us making
the sacrifice we made and wewere willing to make that
sacrifice, even if we had to paythe ultimate price.
(18:20):
You and your colleaguesdiscussed that oh yes, oh yes,
we, we were quite aware of thedanger of stepping into a
hornet's nest.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Yes, yes yes, so I imagine your parents and other
folk in the community were alsofully concerned about this
hornet's nest oh my, oh my God.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
If I am honest with you, our leaders, our pastors,
our business were extremelyanxious about this whole idea.
(19:07):
They knew it was time for thewall to come down.
The white folk on one side oftown were not ready for it to
come down and the seniors on theother side of town weren't
(19:28):
ready to push it down.
So we had we had a problem withthe establishment in the white
community, but we also had aproblem with the establishment
in our own community and inlarge measure it was because of
(19:58):
their and their fear that, well,anything could have happened.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Did any of those older people say Ralph Cannon,
now is not the time.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes, oh yes.
I'm going to put this on therecord.
I'm going to put this on therecord of First Baptist Church
(20:44):
at the corner of Washington andDangle Street in Sumter.
I remember one of the pastorssaying this is communistically
inspired.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
An African-American pastor.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Yes, yes, it frightened them in their boots.
Frightened them in their bootsand, if I am honest with you, I
(21:40):
don't know until this day if myparents would have consented for
me to participate had it notbeen for the fact that, at the
time, my mother had a nephewvisiting with us from Baltimore,
maryland to them let him go.
(22:08):
Let him go, the change is coming.
I remember his words.
He said the change is coming.
Let him be a part of the change.
He will be all right.
And I remember my motherlooking at him and saying with
(22:33):
tears in her eyes if you say so,he can go.
The truth of the matter, sir, Iwas so belligerent at that time
until, if they had said no, Iwould have gone anyway.
(22:59):
I would have gone if I had lostmy life that night.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Reverend Cantor, were there any professionals,
teachers or ministers whosupported the movement and the
work that you were doing?
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Oh yeah, there were plenty, plenty of them.
I cited the one person who, Ithink out of fear, made the
statement he made because hejust thought we were going too
far.
But, by and large, many, manyof our leaders embraced to some
(23:43):
extent what we were doing and ofcourse, you know, when the
Sumter Movement was organized,they became the leaders.
They became the leaders and ofcourse that was to ensure that
we stay in check.
(24:05):
Well, let's talk about a few ofthem, if you don't mind yeah
tell me a little about yourassociation with reverend
randolph oh, um, pastor randolphuh was number one, a part of
the earlier movement at morris.
He was a recent graduate ofMorris and there had been, back
(24:29):
in 1961, an effort by the MorrisCollege students to forge
desegregation in some.
He was one of them, and so, ofall of the pastors, of all of
the pastors, he was perhaps moresensitive and more genuine than
(24:55):
any in terms of understandingour hearts.
Of course, you know, firstBaptist Church, the church where
he served as pastor, became theheadquarters for the movement
(25:18):
and all of our activities werefacilitated from that building.
He and Reverend James Fred James, who later became a bishop, you
know, and who headed up thesocial action division of the
AME Church, and a number ofothers throughout the community,
(25:39):
became quite engaged in themovement.
Engage in the movement becauseit was, in our opinion, while it
was just this little sumptersection of the world, to us it
was a major movement.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
You mentioned the events at Mars in 1961.
At that time, you were in highschool here at Lincoln Right.
Do you recall?
Have any memories of theFreedom Rides riders coming
through Sumter?
Oh, yes, yes, yes I do I do?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
I remember Well, you know, I've been an activist all
my life, all my life and and,like I said, I'm pastor Randolph
and Freddie Williams and othersfrom Morris and I were always
in contact, even while I wasstill in high school another
(26:39):
incident happens is almost amere week or so after the
Holiday Inn incident.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Sumter had now become known as one of the cities in
the South that had nighttimeprotests and demonstrations.
Was there any particularmotivation as to why these
nighttime protests occurred inSumter?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Largely because it was a time when working people
could be engaged.
That was no other particularstrategy.
The Sumter Movement wasdesigned in such a way as to
attempt to engage the entirecommunity.
(27:41):
We would have public meetingsat rural churches and a rural
church might be 20 miles fromtown.
But to ensure that everyone wasgetting the message and
everyone was on board, we tookour meetings to every corner of
(28:09):
this county and we sought asmuch and got and got.
Sir got as much participationfrom people, as we could and
week by week, as they saw heynobody got killed.
(28:30):
The more folks started comingout and becoming involved.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
On August 6, 1963, 55 African Americans in Sumter are
arrested, 39 of whom are minors, which I think included you,
and it said it was led by twoministers, henry McGill and De
Leon Felder.
Do you have any memories ofthat protest?
Speaker 2 (28:59):
I vaguely remember that one, but I do remember Dr
Felder and Reverend McGill.
I do remember both of them.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
They were local ministers.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Yes, yes, reverend Felder was an AME minister,
minister.
Well, reverend McGill, hereagain, was a part of the 1961
movement out at Shaw, out atMorris, and by that time he was
(29:30):
a pastor, but not here in SumterCounty.
He was operating a barber shophere, yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
During the course of the movement?
Were any particular teachershave an impact on you about your
consciousness about civilrights?
Social protest.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Oh yeah, a teacher who had the greatest impact on
my life taught me history.
