All of us have something to say...
but some are never heard.
Over seven years ago,
the people of Watts stood together...
and demanded to be heard.
On a Sunday this past August
in the Los Angeles Coliseum...
over 100,000 black people came together...
to commemorate that moment
in American history.
For over six hours,
the audience heard, felt, sang...
danced, and shouted the living word...
in a soulful expression
of the black experience.
This is a film of that experience...
and what some of the people have to say.
That's what we did in 1965,
We all got crazy and went out...
and started burning up
our own neighborhood and shit.
That brought the man
on their own land, man.
The thing about it was it did something
constructive for the whole community.
That's the only beautiful thing
that went off.
Thank you, whitey.
That's the only way we communicate
with whitey, man.
You've never seen in a community
as many markets.
They've opened up
a Dr. Martin Luther King Hospital.
There's more black people in Watts...
that were formerly on county and state aid
that are employed right now.
Like your mama.
Your mama got a job
for the first time in 10 years.
- Dumb-ass motherfucker.
- I'm talking about black people...
- like you, nigger.
- You know he's been drinking.
You lived on 103rd.
- He's not responsible.
- Shit. You know what?
Once half a whitey, nigger...
It wouldn't do no good
to burn over in Inglewood.
Them motherfuckers ain't buying
second-grade meat.
Shit ain't getting better.
They're still putting offices
off into the area, man, shit.
- They're making money off it.
- But look, brother...
You'd be surprised...
how much that building,
that particular building...
will satisfy so many niggers.
- Pacify them a little.
- Make them think...
make them think it's progress.
Up until the point that we had a riot...
everybody said, "Those niggers
are all right, they're doing fine."
Then when we had a riot,
then the white man said:
"Something's wrong, 'cause these suckers
are burning down my store.
"Now I got to give these niggers
something because...
- "I thought they was happy."
- But what did he give them?
They've changed some for the best...
in an awful lot of cases for the worst...
and some they have not changed at all.
There's no difference in Watts now
than Watts '65.
California's a weird state because
they have laws for pedestrians.
Like, you cross the street,
they have laws for pedestrians...
but they don't have laws for people
at night...
when cops accidentally shoot people.
They accidentally shoot more niggers
out here than any place in the world.
Every time you pick up a paper,
"Nigger accidentally shot in the ass."
How do you accidentally shoot a nigger
six times in the chest?
"Well, my gun fell and just went crazy."
It's going to be the best sound,
though, that's ever been.
- I can dig it.
- So we're sure of that.
That's beautiful. I work in sound, also.
I'm hip to it.
This is the biggest and the best
sound equipment around, in our opinion.
- How many people do you have there?
- Four, Mr. Van Peebles.
Okay, there'll be one more,
which will be five.
Now, of those five people
down at that end of the tunnel...
there will be three and two...
three on the gate
and two in the dressing rooms.
When the gate slows down
after the festival gets underway...
we may then put three
in the dressing room, and two.
Now, the rest of you gentlemen...
As the first Black Queen
of Miss Watts at the Watts Festival...
and the Watts Beauty Pageant...
how do you feel about this concert today?
It's beautiful.
I think it's a very beautiful endeavor.
It's beautiful, that's what it is.
It's great, what can I tell you?
Fantastic.
It's a hell of a feeling.
I think it's beautiful.
Like, shit,
a whole thing is going on, you know?
Ladies and gentlemen,
our national anthem,
I don't have a damn thing to fight for,
and I got no country...
and I don't have no flag.
I ain't got a damn thing to fight for,
go up there, get half my ass blowed off...
and come back home,
and can't even draw unemployment...
- let alone find a motherfucking job.
- There's a lot of funky things...
in this country,
and there's good things, too...
but you run into more funky
than you do good.
Why can't we, as being the people,
without revolution...
you know, without political, social
and economical change...
be a part of America?
- I can say it in one word, brother.
- What's that?
- Politics.
- Thank you.
First time I discovered I was black...
was at the Interstate Fair
in Pensacola, Florida.
It was one of those things.
I was standing there...
I was working behind this little counter
where you throw the balls...
to knock over the milk bottles.
This one cat threw the ball...
knocked down two of the milk bottles.
One of them was for certain,
one almost fell...
and he said that I kept it from
falling over, and he spit on me.
Called me a black, nasty, lying nigger.
