Women of the Movement (2022) s01e03 Episode Script

1 [GUIDE.]
That beautiful Colonial mansion over there is Mr.
Alan Ladd's home.
Alan Ladd! Yeah, gee, it would be nice if we could see Sue Carol walking around there.
And over here on the left is Shirley Temp [BROADCASTER.]
This is a WDUW Chicago Special Bulletin.
The body identified as 14-year-old Emmett Till arrived by train this morning.
Till's mother, Mamie Bradley, met the train at the Central Street Station this morning and has since made a statement, inviting the public.
The viewing will be held at A.
A.
Rayner & Sons Funeral Home The hell is this? - All those wishing to pay - [CLICK.]
I know you asked me to leave him be.
But there's a whole lot of people outside waiting to pay their respects.
And I just, well I felt I had to do something to make it easier on them.
It's just a few stitches.
I hope that's okay.
You did a beautiful job, Mr.
Rayner.
We don't have to open the doors.
Your family's here.
We could keep it private.
No one else has to see.
I want them to see what was taken from me.
Let them in.
[DOOR OPENS.]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER.]
[BOTH CRYING.]
No! [SOBBING.]
Reports estimate that more than 10,000 people have already viewed Emmett Till's body, with that number sure to climb today at the funer [CLICK.]
Who do you think we feeding, an army? The same people we've been feeding since this nightmare began.
The repast is for family.
I don't know why you feel the need to feed the entire Chicago branch of the NAACP.
After everything they've done for Emmett, they might as well be family.
Folks are gonna be expecting a meal after the funeral, and I'd rather have too much than not enough.
We need time to grieve.
I'm not standing in your way, Mama.
You need time to grieve.
I will.
When those monsters are indicted by a grand jury and when they're in prison for the rest of their lives.
And what if it doesn't go our way? Mama, don't.
An arrest was a miracle, [CHUCKLES.]
but an indictment That doesn't happen.
Not for us.
I'm sorry.
But it needed to be said.
Now, you know I don't keep my good containers on that bottom shelf.
Go on.
Car's on the way, so we best get ready if we don't want to be late.
Tell 'em to wait.
As if they'd start the funeral without us.
You know what? In this case, maybe they would.
[GENE.]
Some people are better at putting on a brave face than others, but if you get tired of putting yours on today, you let me know.
I'll sneak you out the church's back door.
[CHUCKLES SOFTLY.]
I'm fine.
I will be, as long as I don't sit still for too long.
Just say the word.
[ORGAN PLAYING.]
I don't know why I don't know why I have to cry sometimes I don't know why I don't know why I have to sigh, ooh, sometimes It would be a perfect day But there's trouble In my way I don't know why - But I'll find out - [SOBS.]
By and by Ooh, it would be a Be a perfect day But my trouble keep on getting in the way I don't know why But I'll find out Lord By and by Remember.
Just say the word.
[BISHOP.]
Good morning.
[CONGREGATION.]
Good morning.
To the members of Emmett's family, first and foremost to his mother, let me begin by saying that this community is not only praying for you, but we are standing with you.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank local journalists for your thorough coverage of this case.
I pray that God blesses each and every one of you for your fine work that you've done to inform the citizens of Chicago, and even the world, about this tragedy.
[CONGREGATION MURMURS.]
I have to be honest with you, church, I-I had to wrestle with God about what I was gonna say today.
I know I should talk about His love and peace, but this is a reckoning moment in America.
- Yes.
- Yeah.
[BISHOP.]
We are in pain! [CONGREGATION MURMURS.]
But we can mourn later.
For right now, we must act on behalf of this young martyr, who was a casualty of the war of good versus evil.
And we must show that the hatred of the creation cannot undo the love and the power of the creator.
[CONGREGATION MURMURS.]
- [CASH REGISTER DINGS.]
- [MUSIC PLAYING ON RADIO.]
All right, anything else, Mr.
Chatham? Well, I wouldn't mind taking a few of them Mary Janes off your hands.
Sure.
[CHATHAM.]