Her name was Mrs White, and shehelped me to understand history
(30:35):
better than anyone ever did,and in doing so it fed my soul
with the energy, the fuel, thefood I needed to so that I would
(31:04):
appreciate my own self-worth,and from that point I became
more and more engaged in thestruggle.
There was then another teacher,my 12th grade year.
(31:26):
In history, she was perhapsmore practical than Mrs White.
Mrs White was quitephilosophical and deep, miss Ivy
(31:46):
, and she too helped to get thefires burning.
And there were other educators,parents of my friends, who
(32:06):
supported the movement in such away that encouraged us and
pushed us forward.
While they would not, or couldnot, come to the front lines,
they did all they could tosupport us, those of us who were
(32:32):
willing to go to the frontlines.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
While you were engaged in the front lines, you
actually were working for theJackson family.
Could you tell me about thatrelationship and what they did
or did not do during the courseof the Civil Rights Movement as
it relates to you?
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Well, it's an amazing thing.
It's an amazing thing.
I worked for the Jackson family.
The Jacksons had two businessesdowntown Sumter Office, yeah,
(33:20):
and Sumter office supplies.
I worked in both stores.
They were right, contiguous toeach other.
One was on one street, one wason the other, but you could come
out of the back doors and intoit.
1963.
At the height of the movement.
(33:40):
I'm sitting in at the HolidayInn and at Crest and at
Cartwright and I'm taking alunch every day picking up a
sign and walking down the streetand protesting asking people
not to shop in Sumter, andworked all summer for the
(34:08):
Jacksons.
And I'll never forget one day Iwas protesting down at Crest,
leading the boycott, askingpeople not to go in the store,
and two of the workers fromsomething the office supply
(34:30):
walked down the street hey,ralph.
And into the store.
So there was no question inanybody's mind that.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
I was the same.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Ralph that was working in the store.
They never said a word.
They never mentioned the factthat I was so engaged.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
There were two reasons for it.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
I'm going to give you the two reasons.
When I decided to terminate myemployment, I went in to talk
with the son and he was brokenbecause, god man, we were just
(35:18):
close.
He said let me get Dad Ralph,this is not what we want to hear
.
So he went and got his dad andthe two of them sat with me in
the office and I told him it wastime for me to go to college
and I would not have the time towork.
(35:38):
And so after the normal kind ofexit interview, I said to them
but you know, I really thoughtyou all would have discharged me
a long time ago, and this iswhat the old man said.
(36:03):
He said, under normalcircumstances or if I probably
would have.
But you were such a goodemployee, you were getting the
work done and that's what wasimportant to me.
You did not neglect your job todo what you had to do socially
(36:35):
and we respected that.
You are a hardworking youngfella and we appreciate you.
So that was one thing.
But here's the other thing.
Business people are businesspeople, people and they know
(37:01):
what's good for business,because I was working for Sumter
office supply.
The Sumter movement bought allof its supplies, all of its
construction poster boards,placards, pins, all of the
supplies they'd need all summer.
(37:22):
So they got over as fat rats.
So it wasn't that they were sosocially sensitive.
They were good people, but theywere also economically
conscious.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
One name I want to make sure we mention because I
know he played a very criticalrole in some of your arrests.
Tell me about your connectionto Ernest.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
Finney.
So the justice was our legaladvocate, never telling us not
(38:20):
to, but always getting us out ofwhatever we got into.
That's probably the best way Ican say it.
Akin said he and Ruben Gray andMatthew Perry teamed up in
(38:49):
those days to ensure that we thebest possible legal team a
community could have as itfought for its freedom and
independence.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
And I do want to say the same is true about local
businessmen, and there were somany of them who put up property
(39:44):
, who put up money to ensurethat Attorney Justice Finney
could bail us out when we neededto be bailed out.
Do you recall some of thosebusiness people who did?
Speaker 2 (39:47):
just that.
Oh yeah, there was quite a few.
There was quite a few.
There was Dr Williams BTWilliams, there was Dr EC Jones,
there was Mr Robert Palmer,there was Mr Charles Riley,
(40:18):
there was Mr David Mallette.
That's just a long list of them.
Who was Mr Willie Singleton?
Mr Willie Singleton was one ofthem.
Mr Willie Singleton bless MrWillie Singleton's heart.
Mr Willie Singleton and hisbeloved Emma got caught up in
(40:39):
the middle of one of ourmidnight experiences, but Willie
was always there and he hasgiven his heart to the
advancement and development ofthis community and to our people
(41:02):
.
Yeah, we I guess you know thatstory Well one night I can't
tell you the date, I can go backand find it someplace we,
(41:23):
several of us were a littledisturbed.
We'd had a march that Sundayand some of our leaders about
(41:44):
six of them broke out of theline, went to the Holiday Inn,
as we had done some time ago,got arrested.
At the end of our march, we wentback to the church and rallied
(42:06):
more, and so we decided we weregoing to go back.
By that time we'd gotten wordthat they'd been arrested and we
had decided we'd go down to theprison and sing a few freedom
songs.
That's what we were going to do, and I was leading the march.
(42:28):
I was leading the march.
The police pulled up with one ofthe leaders who was just placed
in jail, and he gets out andcomes to me and says �Ralph,
(42:51):
please turn this guy off, thisis a mob.
This is a mob, we don't needthis�.