My brother...
made me realize
I was a nigger, 'cause he's high yellow.
You dig? He's lighter than I am, right?
So we was playing with some people,
you know, just running around...
doing this, doing that,
and then they called him over.
We was playing with some white kids.
They called him over...
and they whispered something in his ear.
So we went home. We was going home...
and my brother jumped up
and told me I was a nigger.
I looked at this sucker 'cause,
shit, I didn't know what a nigger was.
But these white boys, they identified
with him because he was light-skinned.
So he went in and he told my mother
that I was a black nigger...
and that he was a white boy.
You dig? But, see, my mother's bad.
My mother checked that out, so she said:
"Okay, cool with it. I'm not your mother,
because all my kids are niggers."
When I told my mother what happened...
that this white girl had called me a nigger,
and what does it mean?
So she said, "Wait till your father
gets home, he'll explain it to you."
When my old man got home,
I told him about it...
and he kind of gave me a weird look...
and he said,
"Look, let me tell you something."
He said, "The next time
somebody calls you a nigger...
"just kick their ass. Don't ask no
questions, just kick their ass."
I think like niggers are the best
of the people that were slaves.
You know what I mean?
And that's how they got to be niggers.
'Cause they stole the cream of the crop
from Africa and brought them over here...
and God, as they say,
works in mysterious ways.
So he made everybody a nigger
'cause we was arguing over in Africa...
about the Watusi, the Huwagada,
the Zagumbo, and the Zamunga.
You know... In different languages.
So he brought us all over here...
the best, the kings, the queens,
and the princesses and the princes...
shit, and put us all together
and called us one tribe: Niggers.
This is a beautiful day,
It is a new day,
It is a day of black awareness,
It is a day of black people taking care
of black people's business,
Today we are together,
We are unified and on one accord,
'Cause when we are together,
we've got power...
and we can make decisions,
Today, on this program
you will hear gospel...
and rhythm and blues, and jazz,
All those are just labels,
We know that music is music,
All of our people got a soul,
Our experience determines the texture...
the taste, and the sound of our soul,
We say that we may be in the slum...
but the slum is not in us,
We may be in prison...
but the prison is not in us,
In Watts, we have shifted from, ;
"Burn, baby, burn,
"to "Learn, baby, learn, "
We have shifted from having a seizure...
about what the man got...
to seizing what we need,
We have shifted from bedbugs
and dog ticks...
to community control and politics,
That is why we gather today...
to celebrate our homecoming...
and our own sense of somebody-ness,
That is why I challenge you now
to stand together...
raise your fists together...
and engage in our national black litany,
Do it with courage and determination,
I am...
somebody!
I am...
somebody!
I may be poor...
but I am...
somebody!
I may be on welfare...
but I am...
somebody!
I may be unskilled...
but I am...
somebody!
I am...
black...
beautiful...
proud!
I must be respected!
I must be protected!
- What time is it?
- Nation time!
- When we stand together, what time is it?
- Nation time!
When we say no more, "Yessuh, boss,"
what time is it?
- Nation time!
- What time is it?
Sister Kim Weston,
the black national anthem,
Won't you sing it with me, everybody?
We've got some difficult days ahead...
but it really doesn't matter with me now,
Because I've been to the mountaintop...
and I don't mind,
Like anybody, I would like to live...
a long life, Longevity has its place...
but I'm not concerned about that now,
I just want to do God's will,
And he's allowed me
to go up to the mountain...
and I've looked over...
and I've seen the promised land,
I may not get there with you...
but I want you to know tonight...
that we as a people
will get to the promised land,
So I'm happy tonight,
I'm not worried about anything,
I'm not fearing any man,
Mine eyes have seen the glory
of the coming of the Lord!
I remember, we used to go to
a movie house.
It wasn't a church, you know?
It was a movie house.
And the thing... It used to bug me, man,
'cause it was like...
every place else
you went to something like a church.
But in a black neighborhood, man,
you had to go to a movie house.
But when you got in the movie house,
man, it was bad.
I mean, the people got down.
I remember going in there, man...
and I used to go to a Catholic church,
and I went to a Methodist church...
I went to all them other churches, man,
but then I went to this black church...
in Oakland. And we went up...
I went up, and I saw tambourines
and trombones...
and drums, and I said, "This is church?"
I don't understand this, man.