You know them? [CASHIER.]
Oh, no, sir.
The way I figure it [CASH REGISTER DINGS.]
we all gotta stick together now.
Anything you want to contribute would be much appreciated.
Not today, hon.
I don't think so.
Jimmy Hicks for the Baltimore Afro-American.
DA Chatham, what makes this case different from the murder of George Lee in May or Lamar Smith just weeks ago? We arrested two suspects in the Till case, that's what.
Yeah, but how confident are you in procuring indictments against the brothers from an all-white grand jury? The state's gonna see that we take every precaution to have a fair and impartial jury.
And you think that's possible down here? I believe we have more than sufficient evidence to convince 18 reasonable men to render indictments when the grand jury convenes on Monday morning.
Y'all stay cool, now, won't ya? Fittin' to be a scorcher today.
[STRIDER.]
Can't hardly walk down the street without some Yank sticking a microphone in your face.
Well, I suppose they're doing their jobs.
Well, I wish they'd go do it somewheres else.
Until last night, I thought that body was buried and in the ground.
So you can imagine I was a little, uh, miffed when I got word it arrived in Chicago.
You don't think the boy's mother had a right to dictate where her son was buried? That wake, more like a TV show than anything I'd ever seen, and from what I hear, that woman's back at it again today with the funeral.
Meanwhile, I got niggers callin' the station, writing letters, threatening to lynch me.
You don't spook easy, Clarence.
What's really eating at you? Sheriff Smith.
He's poking his nose in where it don't belong.
The newspapers published photographs of that cotton gin fan that we found around the body, and I know he put 'em up to it.
He's only looking for the gin fan's owner.
Why can't he get it through his thick skull, this case is mine? Because his kidnapping investigation is ongoing, Clarence, and if he can find out where the gin fan came from, he'll have a better idea of where the murder actually took place, and then we'll all be one step closer to locating witnesses who can help track Bryant and Milam's movements that night.
Sheriff Smith's on our side.
The hell he is! The gin fan is a piece of evidence in my murder case, always has been.
Now, he knows damn well he's got no right to get in my way.
Now, Gerald, I want you to make it clear to him he's getting in your way now, too.
Oh, I'm not getting drawn into some turf war between you two.
Think of the press like another tool in our belts to get these indictments.
You do realize that every defense attorney in the county has stepped up for Milam and Bryant, don't you? And I know how these cases typically go, but this isn't a typical case for us.
We're talking about a child.
Folks don't go for that down here.
A whipping, maybe.
But what they did to that boy makes us all look like a bunch of savages.
And the papers are saying 10,000 people attended that boy's wake last night God only knows how many are gonna be at the funeral today.
You really think a grand jury's just gonna ignore all that? You already talk like you got it in the bag.
The law is the law.
Just trying to do my job.
Look, if Sheriff Strider really is getting threats, they aren't coming from us.
There's probably some well-intentioned white person who thinks they're helping the cause.
Or ill-intentioned, trying to stir up some mess.
[PACKTON.]
I hate to be the one to break it to you, but a bunch of us staying out at the Delta Inn saw those threatening letters, and they didn't look doctored.
Huh.
Well, that explains how Strider's threats ended up in southern papers.
Maybe we should invite him out to Dr.
Howard's and see if he wants to set up a follow-up interview.
[LAUGHTER.]
Y'all are staying out at Dr.
Howard's, in Mound Bayou? We don't have much choice.
All the hotels in Sumner are whites only, and the few places in Clarksdale that will accommodate us are fully booked.
I reckon Dr.
Howard's is finer than any hotel I ever set foot in.
I reckon you're right.
So, you were in Chicago last night, for the viewing? I was.
I-I haven't seen any of the footage.
Is it as bad as they're saying? His face? It's worse.
[REPORTER.]
Sheriff Strider.
Would you care to comment on the condition of the body when you last saw it? [REPORTER.]
Is it true that no autopsy was performed? How about the public viewing and the national media attention this case is getting? When were you made aware that Emmett Till's body wasn't buried in Mississippi? This whole thing is a farce! It is a hoax cooked up by the NAACP.