Well, we were not a mob, we hadno intention of creating any
kind of disturbance at all.
But here again, that thing Italked to you about earlier,
(43:12):
about having to deal with bothsides, the law enforcement.
folk and our leadersmisinterpreted what our actions
were, because they thought theyhad to do the thinking for us,
and they did not allow us to doour own thinking, and so, rather
(43:36):
than creating, a riot scene.
I took the crowd, we turnedaround it was a couple hundred
of us and then went back to thechurch.
We sang a few songs, but some ofus were just angry, were angry,
and we left that church, wentback to the headquarters church,
(43:59):
first Baptist Church and FirstBaptist Church may have been at
that time the only church or oneof the only churches that still
had an operating bell in itstower and we started ringing
(44:25):
that bell.
We started ringing that bell,ringing the freedom bell,
ringing the bell.
We must have started at about 8, 8 o'clock Sunday night.
We rang that bell until wayafter 12 o'clock Sunday night.
We rang that bell until wayafter 12 o'clock and we were
ringing it and we were ringingit and when we knew anything,
(44:49):
people could hear it all overtown and folks, when we started
hearing that bell, we knewsomething was going on.
So we were praying and WillieSingleton and Emma, who lived
out near Morris College, heardit, said them kids up to
(45:11):
something.
So we got to go down there andsee, go down there and see about
them.
Well, by the time they got therethere were just loads of
policemen parked on the side andthe boys were upstairs waiting.
(45:31):
I'm standing on the outside andI'm talking to them in the
window and I'm saying pull it,pull it, pull it, pull it.
And the more I did like that, Ithink, the more the law
enforcement people became angry,or angrier.
(45:52):
And so after a while they gotout of their cars and I told
them boy, they're going tocharge us, they're going to
charge us, they're going tocharge us.
And then, just before theycharged, emma and Willie pulled
(46:13):
up.
Emma was pregnant with her lastchild.
And just after they got out ofthe car, this throng of police
officers came rushing across thestreet.
I dashed into the basement ofthe church and in the fury, got
(46:41):
arrested except me, because youwere in the basement Because you
(47:03):
were in the basement.
I was in the basement.
They came in the basement.
They came straight in thebasement looking for me and when
they had round up everyone else, I could hear one of them
saying find him, find him.
(47:24):
I think that might have beenthe night for me, but they never
found me.
The Lord, the Lord, sheltered meand I'm telling you, when they
(47:45):
came into the basement, I wasstanding at a door looking right
at them.
When they charged the door,knocked the door down at the
church, but they didn't see me.
And after they were in thebasement, a voice said to me get
(48:06):
in that room, go in that room.
To me get in that room, go inthat room.
I went in the room, did notclose the door.
It just happened to have beenthe pastor's study.
It happened to have been thepastor's study and I got under
(48:33):
the pastor's desk and took hischair and pulled it up to me.
They came in the room.
I saw their feet, but theynever saw me.
And when they started the finalsearch, because they knew I was
still in that building, theycame back to that room and I
(48:57):
heard one in the hall said notwo of us have already checked
that one.
He's not in there and they didnot come back and I was just
covered.
I was covered.
Speaker 1 (49:10):
A few more questions for you.
So you graduate from Lincoln in1963.
Right, but you elect to stay inSumter.
Yes, what motivated you to stayhere in Sumter and to attend
Morris College?
Speaker 2 (49:27):
By the time I finished high school, dad was
retired and his health haddeclined, and I did not want to
leave him.
I did not want to leave him.
His heart was set on my goingto Morehouse.
He wanted me to go to Morehouse, but I couldn't leave him.
(49:52):
I knew that would be too muchof a strain on my mother, so I
stayed to help her with him.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
And so, at Morris College, you become president of
the student government.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
President of the student government.
Speaker 1 (50:08):
Now I also found the note that at one point you had
an affiliation with the Congresson racial equality.
Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (50:14):
very much, very true.
I worked.
I worked with mr McCain and theCongress of racial equality for
several years and worked as acommando with the NAACP for
several years.
You know did voter voterregistration with both groups.
Speaker 1 (50:32):
I saw several voter registration projects you did
with James Blake.
Speaker 2 (50:36):
Right Reverend ID Quincy Newman Right, that's
exactly right.
Speaker 1 (50:40):
Now what did that work entail?
The voter education work.
Speaker 2 (50:45):
I basically worked rural areas in South Carolina
and, for instance, likeClarendon County, building up
the registration numbers, and Idid it for a long time.
I did it all through college.
Speaker 1 (51:09):
There was one incident that I want to talk in
some detail about later, but ifyou can touch on it briefly,
this morning, 1966, there isprotests about the low wages of
maintenance and custodians andmaids at Shaw Air Force Base
right and there's this young manleading that protest named
(51:30):
Ralph Canty.
Oh, is that?
Right Can you tell me aboutwhat was going on at Shaw and
what role you played incultivating the protest at that
time?
Speaker 2 (51:41):
Well, the poor people who live out in the Shaw area
worked on the base and theyworked for the families on the
(52:08):
base, but their compensation wasnot a fair nor just
compensation, and they came tothe community and asked the
(52:29):
community for help.
And so we started raising theissue of a fair wage for people
who worked, especially in thedomestic areas out there on the
base.
Speaker 1 (52:52):
So there was an actual strike of those workers?