And the people... The preacher got up
and started talking about God...
and I was listening, and I said:
"I never heard anybody talk about God
like this before."
This cat started talking
about God and what God did.
And then he got this band
going behind him, man...
and the band started getting into it, man,
and the cats was playing, and shit.
And I said, "Goddamn!"
And I started feeling good.
I'm reminded of the two thieves...
nailed beside him,
I believe one of the thieves said, ;
"If thou be the Christ...
"why don't you save thyself and us?"
And the other said, ;
"Lord...
"remember me," The Lord said, ;
"This day...
"thou shall be with me...
"in paradise,"
I remember he and his 12...
on a ship sailing afar,
when all of a sudden...
the sky was filled with darkness...
the sea was raging...
the lightning flashed, the thunder roared!
The ship was rocking back and forth,
they were so afraid...
so afraid,
And I believe I heard a voice...
I believe I hear this voice now,
I believe I hear a voice crying out now...
I believe I hear this voice crying...
saying...,
When I hear the choir sing like
Amazing Grace, I start thinking about...
when my great-grandmother died.
She died of cancer.
I was young, but...
the music, it just sets a thing.
You get a thing inside.
Every time I hear that song,
Amazing Grace...
I start thinking about that.
And when they really get to going,
really get to jam...
I used to dig that,
because I'd be right up there with them.
And my people right here
would jump up and get happy.
I'd be wanting to jump up
and get happy, too.
And then the building beats up, boy,
and they get to jumping and shouting...
shit, boy, they'd be getting down,
boy, let me tell you.
And that comes from being black.
And now we're going to bring back
Stax's Golden 13,
Let everybody say yeah!
I love that gospel.
I know gospel better than I know...
God damn me, blues,
because the white man wrote my Bible...
and the thing that most black people
try to live by.
You know, I used to go to church and shit,
like I was saying...
but black people know God personally.
Any wino you meet know God...
right? Or Jesus, at least, right?
"Jesus Christ? Shit, man, he live
over there, in the project!
"Shit, tell me. I know peoples.
"I study peoples.
"See, I used to be in the FBI.
"I'm the first colored person
ever in the Bureau.
"J. Edgar Hoover appointed me
personally, posthumous.
"That's right. He wanted somebody
on the railroad to guard the Mexicans.
"See, 'cause nobody in the Bureau
at that time could speak Mexican talk.
"See, I spoke to them. They'd be..."
I'd say, "What you say, motherfucker?
"They'd tell me."
Well, listen, we all know
what we're here for,
We really want you to have a great time,
We're here to commemorate
a revolution...
that started the movement...
and was one of the milestones
in black pride,
Some folks may find it a little strange
that we laugh...
we sing, and we joke...
but we're doing our thing
the black way to commemorate,
And now, one of the most popular groups
in the nation...
The Staple Singers!
I think that there's more awareness of...
There's more search for awareness
with black people...
as to where we are
and what has happened to us...
and what we're going to do with it.
I dig the natural.
I think the natural
is a beautiful way of wearing your hair...
for all black people.
When I get up in the morning, I'm natural.
And that's the way my hair is all day long.
Kids is what make me feel so good.
You see, you're looking at the glory
that's coming up into the future of life.
The younger youth
is what's gonna make everything...
to keep going
after I done passed down the hill.
Young, gifted, and black.
I be a Democrat every now and then.
I be a Muslim, I be a Panther.
But I'm always being black.
I'm not prejudiced, because
some of my best friends are colored...
if you know what I'm talking about.
Black is beautiful because it feels so good.
If black is beautiful, white is divine.
Now, that nigger's crazy.
Don't call you black, you're a Negro.
You sound like them kids in school.
You ever know them dudes?
They get madder than a motherfucker.
"Say, black boy."
"Say, man. What you mean, black?
"Baby, I'm colored.
"I don't play that shit."
My parents was like that.
In my neighborhood,
used to be some beautiful black man...
would come through the neighborhood,
dressed in African shit. Really nice shit.
And he'd be,
"Peace, love, black is beautiful.
"Remember the essence of life.
"We are people of the universe.
Life is beautiful."
My parents would go, "That nigger crazy."
I used to love to go to the meetings,
when you get down.
I got ultra-black for a while.
Them brothers be rapping.
I never knew what they was saying.
But the brothers be having emotion.
"You see, the first thing you gotta know
is about eating pork.
"Now, you eat a piece of pork...