A hoax? Sheriff, you were there when they pulled that boy from the river.
I seen the paper.
The photo of that boy when he's "alive" don't look like nothing I saw.
I was trusting the word of the Uncle.
Maybe that's where I went wrong.
But as far as I know, that boy's still alive.
I don't understand.
That man signed Emmett's death certificate.
How can he call this a hoax? He's using the press to sway the grand jury.
In his own county? What kind of people are these? The kind looking to preserve their way of life by any means necessary.
[RAYFIELD.]
He wouldn't pull a move like this unless he thought we had a real shot at getting an indictment, so I say we beat him at his own game and use the press to call his bluff.
We're supposed to bury Emmett tomorrow.
But I'm willing to delay it.
Thousands of people are waiting to see my boy, and this will give them more time.
If that sheriff doesn't think it's Emmett, let him come up here and see for himself.
The sheriff and the DA are supposed to be partners.
Instead, Clarence blindsides me the weekend before my grand jury hearing.
So now not only am I gonna have to connect Bryant and Milam's kidnapping confession to Till's murder to get the indictment, I gotta convince the jury that the boy's body really is the boy's body.
Clarence has about as much couth as a timber rattlesnake.
I ain't a bit surprised by what he did.
Did that photo of the cotton gin fan lead to anyone coming forward with information? Not yet.
What about the third man? The colored man Mose Wright saw at his house that night with Bryant and Milam? Until we have a name, all we can do is keep asking questions.
So that's it, huh? Until you have a name, I'm dead in the water.
I didn't say that.
There's some talk going around that a second colored man may have been involved.
Is that right? We don't have anything solid yet on either witness But these rumors mean something.
People around here wouldn't be talking unless folks were scared, and they're scared 'cause we're close.
Yeah, just not close enough.
We ain't giving up.
Me and my deputies are hell-bent on finding these guys.
By chance, you think you can find 'em before I face the grand jury in the morning? [CHATHAM.]
Deputy Cothran, you took Mose Wright's initial statement that Emmett Till was missing.
Is that right? [DEPUTY COTHRAN.]
Yes, sir, I did.
And you were on the scene when the body was identified? - Yes.
- And who identified the body? Mose Wright.
Given the condition of the body, was Mose Wright able to ascertain, to your satisfaction, the identity of his great-nephew Emmett Till? Yes.
Mose said it was the boy.
He was sure of it.
Even in its terrible condition.
And then there was the boy's ring which backed it up.
What kind of ring was it? It was silver.
Had an inscription, the initials L.
T.
[CHATHAM.]
And what did you do with that ring after you removed it from the body? [CHESTER.]
I gave it to Mose Wright.
Chester, tell me, were you able to determine the race of the body by looking at it? Yes, sir, it was a Negro.
[CHATHAM.]
Is there any doubt in your mind that the body retrieved from the Tallahatchie River on August 31st was Emmett Till? Based upon the information I was given, no.
No doubt in my mind.
After Deputy Cothran relayed Mose Wright's statement, that a man identifying himself as Mr.
Bryant abducted Emmett Till from his home, did you pay Roy Bryant a visit? [SMITH.]
Yes.
[CHATHAM.]
Did you ask him if Mose Wright's statement was true? - I did.
- And what did he say? That he kidnapped the boy, just like Mose Wright said.
And what did you do after Roy Bryant confessed? I arrested him.
Tell us what you did next.
I did a brief examination of the body.
- Did you perform an autopsy? - No.
It was more of a postmortem, given the severe decomposition.
During the exam, were you able to determine the race of the body? [DR.
OTKEN.]
No.
Not with complete certainty.
You were present when Chester Miller took possession of the body, were you not? I was.
One can only assume a Negro undertaker is called when a Negro victim is involved.
Would that be accurate? In normal circumstances, when the victim's race is immediately identifiable, yes, but it wasn't.
And I didn't make the call to the undertaker.