Speaker 2 (53:01):
Yes, sort of yes, yes yes, I'm surprised you found
that.
Speaker 1 (53:11):
I have some things to show you later about that.
The last thing I want to talk toyou about, to connect the dots,
is last, in the summer of 2020,you and many here in Sumter
were part of a mass marchthrough the streets of this
community in response to aseries of incidents of police
brutality around George Floydand others, and at that time you
(53:34):
were interviewed by somejournalists and you reminded
them that you have been involvedin the March on Washington, the
Poor People's Campaign, theMillion man March, but this
March was different for you insummer of 2020.
Could you explain what wasunique and different in 2020
that connects to your longhistory of struggle for civil
(53:58):
rights?
Speaker 2 (54:02):
Well, I think when I made that that statement, I had
become perhaps more acutelyaware of how hostile law
(54:28):
enforcement has become towardblack lives and that black lives
really does not matter at all,to not only law enforcement but
to so many in society.
(54:53):
So when, in the 60s, I wasfighting for the privilege to do
what others do with GeorgeForeman's life, george Foreman's
(55:25):
situation, I discovered thatthe new fight is about life
itself, and not so much aboutprivilege but about life,
because our lives are not valued.
Speaker 1 (55:44):
I'll stop there, I want to thank you for your time.
We've only scratched thesurface of your amazing career,
and so we'll plan someadditional times in the future.
Any final words for you as tothe things that we may want to
(56:04):
discuss in the future, or whythis history—.
Speaker 2 (56:07):
I want to express my appreciation to you, and to the
university and any others whohave seen the necessity of this
special work, and may historykeep this story alive alive.
And may those who come behindus become more committed to
(56:36):
giving their lives to ensurethat the lives of others are
made better.
Thank you for being with us this morning.
This interview will be recordedand transcribed and will become
part of our collection our oralhistory collection at the
University of South Carolina andalso with our Center for Civil
Rights, History and Research.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Well, it's such a pleasure to have you visit the
campus of my alma mater, lincolnHigh School, and my pleasure to
have the opportunity to havethis conversation.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Let's begin by stating your full name and when
and where you were born.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I'm Ralph W Canty Sr and I was born here in Sumter,
south Carolina, really not veryfar from this site, at 553 South
Main Street, on October 9th of1945.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Tell me a little about the Cantu family, your
parents and their background.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
My parents were ordinary hardworking people.
My dad, by calling, was aclergyman, preacher of the
gospel, but he was also, bycraft craft, a blacksmith one of
(01:28):
the last blacksmiths in thisarea.
As a matter of fact, he builtthe gate at Morris College and
we still cherish thatcontribution that our family
made.
For a long time my mother was ahousewife and a supporter to
(01:54):
local educators, because when Iwas a child there were very few
cars around and we werefortunate to have one of those
cars and my mother would drivemany of the teachers to their
(02:16):
schools each morning and onSunday afternoons.
For those who worked out in thein the county, she'd take them
on Sunday, pick them up on onFriday.
So we've been always Engaged.
(02:39):
My Oldest brother was a graduateof Florida A&M and was a
pharmacist.
My second brother had adistinguished military career
and was a Tuskegee airman andafterwards a deputy
(02:59):
superintendent of a schoolsystem.
And my next brother operatedhis own dry cleaners business
before they began to fade offthe scene.
And, of course, I serve as apastor and the owner of a local
mortuary.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
What were your parents' names?
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Benjamin Franklin Canty Sr was my dad and Rena
Smith Canty was my mother.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Will you say a little bit about your educational
journey, your earliest schoolingon to college?
Quite a journey, educationaljourney.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
your earliest schooling on to college.
Quite a journey.
My first three years were spentat Savage Glover Elementary
School, around the corner fromwhere we lived.
That school was named for twoAfrican-American educators, miss
(04:15):
Savage and Miss Glover, andMiss Maggie Glover, who lived
right across the street from us,also partnered with my parents
in giving me my name.
So when I was in fourth gradewe moved to the west side of
(04:41):
town and I went to LibertyStreet School and St Jude
Catholic School and on to juniorhigh school at Lincoln High
School and I took a year awayfor private education up at
(05:08):
Matheter Academy in Camden andthen came back and graduated
from Lincoln.
It was quite a journey, quite ajourney, and now I'm very
grateful for that journeybecause I made so many friends
by being in so many differentschools.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
So, part of our task today is to learn more about the
history of segregation and thechallenges to that in Sumter.
So we realize that we havelimited time, so we will have
some future conversations aboutyour larger career beyond civil
rights.
So for those who may not knowSumter, how would you describe
(05:54):
race relations in your earliestyears and the system of
segregation in Sumter?
Speaker 2 (06:00):
something deep, divisive, but at the same time
(06:44):
it was so much a part of thelife of the community where
black people did not live andwhere they did not go unless
they went there to work.
There were places where we didnot go.
(07:09):
We knew that we couldn't gothere and we never attempted to
go.
It was the culture, it was apart of life.
The polarization, the isolationwas so thick that it could be
(07:32):
cut like an apple pie.
But to see the hazing and theabuse and the violence that
(08:00):
others saw where they resided.
If I'm honest about Sumter, Inever saw it.