"you don't realize the subtlefications
of this individuality's prospect.
"What the man
trying to lay on you through porkitis...
"you will not understand
because the trichinosis of your mind...
"will not relinquish
the thought of individuality.
"You know what I mean?"
Ladies and gentlemen, right about now...
the soulful, funky sounds of the Bar-Kays,
It's been said many times
and many places...
that freedom is a road
seldom traveled by the multitude,
We would like to invite each of you
to come and go with us,
And perhaps you'll see a side of life
that you've never seen before,
I'm the son of a badass!
Right now,
we'd like to give everybody a chance...
to get down,
Black people rip off one another.
I'll tell you which ones rip off
one another.
It's the ones
that don't know who the fuck they are.
As simple as that.
They don't know who they are.
Sometimes, it seemed the guys
would rip me off so often...
I thought they were running the place
instead of me.
It was just like them coming in
and getting what belong to them.
If I can't work and make it,
I'll steal and take it.
If there was a way a nigger could put
air in a bottle and sell it, he'd do it.
A nigger can sell anything.
I ain't gonna lie to you.
Anytime a brother would shoot
another brother in his own neighborhood...
then go to his funeral
and turn over his own casket...
they need to have the police down there.
The niggers are NAACP-ing.
Niggers ain't acting like colored people.
And we can't stand that.
But pimp, that's why.
Anybody that use somebody else to gain,
he's pimping.
I'll tell you what,
soul brother. Looky here.
Can't nobody pimp you
but your pimp-ass self, you understand?
Somewhere along from the day I was born
and up until now, something went wrong.
And I'm trying to figure out in my mind,
"Do it take another riot?"
I mean, a riot that's gonna include
a lot of killing and things...
in order to get this thing going
the way it should be going.
We're tired of gaming, man.
We're tired of all this bullshit.
We wants jobs and, we wants everything,
just like they got.
It's not getting out and confronting,
and fighting the man on the street...
because right now he's got the power,
and he's gonna win.
What we got to do,
we got to get our minds together.
I'm not gonna get up on Front Street
and front myself off.
You be fronting yourself off every time
you be coming out of your house.
You see the brother pushing pushcarts.
You see the lady bagging out.
See the brother standing up.
You understand?
But you know what you got to deal with?
The waking up and going to bed.
Once you get a job, nigger, be respectful.
This is the Age of Aquarius.
"Shit! Man, get a job?
"What the fuck you talking?
"I went down.
Man, I ain't bullshitting, baby.
"I went down
to the unemployment bureau.
"You dig?
"I just got out the joint.
You know what I mean?
"I'm in the joint,
I go to the unemployment bureau...
"the bitch telling me,
'What's your occupation? '
"I said, 'Pressing license plates.'
"Where you gonna find a job for a nigger
out here pressing license plates?
"And I'm
a license plate-pressing motherfucker.
"You dig?
"Old bitch has got a tiara
and shit up there.
"Old, ugly white whore
with old wrinkles and shit.
"Bitch got funky with me.
I said, 'Fuck the job, bitch.
"'Kiss my ass. And your mama, too."'
You know what I learned
up in Soledad in '67?
- That you got to...
- You got to what?
...stay out the penitentiary.
And this number's
being especially played and dedicated...
to all of the blues lovers,
And to all of those
that's not hip to the blues, ;
We're gonna learn them to you,
teach them to you, brother...
'cause we'll be around for a while,
You know how much shit
I've been through.
I done had three mothers in my life.
That's why I think...
you see a man walking down the street
by himself alone at night, lonesome...
walking down the street
about 6:00 in the morning...
he'll stand in front of the mirror and say:
"Ricky, what are you doing?"
And he'll say, "Doo doo da doo," and start
singing the blues. You know what I mean?
I like the blues. I don't like the jazz.
I'm too old a man to like a lot of that.
The blues.
People have to have something
they can relate to for right now.
I don't mean tomorrow, but right now.
You dig what I'm saying?
The blues is past tense.
That's the black man's cousin, the blues.
- I've been down so long...
- Tell them why.
...that getting up
don't even cross my mind.
Yes, I've had the blues.
I've had men
that I really liked, that I really loved.
And they have
a change of heart, a change of mind.
And there you are, standing there
with your heart in your hand.
Just like if you had an old car,
and it kept stopping on you.