Do you believe that body to be one of a Negro, Dr.
Otken? I can't say for sure.
What I can say, with certainty, is that Emmett Till was missing for three days when the body was retrieved from the river.
That extreme level of decomposition after such a short amount of time in the water is highly unlikely.
Therefore, I can only conclude that the body in question is not that of Emmett Till.
[SHOVEL THUDS.]
It's over.
I gave them two days to come up here and examine Emmett's body, and if they really had any doubts, they would've come.
I suppose I should be grateful that we even got a hearing in the first place.
It was greedy of me to expect more.
Nonsense.
Baby, you got to give yourself a break from the case.
You're right.
What happens next is out of my hands.
And I'll drive myself mad wondering what the grand jury's gonna do when history has already shown me.
[RADIO CLICKS.]
After tens of thousands of people filed past his casket over the weekend, Emmett Till was finally laid to rest this morning at Burr Oak Cemetery.
[RADIO TUNING.]
This is for all you lovebirds out there, here's The Platters' smash hit "Only You.
" Only you Can make all this world seem right Only you Can make the darkness bright Only you and you alone Can thrill me [PHONE RINGING.]
My one and only Hello? Yes, Rayfield.
No, no one's called me yet.
Can make all this change in me We, the jury, find that Roy Bryant and J.
W.
Milam did willfully, unlawfully, feloniously, and of their malice aforethought kill and murder Emmett Till, a human being.
[MAMIE.]
I can't believe it.
There's gonna be a trial.
I have to call Mama.
Understand the magic that you do You're my dream come true My one and only You One and only you We have to thank you, Rayfield, for introducing us to everyone at the NAACP We're forever grateful.
No need to thank me.
[GENE.]
The credit belongs to Mamie.
I don't have to tell y'all, this indictment is unprecedented.
You know, before the viewing, I was afraid that I was making a mistake letting the public in.
And then, right around the time I started hearing people screaming at the sight of my boy like he was some sort of monster at a horror picture, I was tempted to shut that casket, and I'm so glad that I didn't.
Now I know that it had to be done to get us here.
Amen.
You made this happen.
And you can keep making things happen.
Mr.
Wilkins is keeping his word.
The NAACP would like you to speak at a rally at St.
Matthew's Methodist on the 16th.
[ALMA.]
I'm sorry.
They want Mamie to speak? For what reason? [RAYFIELD.]
To continue the work To keep telling people to fight on behalf of Emmett Because these cases are rarely won in the courtroom.
[GENE.]
He's right.
The more we talk about Emmett And who he was, and who he could've been The better chance we have at a conviction.
[ALMA.]
Mamie has given a couple of statements to local reporters.
Now you want her to get on stage, at a political rally of all things? She's a mother.
Making speeches is not her job.
I think what Mama is saying is we could use a little privacy, and me getting up on a stage, well, that That's not gonna get us any.
[SIGHS.]
What's done is done, Mamie.
You're all over the papers and on television.
Now you have to decide if all your hard work was only about Emmett or about all of us.
Unless the NAACP keeps pressuring states like Mississippi, real citizenship for the Negro will always be elusive.
If the government can't make Mississippi change, what makes you think the NAACP can? I don't care how much pressure you apply.
How are my friends from the North? [BOOKER.]
Dr.
Howard.
Great to see you.
Helen tells me you settled in the guest house just fine.
Oh, better than fine.
Thank you.
Join us.
We were just disagreeing about the future of Mississippi Negroes.
I see.
A little light conversation over lunch, huh? Jimmy here thinks that if the U.
S.
government can't enforce integration down here, Negroes won't be able to either.
Now, I think the NAACP can force the state's hand.
Well, don't count out the Regional Negro Leadership Council.
Ever since we organized the gas station boycott, there are Negro restrooms in every station in Mississippi.
With all due respect, a gas station boycott, as powerful as it was, wasn't a declaration of war on white folks' way of life.
I'm on a hit-list of the most powerful white supremacist organization in the South.
So, with all due respect, I beg to differ.