I didn't even see it during thecivil rights movement and the
(08:30):
nobility of the segregationistspirit in Sumter that was
controlled and did not displayitself in hostile manner except,
I suspect, suspect in rarecases.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
In previous conversations on this issue
about the perception of Sumteras a moderate town.
You credit the Sheriff Parnelland Chief Strange and others as
being law enforcement officerswho set a certain tone.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
What was their tone?
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Well, they were definitely very strong people
(09:35):
and I believe that they had verystrong ideologies about the
separations of the race started.
A certain nobility emerged intheir leadership that set them
apart from law enforcementofficers in other places.
(10:03):
They were not of the demeanorof a Bull Connor and the lacks
thereof.
I remember the very first nightof the war Two friends and
(10:25):
myself sat in at the Holiday Innin Sumter.
It was a traumatic experiencefor all of Sumter White Sumter,
white Sumter, black Sumter, andyou would have thought we had
(10:58):
conducted a mass killing of sort.
Every city and county policethat was on duty came rushing to
the scene to pick up threecollege students and to take
them to jail.
(11:18):
But, mind you, I'll say this,doc, about those law enforcement
officers they were not violent,they were not violent, they
were not violent.
They never assaulted us.
We were insulted because theythought we should be arrested
for asking for the opportunityto have a nice dinner at the
(11:43):
Holiday Inn.
But they did not assault usphysically oh, there was the
verbal abuse.
And because they were excited,they really didn't know how to
handle these young folk who werecourageous enough to stand up
(12:09):
against the system.
So they hurried us away to thecity jail and while they were
processing us they were, oh boy,it was a whole lot of clamor in
the room clamor, clamor, clamor.
(12:31):
And when this elderly statesmanwalked in the room, the police
chief, chief Strange.
I heard him say all right, boys, we will not have that.
(12:55):
And where there was excitementand clamor, there was absolute
silence.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
So the police at that time were verbally harassing
you, and then the police chiefstopped it.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
They were not harassing us as much as they
were, because we were in anotherroom, but we could hear them.
You know these so, and so youknow taking over our town blank,
blank, blank, blank, blank,blank.
You know we could hear them,but they weren't verbally
(13:33):
abusing us as such.
But the point that I make isthat when the chief came, the
temperature, the temperament,the climate in the jailhouse
changed radically.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Let's look at this a little more closely.
Okay, so July 27, 1963, 9.15 pm, ralph Waldo Canty, john Calvin
Nelson, rosa Grace Denbo arearrested for trespassing at the
Holiday Inn.
That's correct.
(14:15):
Let's go back.
Why are you there and whatmotivated you to go to the
Holiday Inn?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
That was one of the places where we could not go and
we felt it was time for thewalls of segregation in Sumter
to come down and they needed tocome down in a hurry.
(14:46):
And they but that they wouldnever come down unless someone
pushed them down, force themdown, forced a collision and a
collapse.
And that was why we were there.
We weren't really hungry, notfor the food, we were hungry and
(15:12):
anxious for the privilege.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Leading up to that moment, had there been planning
and strategy sessions about whatcould or would happen?
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Oh, yes, oh yes, tell us about that.
Well, for a few months earlier,a group of college students
five or six of them and myself Iwas an upcoming college student
, I had just graduated from highschool we met in the basement
(15:53):
of Brawley Starks Hall on thecampus of Morris College and
carefully designed a strategicplan for the Sumter Movement.
As best I recall, we hadeverything conceivable in that
(16:27):
plan that might force a changein the climate in this community
Restaurants, sit-ins atchurches, wait-in at pools and
(17:58):
other recreational areas,sit-ins in the middle of
downtown beast and we understoodthat the results, the results
might not have been pleasant atall.
We understood we may have paida great physical upon us making
the sacrifice we made and wewere willing to make that
sacrifice, even if we had to paythe ultimate price.
(18:20):
You and your colleaguesdiscussed that oh yes, oh yes,
we, we were quite aware of thedanger of stepping into a
hornet's nest.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Yes, yes yes, so I imagine your parents and other
folk in the community were alsofully concerned about this
hornet's nest oh my, oh my God.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
If I am honest with you, our leaders, our pastors,
our business were extremelyanxious about this whole idea.
(19:07):
They knew it was time for thewall to come down.
The white folk on one side oftown were not ready for it to
come down and the seniors on theother side of town weren't
(19:28):
ready to push it down.
So we had we had a problem withthe establishment in the white
community, but we also had aproblem with the establishment
in our own community and inlarge measure it was because of
(19:58):
their and their fear that, well,anything could have happened.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Did any of those older people say Ralph Cannon,
now is not the time.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes, oh yes.
I'm going to put this on therecord.
I'm going to put this on therecord of First Baptist Church
(20:44):
at the corner of Washington andDangle Street in Sumter.
I remember one of the pastorssaying this is communistically
inspired.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
An African-American pastor.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Yes, yes, it frightened them in their boots.
Frightened them in their bootsand, if I am honest with you, I
(21:40):
don't know until this day if myparents would have consented for
me to participate had it notbeen for the fact that, at the
time, my mother had a nephewvisiting with us from Baltimore,
maryland to them let him go.
(22:08):
Let him go, the change is coming.
I remember his words.
He said the change is coming.
Let him be a part of the change.
He will be all right.
And I remember my motherlooking at him and saying with
(22:33):
tears in her eyes if you say so,he can go.