This is what I've experienced
with the blues in many ways.
Not just being in love.
Although, that's
one of the hurt ingest blues you can have.
You know what I told her
when she called me on the phone?
I said, "Honey, I done married again.
"I got me a good wife,
and forget about you."
Yes, sir. "Forget about you."
'Cause that's all I wanted of her,
is to let me alone.
But I loved her, boy.
You know what? I tell you what.
I'd work, I'd buy... I'd wear jeans, boy.
She'd go to church with furs.
I ain't lying.
$200 and $500 bracelets,
big ring on her finger.
Singing in the choir.
And I got two jobs
to support that goddamn woman.
You know that?
And that's the honest God's truth.
You take care of business,
far as I'm concerned.
Who? Do you know she was pretty?
Man, she had my nose open.
- So I see that.
- She had my nose open.
I tell you what. And right today...
every time I think about it,
damn it, I get mad.
I used to cry over her.
I ain't lying. Sometime I'd be at the job...
and I had to go
and sit in the car for a few minutes.
They'd ask me,
"What's wrong with you, man?"
And I wouldn't tell them.
I didn't want nobody to know
I was weak, that weak, behind a woman.
I loved her, man. I ain't lying.
I loved her.
Did she hurt you bad, man?
She tore me up.
She turned me against
the whole female sex...
as far as life is concerned for me.
Can't nobody give a sister
the blues like her man.
That's the blues.
That's the sure-enough blues, really.
You ever had a woman that you loved,
or a girlfriend or something...
that you really felt like
you couldn't make it without?
And along come one of them old hip dudes
and slid her right out from under you?
If you didn't have the blues then...
you're right,
you don't know nothing about it.
A lot of people talk about Jody.
You know who Jody's supposed to be.
Jody is that fella...
that when you leave home...
at 6:00...
he's in your house at 6:01.
I want everybody to get in on this thing,
- You all feel it over there?
- Yeah,
You all feel it over here?
I'm gonna tell you all
a story about Jody, right,
Just wait a minute,
Honey, do you know Jody?
All the girls that know Jody,
let me see you wave your hand,
Johnnie Taylor,
You ever try to get in after hours?
We had a place called the Blue Note...
with a blue window,
and it had a note painted in the glass.
Right, you could look through.
You remember that? The Blue Note.
You'd be checking,
looking through that peeled paint and shit.
They'd be getting down.
You'd try, "Curtis, you going in, brother?
Take me in with you, man."
"Guess...
"Fuck you, then. You don't have
to take me no place, nigger.
"Come on, do something. You bad?
"I'm bullshitting, brother. I'm just
playing. But take me in with you.
"I got a little business. You know I'm
gonna get it on. You know what I mean?"
The dude take you in with him.
You knock on the door like a speakeasy.
You have to knock all night.
Then the dude open it. "What you want?"
"Hank sent me."
"I don't know no goddamn Hank."
Then the nigger go off, right?
Nigger get mad.
"Say, motherfucker, what you mean
you ain't gonna let me in this funky joint?
"Much money I done spent in here, nigger.
I knew your mom when she was whoring."
Right, then the dude let him in.
"Come on in, man.
I was going to let you in. Shit.
"You don't gotta talk to me like that.
"Shit, how old are you, boy?"
You have to lie. I say, "19."
"Nigger, you look 35."
Then you go in the back room.
White cats in Vegas. I was in Las Vegas.
They gamble different, very quiet like.
"$2,000 on the five.
"Oops, I missed. Gosh, gee whiz."
Niggers be talking about, "Hump, baby.
"Shit. Bet I do it over tom-tom.
"Save that nigger. Shit.
"Bar. Bet the bar. Off-time.
"I'm trying to make me some money.
"I'm hungry for hog meat. Slap, Jesus.
"Shit. Gotta be a Jesus
'cause too many black folks.
"Nigger, what, boy? I ain't got no money.
"Get up off me, motherfucker.
"Shit, I'm trying
to get this six up off my ass.
"If I six, we're going to have a new
crap game. You can believe that. Shit!
"Borrow what, man?
I ain't got no money, nigger.
"I'm going to pay you.
"Goddamn. Nigger won't leave me alone.
Supposed to be my partner.
"Get me a beer or something, boy.
I'm trying to hustle."
You know, the nigger be,
"Seven! Motherfucker! Goddamn!
"Boy, you check that seven.