The White Citizens' Council considers any attempt at integration an act of war, be it learning, using the restrooms, voting And they are far more powerful than the Klan, because they wear suits, not hoods.
They're doctors, they're judges, they're lawyers, and they are responsible for killing two of my closest friends this year.
We may have a long way to go with Smith and Lee's cases, but the Till trial, that's proof we're only going to take so much down here.
Maybe.
But what if they plead guilty to avoid a trial And the death penalty? I mean, Bryant did confess to kidnapping the boy.
He also said he let him go.
We all know that they didn't, but why else would the sheriff run with this theory that the body isn't Emmett's? To cast doubt on the jury pool.
There isn't a Negro registered to vote in this entire county, thanks to the Citizens' Council.
If we can't vote, we can't be jurors.
No one in that deliberation room is going to look like Emmett.
Or his mother.
Well, that's why we're not leaving it to the lawyers or whatever jury they scrounge up to ensure a conviction.
It is up to us to make sure that this is a fair trial.
How the hell we gonna stack the jury when everybody in Tallahatchie County knows good and well Bryant and Milam are redneck peckerwoods? Well, I guess we'll have to bus jurors in from Hinds County.
Jesse, didn't your firm sue Milam a couple times for bootlegging? A couple? Too many times to count.
Be that as it may, those boys are gonna be tried by a jury of good, white, Anglo-Saxon men, and I assure you we will find 12 suitable men for the job.
What about Bryant's wife? She's just as southern as they come, and that's good for us.
You're not thinking about putting her on the stand, are you? It's too risky.
We need a joinder.
If we try Bryant and Milam as co-defendants, the state can't ask Carolyn to testify against her own husband.
Hold on.
Let's talk about this.
Don't we want her to testify? Well, I don't see how that benefits us.
The wolf whistle, that's why.
If she can't testify, how do we bring it into evidence? Well, call me simple, but doesn't the whistle give the state motive? [CHUCKLES.]
Maybe.
Maybe that's okay.
[JUDGE SWANGO.]
You men are here today to enter a plea on the charge of murder.
What say you? Not guilty, Your Honor.
And you, Mr.
Bryant? Not guilty.
Behind me, you'll find the best group of trial attorneys in all of Tallahatchie County, and we are extremely confident that we have more than enough proof that the body found in the river wasn't that of Emmett Till.
[CROWD MURMURING.]
Not only do we believe the state will be unable to prove this essential fact, we believe that the proof for the defendants will convince any reasonable person that in all probability, the body was that of a dead man transported from some other section to this county by activists trying to stir up racial tensions.
If you don't believe that's the body of Emmett Till, then who is it? Where did it come from? The investigation is ongoing.
What about the boy's mother? How could you possibly think she'd be involved in a "hoax"? Well, you know, I don't pretend to understand what goes on in the minds of you people.
Uh, we'll save that discussion for the witness stand.
Now, our team has learned that the DA intends to invite Mamie down here to challenge our theory, and we welcome that fight.
Our only hope is that she does not invite trouble along the way.
In Mississippi, jurors don't take too kindly to outside agitators.
That'll be all.
[SIDNEY.]
Thank you.
[HICKS.]
Ruby Hurley and Medgar Evers.
I thought I saw Breland wet himself.
Now I know why.
It's the NAACP's dynamic duo.
[CHUCKLES.]
I take it you both just got in? [MEDGAR.]
We just drove up from Belzoni.
You two are always burning the midnight oil.
How's Reverend Lee's case coming along? Look at you, always digging.
Are you ever off the clock? That's rich, coming from you.
Tell me, what's the word? Any chance for an indictment? When we have something concrete to share, you'll be the first to know, Jimmy.
Right after the FBI.
All right, you two.
We're heading over to Dr.
Howard's.
Can we give you a lift? No, I think I'm gonna poke around here a little longer.
I'll see you out there later.
All right.
[ENGINE STARTS.]
[VEHICLE DEPARTS.]
[MAN.]
You a reporter? You heard about that third man? Who hasn't? The police have been trying to track him down for days.