The truth of the matter, sir, Iwas so belligerent at that time
until, if they had said no, Iwould have gone anyway.
(22:59):
I would have gone if I had lostmy life that night.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Reverend Cantor, were there any professionals,
teachers or ministers whosupported the movement and the
work that you were doing?
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Oh yeah, there were plenty, plenty of them.
I cited the one person who, Ithink out of fear, made the
statement he made because hejust thought we were going too
far.
But, by and large, many, manyof our leaders embraced to some
(23:43):
extent what we were doing and ofcourse, you know, when the
Sumter Movement was organized,they became the leaders.
They became the leaders and ofcourse that was to ensure that
we stay in check.
(24:05):
Well, let's talk about a few ofthem, if you don't mind yeah
tell me a little about yourassociation with reverend
randolph oh, um, pastor randolphuh was number one, a part of
the earlier movement at morris.
He was a recent graduate ofMorris and there had been, back
(24:29):
in 1961, an effort by the MorrisCollege students to forge
desegregation in some.
He was one of them, and so, ofall of the pastors, of all of
the pastors, he was perhaps moresensitive and more genuine than
(24:55):
any in terms of understandingour hearts.
Of course, you know, firstBaptist Church, the church where
he served as pastor, became theheadquarters for the movement
(25:18):
and all of our activities werefacilitated from that building.
He and Reverend James Fred James, who later became a bishop, you
know, and who headed up thesocial action division of the
AME Church, and a number ofothers throughout the community,
(25:39):
became quite engaged in themovement.
Engage in the movement becauseit was, in our opinion, while it
was just this little sumptersection of the world, to us it
was a major movement.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
You mentioned the events at Mars in 1961.
At that time, you were in highschool here at Lincoln Right.
Do you recall?
Have any memories of theFreedom Rides riders coming
through Sumter?
Oh, yes, yes, yes I do I do?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
I remember Well, you know, I've been an activist all
my life, all my life and and,like I said, I'm pastor Randolph
and Freddie Williams and othersfrom Morris and I were always
in contact, even while I wasstill in high school another
(26:39):
incident happens is almost amere week or so after the
Holiday Inn incident.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Sumter had now become known as one of the cities in
the South that had nighttimeprotests and demonstrations.
Was there any particularmotivation as to why these
nighttime protests occurred inSumter?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Largely because it was a time when working people
could be engaged.
That was no other particularstrategy.
The Sumter Movement wasdesigned in such a way as to
attempt to engage the entirecommunity.
(27:41):
We would have public meetingsat rural churches and a rural
church might be 20 miles fromtown.
But to ensure that everyone wasgetting the message and
everyone was on board, we tookour meetings to every corner of
(28:09):
this county and we sought asmuch and got and got.
Sir got as much participationfrom people, as we could and
week by week, as they saw heynobody got killed.
(28:30):
The more folks started comingout and becoming involved.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
On August 6, 1963, 55 African Americans in Sumter are
arrested, 39 of whom are minors, which I think included you,
and it said it was led by twoministers, henry McGill and De
Leon Felder.
Do you have any memories ofthat protest?
Speaker 2 (28:59):
I vaguely remember that one, but I do remember Dr
Felder and Reverend McGill.
I do remember both of them.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
They were local ministers.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Yes, yes, reverend Felder was an AME minister,
minister.
Well, reverend McGill, hereagain, was a part of the 1961
movement out at Shaw, out atMorris, and by that time he was
(29:30):
a pastor, but not here in SumterCounty.
He was operating a barber shophere, yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
During the course of the movement?
Were any particular teachershave an impact on you about your
consciousness about civilrights?
Social protest.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Oh yeah, a teacher who had the greatest impact on
my life taught me history.
Her name was Mrs White, and shehelped me to understand history
(30:35):
better than anyone ever did,and in doing so it fed my soul
with the energy, the fuel, thefood I needed to so that I would
(31:04):
appreciate my own self-worth,and from that point I became
more and more engaged in thestruggle.
There was then another teacher,my 12th grade year.
(31:26):
In history, she was perhapsmore practical than Mrs White.
Mrs White was quitephilosophical and deep, miss Ivy
(31:46):
, and she too helped to get thefires burning.
And there were other educators,parents of my friends, who
(32:06):
supported the movement in such away that encouraged us and
pushed us forward.
While they would not, or couldnot, come to the front lines,
they did all they could tosupport us, those of us who were
(32:32):
willing to go to the frontlines.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
While you were engaged in the front lines, you
actually were working for theJackson family.
Could you tell me about thatrelationship and what they did
or did not do during the courseof the Civil Rights Movement as
it relates to you?
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Well, it's an amazing thing.
It's an amazing thing.
I worked for the Jackson family.
The Jacksons had two businessesdowntown Sumter Office, yeah,
(33:20):
and Sumter office supplies.
I worked in both stores.
They were right, contiguous toeach other.
One was on one street, one wason the other, but you could come
out of the back doors and intoit.
1963.
At the height of the movement.
(33:40):
I'm sitting in at the HolidayInn and at Crest and at
Cartwright and I'm taking alunch every day picking up a
sign and walking down the streetand protesting asking people
not to shop in Sumter, andworked all summer for the
(34:08):
Jacksons.
And I'll never forget one day Iwas protesting down at Crest,
leading the boycott, askingpeople not to go in the store,
and two of the workers fromsomething the office supply
(34:30):
walked down the street hey,ralph.