The man had his hand on the table.
"He hit the dice. Nigger ain't fade nobody.
"Shit. Fucked up my money. Jive turkey.
"Shit. Brother, what's happening?
"This nigger was down, fucking around.
"Let me have $2. Give me $2.
"Want to buy a radio?
"Dig, mama, it got 16 channels.
"Fuck you, too, nigger."
I love black women. I'm black.
All black women are my sisters, man.
The way the brother walks is beautiful.
The way he talks is beautiful.
The way he abuses me is beautiful.
The brother is beautiful.
The way he makes love to me is beautiful.
You know, that's my man.
She's behind me 100%.
She believes in everything I believe in.
And whatever I do...
she go right along with me
and do it at the same time...
with no doubts in her mind...
because she know that I'm positive,
and that I'm out to get over...
and that I'm going to try
to get a piece of this country.
I have to be the lead horse.
I have to be in charge...
Not in charge, but I got to be
on top of her all the time.
You think you're the boss
between you and your old lady?
I know I'm the boss.
The reason why I know this is because...
Your old lady's so bad,
she actually got you believing that shit.
No, the black woman has always been
two steps ahead of her man. Always.
I'd say I prefer an older broad
to a younger broad any day...
because the understanding is here
and not so much here.
A lot of people think with their mouth
and not with their head. Like your mama.
But you're gonna get her physically first.
No, mentally, brother. Go for the head.
The first thing that's gonna attract you
is the physical thing.
Ain't no sense in taking no head
and leaving the rest. Take the whole thing.
When a woman steps out the door,
if you decide you wanna jam her, jam her.
If she can accept it, it's beautiful.
Let me tell you the truth.
I think I've had more women...
than both of you cats
put together a thousand times.
We're not ready for all this bullshit
we getting from the black man.
We not taking it anymore like we used to.
That mean I have sex
with between eight, nine and ten...
between the hour of 7:00 in the morning
and the hour of 12:00.
Now that nigger's crazy.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I would like to present to you...
the lady that did such a wonderful job
as hostess on the television program...
this morning of the Watts Festival...
Miss Gee Whiz,
Come on, let's meet Miss Carla Thomas,
All right,
I remember the time I was a kid.
My dad would hide
in the back of the house...
when a bill collector
come knocking on the door.
My mom would have to go to the door
and face him.
She'd tell him a lie or curse him, whatever
it took to get him away from the house.
My daddy would hide in the back.
He was afraid.
This went on years past that time.
Black women would always be the man,
so to speak.
When it comes to confrontation
with white people...
the black male was always kind of afraid
to face the man.
And the woman had to face him.
That is the problem that stems between
the black man and the black woman...
today, because she wants to control and
rule and run him, and you can't do that.
He cannot survive and get free...
under the same thing that his mama
and his sister and his wife put on him...
way back there, when she had to do it
to keep him from getting lynched.
Usually a black man
is kept in the background.
Now they're coming up forward
and I love that.
You let me find me a good black man.
I'll be damned if I let him go anywhere.
I always said I'd never fight over a man,
but you let me have a good black man...
the bitch can't say shit to me. She
will get her ass kicked. I don't play it.
The one thing
I really don't like about black men is:
All the black women that there is...
I don't understand why they would...
prefer white women, or whatever...
when there're lots of black women...
who can do more...
than a white woman.
A white girl that digs black brothers...
that want a black brother...
I done had experience with a few of them.
And they do the nigger right.
In his soul, in his heart...
in his spirit, in his being...
he does not actually feel
the white woman...
'cause the white woman ain't hip
to mustard greens and cornbread.
You dig what I mean?
The white woman ain't hip
to his little tricks.
A brother can play tricks
on a white woman...
and she can't cope with it.
All she can do is say yes.
But there are certain tricks
that he can't play on a sister.
If you get out there and pick up
a stray broad off the street...
don't think you gonna get a whole lot,
because you ain't.
You're not. That's why I condemn
all black men, black women...
that get out there and get whitey,
'cause it ain't shit.
Some niggers I know like Chinese women.
Ladies and gentlemen...
let's meet and greet...
Mr, Rufus Thomas!
- Can I ask you something?
- Yeah!
- I said, can I ask you something?
- Yeah!
Ain't I'm clean?
Fellas! Thank you,
- You all ready for it?
- Yeah!