That surprise you? Not at all.
If I knew something, the sheriff's office is the last place I'd go with it.
What do you know? His name.
Goes by Too Tight.
He's got a friend tending bar over at Kings in Glendora.
From what I hear, she might talk, just not to the law Or anybody in the press.
[MAMIE.]
"Let the death of my son light a fire in you so powerful that hatred cannot extinguish it.
" [SIGHS.]
Good Lord.
[PHONE RINGING.]
Hello? Hello? [WOMAN.]
Mamie Bradley? Yes.
You thinking about going down to Mississippi to testify? Who is this? You go ahead.
When you come back to Chicago, we've got a bomb ready for you and Mayor Daley.
[CLICK.]
[ALMA.]
They're threatening to kill her if she goes down there, and you still want her to testify? Jury selection begins in three days.
You tell me what Mamie can say to the jury that Mose and the police can't.
They never called Mose to testify for the grand jury, and they may not call him for the trial either.
- Why not? - [RAYFIELD.]
Who could say? What matters is we got the indictment.
And that District Attorney wouldn't call you down there unless he thought it would help with his case.
The defense is running with Strider's hoax theory.
As crazy as it is, it's carrying weight down there, but a mother's testimony means something in a southern courtroom.
[GENE.]
Mamie what do you want to do? I don't know.
But if I went, I couldn't go alone I'll close down the barbershop.
I'll come with you.
Oh, I can't let you do that.
Then we'd be without two incomes.
Then I'll escort you.
And I can take a leave from work, honey.
Do you think the state would provide protection for us? Our friends at the NAACP sent a telegram to Mississippi requesting state protection.
We haven't heard back But I can assure you that you'll be under the full protection of one of the finest, most influential leaders in Mississippi, Dr.
Theodore Roosevelt Howard.
Oh, you're familiar.
Of course.
I read the papers.
No one's fought harder for our rights down there.
[MAMIE.]
And he wants to help me? [RAYFIELD.]
Well, he'd be honored to house you during the trial.
To put your mind at ease, his home comes with a live-in security team.
Yeah, we're talking about armed guards.
Armed guards? Mamie, you have already given so much.
Now is not the time for you to be making speeches and causing trouble Not when your life is on the line.
According to this paper, Bryant and Milam, they are war heroes who "never got into any meanness.
" And that woman, the wife? "A pretty brunette.
" They're calling me an outside agitator, Mama Me, the mother of a murdered child.
Mama, if I stay up here and I curl up in some ball and hide, then I am an outsider, an occasional agitator when it's convenient for me to speak up.
When it's self-serving.
But if I go and I give that speech tomorrow and I show up at that courtroom and I tell the jury what only I can say Is that it was my boy in that box Then maybe it will show them that my my My words aren't meant to cause trouble.
That this isn't some kind of political statement.
[VOICE BREAKING.]
This is pain.
It's a mother grieving for her child.
They already done took my only grandson, and I'm not gonna let them take you, too! I know this is hard, because you raised me to be a good girl, and good girls don't fight back, but I can't help but wonder where I would be if you had raised me to fight.
If we had all been brought up to fight.
I keep feeling like I'm watching some other woman talk to reporters and calling the shots, because before Emmett was gone, Mama, that was your job, and I let you do it All the heavy lifting and the fighting.
But, Mama it's my turn.
I want to become that brave woman, a woman like you, Mama.
So maybe I can show someone that one person One mother Can make a difference.
If you want to invite danger into your life, I can't stop you but I won't have any part of it.
[SIGHS.]
[APPLAUSE.]
Thank you for that warm welcome.
During the past few weeks, I've spent a lot of time trying to find the right words to get through each day.
Nothing ever seems to fit, because the truth is, nothing can ever prepare a mother for losing her child.
A month ago, I had a six-room apartment here in Chicago.
I had a good job.
I had a son.
And when something happened to Negroes in the South, I said, "That's That's their business, not mine.
" Now I know how wrong I was.
- Uh-huh.
- Yes.