And into the store.
So there was no question inanybody's mind that.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
I was the same.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Ralph that was working in the store.
They never said a word.
They never mentioned the factthat I was so engaged.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
There were two reasons for it.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
I'm going to give you the two reasons.
When I decided to terminate myemployment, I went in to talk
with the son and he was brokenbecause, god man, we were just
(35:18):
close.
He said let me get Dad Ralph,this is not what we want to hear
.
So he went and got his dad andthe two of them sat with me in
the office and I told him it wastime for me to go to college
and I would not have the time towork.
(35:38):
And so after the normal kind ofexit interview, I said to them
but you know, I really thoughtyou all would have discharged me
a long time ago, and this iswhat the old man said.
(36:03):
He said, under normalcircumstances or if I probably
would have.
But you were such a goodemployee, you were getting the
work done and that's what wasimportant to me.
You did not neglect your job todo what you had to do socially
(36:35):
and we respected that.
You are a hardworking youngfella and we appreciate you.
So that was one thing.
But here's the other thing.
Business people are businesspeople, people and they know
(37:01):
what's good for business,because I was working for Sumter
office supply.
The Sumter movement bought allof its supplies, all of its
construction poster boards,placards, pins, all of the
supplies they'd need all summer.
(37:22):
So they got over as fat rats.
So it wasn't that they were sosocially sensitive.
They were good people, but theywere also economically
conscious.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
One name I want to make sure we mention because I
know he played a very criticalrole in some of your arrests.
Tell me about your connectionto Ernest.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
Finney.
So the justice was our legaladvocate, never telling us not
(38:20):
to, but always getting us out ofwhatever we got into.
That's probably the best way Ican say it.
Akin said he and Ruben Gray andMatthew Perry teamed up in
(38:49):
those days to ensure that we thebest possible legal team a
community could have as itfought for its freedom and
independence.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
And I do want to say the same is true about local
businessmen, and there were somany of them who put up property
(39:44):
, who put up money to ensurethat Attorney Justice Finney
could bail us out when we neededto be bailed out.
Do you recall some of thosebusiness people who did?
Speaker 2 (39:47):
just that.
Oh yeah, there was quite a few.
There was quite a few.
There was Dr Williams BTWilliams, there was Dr EC Jones,
there was Mr Robert Palmer,there was Mr Charles Riley,
(40:18):
there was Mr David Mallette.
That's just a long list of them.
Who was Mr Willie Singleton?
Mr Willie Singleton was one ofthem.
Mr Willie Singleton bless MrWillie Singleton's heart.
Mr Willie Singleton and hisbeloved Emma got caught up in
(40:39):
the middle of one of ourmidnight experiences, but Willie
was always there and he hasgiven his heart to the
advancement and development ofthis community and to our people
(41:02):
.
Yeah, we I guess you know thatstory Well one night I can't
tell you the date, I can go backand find it someplace we,
(41:23):
several of us were a littledisturbed.
We'd had a march that Sundayand some of our leaders about
(41:44):
six of them broke out of theline, went to the Holiday Inn,
as we had done some time ago,got arrested.
At the end of our march, we wentback to the church and rallied
(42:06):
more, and so we decided we weregoing to go back.
By that time we'd gotten wordthat they'd been arrested and we
had decided we'd go down to theprison and sing a few freedom
songs.
That's what we were going to do, and I was leading the march.
(42:28):
I was leading the march.
The police pulled up with one ofthe leaders who was just placed
in jail, and he gets out andcomes to me and says �Ralph,
(42:51):
please turn this guy off, thisis a mob.
This is a mob, we don't needthis�.
Well, we were not a mob, we hadno intention of creating any
kind of disturbance at all.
But here again, that thing Italked to you about earlier,
(43:12):
about having to deal with bothsides, the law enforcement.
folk and our leadersmisinterpreted what our actions
were, because they thought theyhad to do the thinking for us,
and they did not allow us to doour own thinking, and so, rather
(43:36):
than creating, a riot scene.
I took the crowd, we turnedaround it was a couple hundred
of us and then went back to thechurch.
We sang a few songs, but some ofus were just angry, were angry,
and we left that church, wentback to the headquarters church,
(43:59):
first Baptist Church and FirstBaptist Church may have been at
that time the only church or oneof the only churches that still
had an operating bell in itstower and we started ringing
(44:25):
that bell.
We started ringing that bell,ringing the freedom bell,
ringing the bell.
We must have started at about 8, 8 o'clock Sunday night.
We rang that bell until wayafter 12 o'clock Sunday night.
We rang that bell until wayafter 12 o'clock and we were
ringing it and we were ringingit and when we knew anything,
(44:49):
people could hear it all overtown and folks, when we started
hearing that bell, we knewsomething was going on.
So we were praying and WillieSingleton and Emma, who lived
out near Morris College, heardit, said them kids up to
(45:11):
something.
So we got to go down there andsee, go down there and see about
them.
Well, by the time they got therethere were just loads of
policemen parked on the side andthe boys were upstairs waiting.
(45:31):
I'm standing on the outside andI'm talking to them in the
window and I'm saying pull it,pull it, pull it, pull it.
And the more I did like that, Ithink, the more the law
enforcement people became angry,or angrier.
(45:52):
And so after a while they gotout of their cars and I told
them boy, they're going tocharge us, they're going to
charge us, they're going tocharge us.