- You all ready for it? Here it is!
- Yeah!
Hey, Mr, Rufus Thomas!
Come on, Rufus, tell them about it,
- Tell them about it!
- Can you hear me out there?
Yeah!
All right, I want everybody...,
Don't want nobody on the field, not yet,
Now when I tell you to get on the field...
then you get on the field,
Then I just might get out
on the field with you,
All right, Here we go,
You all ready?
Okay, here we go,
You all ready?
- You all ready?
- Yeah!
Okay, here we go,
Now, wait a minute,
We all together out here,
We all gonna have some fun,
But you ain't supposed to have your fun
on the ground,
You're supposed to be in the stands,
More power to the folks
that's going to the stands,
And I wish the mike cord
were long enough...
I'd go in the stands with you,
More power to the folks
that's going to the stands,
Ain't no problem at all, fellas,
It ain't what you got, it's what you know
what to do with what you got,
So all of you, will you please...,
All you people right in there...
please go to the stands,
Please, With a capital "P,"
Come on, you all, please go to the stands,
That's right, Might be a little slow,
but you just got to go,
So, how about it, brother?
Power to the people that go to the stands!
Power to the folks! Let's go to the stands,
Power to the people!
Let's go to the stands,
Please go to..., Don't jump the fence
because it don't make sense,
You and that upside-down umbrella,
I'm talking about you, fella,
He don't mean to be mean,
he just want to be seen,
Look, you ain't no Indian, lady, but
you going have to get off the field, too,
Now whatever you do now, please,
Now, will you please hold what you got?
Yeah, that's a brother, all right,
Yeah, that's a brother, all right,
but I'll be damned if he's my brother,
Somebody told him he's cute
and he want to try to show it off out there,
Standing there, looking just like the thing
that eat up my grandpa 's dog,
See, the good part about it...
the very good part about all that,
now he knows he's wrong,
But if you go out there
and try to tell him he's wrong...
then want to try to whoop
everybody, see?
See, he's got his fists up now,
See what I'm talking about?
And that's what you call our black brother,
Now you all get him off,
You all got out there and get him off,
Get him off, you all! Get him on off,
Just take him right on off
and everything will be all right, y'all,
They'd arrest me, especially at night.
They have a curfew, right?
Niggers have to be home by 11:00,
Negroes, 12:00.
And you'd be trying to get home.
Doing your cool running shit.
Always they'd catch you out
in front of a store or something...
'cause you be taking shortcuts, right?
Cops: "Put your hands up, black boy!"
You panic. "All right, don't move!"
You be scared to death.
"Put your hands against the wall!"
"There ain't no wall." "Find one.
"Put the handcuffs on him, Fred."
They put the handcuffs on,
and I was really skinny.
They'd slip off
and the dude would get mad.
"All right. Put them on his ankles
or his ass or something."
They handcuffed my thighs, right?
Hopped me to the car.
Then they call my father
about 4:00 in the morning.
"Mr. Pryor, we have your son
down here at headquarters.
"What about it?" "Fuck him."
You know.
And my mother'd have to beg him
to come get me out.
"Please, Bucky, go get him."
"Fuck that nigger."
"I told him to be home at 11:00,
and I meant 11:00!
"Goddamn, every time I turn around,
that nigger's in jail.
"I'm tired of getting him out."
I'd be praying he'd have a heart attack
before he'd get there...
'cause he'd put some shit on you.
"I'm gonna get your ass out.
'Cause you know I'm gonna tear your...
"How much is it, man?
$12? Yeah, I'll pay it.
"And you know I'll get your ass.
Yeah, you can believe that shit."
And my mother be crying:
"It hurts me more than it hurts you."
I'd say, "Yeah, let him beat your ass."
Here he comes,
This is the man
that put romance in your hearts,
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr, Luther Ingram!
I can't believe
you don't mess around, man.
Yeah. Everybody mess around.
Even married men mess around.
What's to keep your old lady
from messing around?
Some of your best relationships
are with married women...
because they aren't able
to take a lot of your time.
I fall in love seven days a week
and love everybody.
What's your old lady's name, man?
That ain't none of your business
what's her name.
What do you mean, "What's her name?"
No, man, you say your old lady's beautiful,
I just want to know who she is.
You might know her already. That's why
I'm not gonna give you her name.
I left my wife all thinking
she was happy and everything.