The death of my son has shown me that whatever happens to any of us, anywhere in the world, had better be the business of all of us.
[APPLAUSE AND EXCLAMATIONS.]
Congratulations, honey - If you found somebody new - Yeah Congratulations, honey If you found somebody new Yeah, oh, yeah I heard you found somebody I'll take a beer, whatever's cold.
Yeah [ADELINE.]
Sugar, tell me somethin'.
How is it that you're in a juke joint and ain't got a stitch of sweat on you? [CHUCKLES.]
Well, I guess I ain't got no hips to shake.
Yeah I was actually hoping to catch up with a friend.
Goes by the name of Too Tight.
Yeah, oh, yeah What you want with him? Met him in the fields a while back.
He owes me a drink.
How long's a while? A month or two.
You ain't seen him around much lately? Not in a spell.
I guess we in the same boat, then.
How's that? I ain't seen him since Monday.
He's missing? He'd been staying with me and my husband.
They both work for one of them Milam brothers.
found somebody new Listen, hon.
I'd be happy to help you find him.
With your husband's help, of course.
How can I reach him? That's the problem.
You can't.
Henry Lee's missing, too.
I hate this, but I couldn't let you go down there being sore with me.
The paper said you drew quite a crowd at St.
Matthew's.
I couldn't see a single face but Gene's.
You've always been a fine speaker.
I may not have raised you to fight, but I guess I did something right, didn't I? Mama.
You be safe, my girl.
- Daddy will take good care of me.
- [SNIFFLES.]
Don't you worry.
I'll look in on your mama.
Thank you.
Go get 'em, baby.
[AIRPLANE ENGINE ROARS.]
[BELL DINGS.]
[AIRPLANE ENGINE ROARING.]
[MAMIE.]
If you don't mind, I'd like to go over the itinerary again So Daddy knows what he's getting into.
[RAYFIELD.]
Of course.
We've turned our itinerary into our own version of the Underground Railroad beginning with our arrival in Memphis, where we'll be driven to our first safe house.
Welcome, Mrs.
Bradley.
Let's get you inside.
After we cross, we'll make our second stop at a safe house in Clarksdale, where we'll stay until it's safe to continue into Sumner.
After the court recesses for the day, we'll head out to Mound Bayou to Dr.
Howard's, our safe house for the duration of the trial.
There have been reports of Mississippi troopers targeting out-of-towners as they cross the state line.
And I'm told they've gone as far as to pass license plate numbers on to the KKK.
But if we sense any trouble, we won't cross into Mississippi.
Booker, this is something else.
I don't know how you kept your composure in that room.
I can't wait to meet her.
They sure do love her up north, don't they? I hope she doesn't expect that same warm welcome down here.
[GUARD.]
Stay back, stay back.
[YOUNG MAN.]
Please, let me in.
[GUARD.]
What's this about? [YOUNG MAN.]
It's about that Chicago boy That boy that got killed! He needs to speak to Dr.
Howard.
It's urgent.
[KNOCK ON DOOR.]
What is it? On that morning, before those men killed that boy, some field hands saw him riding in the back of a pickup truck, sitting between two Negro men.
Where? A plantation out near Drew.
Near Drew? - Are you positive? - Yes, sir.
There's more than one field hand saying so.
That's Sunflower County.
Will your friends talk to us? They ain't my friends.
I'm just telling you what I heard.
If we can head out to Drew and track them down, maybe we can tie Bryant and Milam directly to the murder.
[MEDGAR.]
If their stories pan out it means the trial's in the wrong county.
Which means we can get it moved out of Sheriff Strider's jurisdiction.
Well, there's not much time.
Trial starts tomorrow.
Then we better get started.
This is it.
Right up ahead.
[RAYFIELD.]
Slow down.
It's a speed trap.
[DRIVER.]
No need to tell me twice.
All clear.
[GASPS.]
No.
The state trooper's following us.
Dear God.
Let's pray.
The light of God surrounds us.
The love of God enfolds us.
The power of God protects us.
The Life of God flows through us