And then, just before theycharged, emma and Willie pulled
(46:13):
up.
Emma was pregnant with her lastchild.
And just after they got out ofthe car, this throng of police
officers came rushing across thestreet.
I dashed into the basement ofthe church and in the fury, got
(46:41):
arrested except me, because youwere in the basement Because you
(47:03):
were in the basement.
I was in the basement.
They came in the basement.
They came straight in thebasement looking for me and when
they had round up everyone else, I could hear one of them
saying find him, find him.
(47:24):
I think that might have beenthe night for me, but they never
found me.
The Lord, the Lord, sheltered meand I'm telling you, when they
(47:45):
came into the basement, I wasstanding at a door looking right
at them.
When they charged the door,knocked the door down at the
church, but they didn't see me.
And after they were in thebasement, a voice said to me get
(48:06):
in that room, go in that room.
To me get in that room, go inthat room.
I went in the room, did notclose the door.
It just happened to have beenthe pastor's study.
It happened to have been thepastor's study and I got under
(48:33):
the pastor's desk and took hischair and pulled it up to me.
They came in the room.
I saw their feet, but theynever saw me.
And when they started the finalsearch, because they knew I was
still in that building, theycame back to that room and I
(48:57):
heard one in the hall said notwo of us have already checked
that one.
He's not in there and they didnot come back and I was just
covered.
I was covered.
Speaker 1 (49:10):
A few more questions for you.
So you graduate from Lincoln in1963.
Right, but you elect to stay inSumter.
Yes, what motivated you to stayhere in Sumter and to attend
Morris College?
Speaker 2 (49:27):
By the time I finished high school, dad was
retired and his health haddeclined, and I did not want to
leave him.
I did not want to leave him.
His heart was set on my goingto Morehouse.
He wanted me to go to Morehouse, but I couldn't leave him.
(49:52):
I knew that would be too muchof a strain on my mother, so I
stayed to help her with him.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
And so, at Morris College, you become president of
the student government.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
President of the student government.
Speaker 1 (50:08):
Now I also found the note that at one point you had
an affiliation with the Congresson racial equality.
Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (50:14):
very much, very true.
I worked.
I worked with mr McCain and theCongress of racial equality for
several years and worked as acommando with the NAACP for
several years.
You know did voter voterregistration with both groups.
Speaker 1 (50:32):
I saw several voter registration projects you did
with James Blake.
Speaker 2 (50:36):
Right Reverend ID Quincy Newman Right, that's
exactly right.
Speaker 1 (50:40):
Now what did that work entail?
The voter education work.
Speaker 2 (50:45):
I basically worked rural areas in South Carolina
and, for instance, likeClarendon County, building up
the registration numbers, and Idid it for a long time.
I did it all through college.
Speaker 1 (51:09):
There was one incident that I want to talk in
some detail about later, but ifyou can touch on it briefly,
this morning, 1966, there isprotests about the low wages of
maintenance and custodians andmaids at Shaw Air Force Base
right and there's this young manleading that protest named
(51:30):
Ralph Canty.
Oh, is that?
Right Can you tell me aboutwhat was going on at Shaw and
what role you played incultivating the protest at that
time?
Speaker 2 (51:41):
Well, the poor people who live out in the Shaw area
worked on the base and theyworked for the families on the
(52:08):
base, but their compensation wasnot a fair nor just
compensation, and they came tothe community and asked the
(52:29):
community for help.
And so we started raising theissue of a fair wage for people
who worked, especially in thedomestic areas out there on the
base.
Speaker 1 (52:52):
So there was an actual strike of those workers?
Speaker 2 (53:01):
Yes, sort of yes, yes yes, I'm surprised you found
that.
Speaker 1 (53:11):
I have some things to show you later about that.
The last thing I want to talk toyou about, to connect the dots,
is last, in the summer of 2020,you and many here in Sumter
were part of a mass marchthrough the streets of this
community in response to aseries of incidents of police
brutality around George Floydand others, and at that time you
(53:34):
were interviewed by somejournalists and you reminded
them that you have been involvedin the March on Washington, the
Poor People's Campaign, theMillion man March, but this
March was different for you insummer of 2020.
Could you explain what wasunique and different in 2020
that connects to your longhistory of struggle for civil
(53:58):
rights?
Speaker 2 (54:02):
Well, I think when I made that that statement, I had
become perhaps more acutelyaware of how hostile law
(54:28):
enforcement has become towardblack lives and that black lives
really does not matter at all,to not only law enforcement but
to so many in society.
(54:53):
So when, in the 60s, I wasfighting for the privilege to do
what others do with GeorgeForeman's life, george Foreman's
(55:25):
situation, I discovered thatthe new fight is about life
itself, and not so much aboutprivilege but about life,
because our lives are not valued.
Speaker 1 (55:44):
I'll stop there, I want to thank you for your time.
We've only scratched thesurface of your amazing career,
and so we'll plan someadditional times in the future.
Any final words for you as tothe things that we may want to
(56:04):
discuss in the future, or whythis history—.
Speaker 2 (56:07):
I want to express my appreciation to you, and to the
university and any others whohave seen the necessity of this
special work, and may historykeep this story alive alive.
And may those who come behindus become more committed to
(56:36):
giving their lives to ensurethat the lives of others are
made better.
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