And look here, there wasn't no boyfriend
involved in this here.
And I come back home.
It was cold. January 27.
- '69.
- That when she put you out?
- She didn't put me out.
- What happened?
She hired her a van line and moved.
I don't mess around
with any of my partners' old ladies...
who are married, you know?
When I go by there,
it's a thing that I respect, man.
But I figure there's enough
women out there...
for a brother who's supposed to be your
partner, you can go out there and catch.
Don't mess with someone's old lady.
All of them, I respect them
and their old lady.
The old lady, if she forced me into a thing,
really forced me...
man, I wouldn't punk out. I'd rip her, but...
I know one thing.
If I was going out with one...
I'd always try to stay out
the other fella's way.
Have you ever, in your life...
had to jump out of a window
behind a woman?
Have you been caught in a bed
with a woman?
Yes, I have.
- Is that where you got this from?
- Hey, look here...
The lineup. See, the lineup, man,
is a thing that...
I used to be in Peoria, it's a small town.
I'd be in the lineup for entertainment
on Saturday nights...
'cause there wasn't nothing to do.
Know what I mean?
'Cause ugly white women
used to say they got raped by niggers.
"A nigger raped me."
And nigger guys be going:
"Are you sure?"
They'd go round up some niggers.
You know, like:
"You were down last week.
Know what to do, don't you?
"Come on down again, will you?
We got to have a lineup."
It was a lot of fun unless you got picked.
Then it was your ass.
And then always at line up, you know,
you'd stand up in them lights.
It'd be like acting to me. I loved it.
But some dudes
didn't understand that shit. Just be:
The lights be, you know...
"All right, bring them out.
"All right, what's your name?"
"What's happening?
"I mean what am I charged with?
You know what I mean, man?
"I ain't did nothing, man.
I thought that was my mother's car.
"I went out to the bank.
"No, man, my mother told me...
I was downtown, you see?
"My mama said, 'Pick the car up
in front of the bank at 2:15.'
"So, I got in the car,
I was driving down the street.
"I didn't know what was happening.
"This white lady was sitting next to me,
screaming and shit.
"I thought it was a stickup."
There are specific instructions...
when Isaac Hayes comes on,
If the barrier is broken...
Isaac will be immediately
taken from the stage...
and will not be allowed to return,
You must keep your seats,
Do we want to see Isaac Hayes?
- Yeah!
- Brothers and sisters...
we are now about to bring forth...
a bad...
bad..., I'm a preacher, I can't say it,
We're getting ready to bring right now...
the brother all of us have been waiting for!
The one we've been waiting for!
A bad, bad...
brother!
Isaac Hayes!
Thank you, Right on, Thank you,
Yeah,
Saturday night though was...
They always called it "nigger night"...
'cause white folks go out about 8:00
and leave and go home at 10:00.
And leave it to the niggers,
'cause it gets thick.
They can't handle it.
I mean, too many niggers.
When they found out niggers could talk
other than "do wah ho"...
they got scared to death.
Like one day somebody said:
"Nigger, talk."
- "I've been wanting to tell you something."
- "I beg your pardon?"
Now niggers got a handshake.
If you don't learn the handshake, see,
niggers change their shit all the time.
Like, you be meeting a nigger,
he'd go, "Hey, bro."
But then, niggers add.
Six months later, the shit changed.
You know, they'd be...
Be all down here, "Hey..."
If you don't do that, you ain't no nigger.
Dude be, "You ain't black, motherfucker.
You didn't even know how to do..."
I can go anywhere
in the United States of America...
and see another black man
and give him a power shake,
And there's unity there,
There's a beauty that
I can communicate with this brother,
You can take black people
of many different shades...
that have obviously come
from different parts of Africa...
during the course
of this country's existence,
But they're still a brother,
But we grow up together, you know?
We are one,
I thank you for your tolerance
and your patience and your cooperation...
because we know this whole occasion
is for a worthy cause,
The good master helps them
that help themselves,
Right on,
I am...
somebody!
I may be on welfare...
but I am...
somebody!
I may be unskilled...
but I am...
somebody!
I am...
black...
beautiful...
proud!
I must be respected!
I must be protected!
- What time is it?
- Nation time!
- When we stand together, what time is it?
- Nation time!
When we say no more, "Yessuh, boss,"
what time is it?
Nation time!
- What time is it?
- Nation time!
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