The Destination Freedom episode "The Story of 1875," aired on August 29, 1948, as episode 10 on Chicago’s WMAQ radio. Written by Richard Durham, it dramatizes the life of Senator Charles Caldwell, an African-American Reconstruction-era politician and militia leader in Mississippi who fought for civil rights and against white supremacist violence. The 29-minute episode highlights Caldwell’s defiance of the Ku Klux Klan and his tragic assassination in 1875, reflecting the broader struggle for racial justice during Reconstruction’s collapse. Known for its bold storytelling, the series aimed to challenge stereotypes about African-Americans.
(00:47) Introduction to Destination Freedom
(01:09) The Story of Charles Caldwell Begins
(04:07) New Year's Night and the Reconstruction Vision
(08:07) Challenges to Reconstruction
(12:12) The Growing Threat of Violence
(16:57) Organizing for Defense and Education
(19:06) The Crucial Election and Its Aftermath
(24:34) The Assassination of Charles Caldwell
(27:34) Legacy of Charles Caldwell
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[00:00:02]
Unknown:
Oh, freedom. Oh, freedom. Oh, freedom. Oh, freedom.
[00:00:13] Unknown:
Oh, the me. And before I'd be a slave, I'd be buried in my grave and go home to my lord and be free.
[00:00:37] Unknown:
Destination, freedom. The Chicago Defender and station WMAQ bring you Destination Freedom, a new radio series dramatizing the great democratic traditions of the Negro people, interwoven in the pageant of history and a part of America's own Destination Freedom. Today, Destination Freedom tells the story of the reconstruction leader Charles Caldwell in a chapter entitled The Story of eighteen seventy five.
[00:01:26] Unknown:
Five. I am a year. Of course, you know all about years. We inherit the habits of history. Men go by names. We go by numbers. I bear the number eighteen seventy five AD. I came into the world with my faults, my blunders, my heroes, my cowards, just ten years after the civil war. I inherited the ideas of the years before me. I set the seeds for the years to follow me. I was the year 1875, and in Mississippi on January 1, in the morning of my first day alive, 10 men in odd regalia came to the home of senator Charles Caldwell and woke his wife.
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Who is it? What do you want?
[00:02:18] Unknown:
What do we want, she says. You hear that, boys? We hear her what we want. She ought to know. Who are you? If this is a New Year's joke, I'd Well, she thinks it's a joke, boys. We gotta visit this county more often. People ain't heard about the organization. Fred, take a look around inside. Sure way. Sure. I said, what do you want? Woman, what could 10 men with 16 shotguns wanna do with a senator who goes up and down the state preaching race equality and yelling for the new voting laws? Where's Caldwell? Come on. Where's a senator? Where's your old man? He's not home.
[00:02:52] Unknown:
No one's here but me. He's telling us straight, Wade. Nobody in there. Nobody's around. You sure?
[00:02:57] Unknown:
Well,
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come on. Let's go to Clinton. If he ain't here, he'll be in Clinton. What do you want with him? What has he done to you? He's tried to fix it so people like me can't live here. So ex slaves and poor whites will be running and ruining the county. That's right. Those like him got no business playing senate. The people in never Fire the people. She calls them people. Let her alone, Wade. Let's go to Clint. First, I want this old woman to know we'll be back. Not tonight, Wade. You'll have them scalawags and yanks with them. Not tonight, woman, but some night we'll get him. Maybe it'll take days, weeks, or months, but we'll get him before he gets us. Him and his Yankees songs and his scalawags and poor white friends. We'll get him forty years out.
[00:03:44] Unknown:
That was the way I started out in Mississippi. I was a Reconstruction year. They were the men who wanted to make me over like the old years. And on New Year's night in his home, the senator who had once been a slave was singing with men who were carrying me ahead to a new freedom.
[00:04:08] Unknown:
Alright.
[00:04:19] Unknown:
That's enough, Lance. Enough, Lance. Now it's late. Surely, you can see missus Caldwell getting ready to tired of us being here and keeping the senator around. Oh, no. Oh, yes. It is. Now it's time we left him. Not so fair, sir. I
[00:04:32] Unknown:
I haven't heard the senator say a word all evening. He's just been listening to that. Yeah. How about it, Calvin?
[00:04:37] Unknown:
How about drinking a toast? A toast to the New Year, senator, and and the common election. Yes. Give us a speech, senator. Speech. You want me making speeches when we ought to be making merry on New Year's night? Sure. Go on. A word from the state state senator. Go on. They say it's not so hard to get you talking when you're on the senate floor. I didn't say you did plenty talking to stop the planets from holding on to the taxes.
[00:05:01] Unknown:
Alright. Alright, gentlemen. I'll say a word.
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A word I would have said to the men in white robes who came looking for me today.
[00:05:09] Unknown:
Something Lincoln said. Now, child, don't keep quoting mister Lincoln.
[00:05:13] Unknown:
Maze, Fred. I'll come to the same end as Lincoln if I keep using the same words. I'll say this. We're starting out on a good year, friends, all of us. Men who ten years ago would never have been allowed to live together as free and equal men. I was a slave. Ira was a carpenter for the slaveholder.
[00:05:33] Unknown:
They paid me last year's wedges yet.
[00:05:36] Unknown:
And brand for slaves. Mason Cabell, ten years ago, you were overseers. Remember it?
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I've never quite forgotten it. And here we're together
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on the same side, on the ground that was once a plantation, planning how to make it so there'll be more freedom, sure freedom for everyone this year, and we'll do it. There's a civil rights bill to be passed in Washington that'll wipe out every trace of the old system, gentlemen. The last ten years have been good. This will be better. It won't be better.
[00:06:08] Unknown:
All over the county, we hear of men who demand the right to be free of plantations being beaten and driven back. No, sir. No deny that, senator. As fast as the federal troops live,
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We, the poor whites and the Negro freedmen, we are the majority, not the old slave holders. We know they organize bands against us and wait on their plantations like wounded lions, ready to split us apart when we quarrel. But for eight years, we've been together. You've even elected me as senator. They voted against us. We were stronger. I don't know now, bro. And we'll get on with reconstructing the state for the benefit of all the people in it, not for a few who still hold the land. Here, but when the troops are withdrawn, Senator. The governor has promised that the troops will stay until the changes are made. But the planters, they're there still waiting for a chance to Let them wait. They are bourbons now, like the old bourbons in France, clinging to an old decayed way of living.
They'll defy the new civil rights amendment. They'll poisonous in their papers. They'll play one of us against the other. But if we keep white and Negro together here in the South for ten, five more years, we'll win out. We'll have a democracy. Now, there. I made a speech.
[00:07:33] Unknown:
May always says you can't keep me from making a speech. Well, that's what we came to hear and what we need to to start off the new year. A toast, gentlemen, and we'll drink it in good old Scotch whisky. Alright. What will it be, senator? What's on your calendar that's important? A toast to it. To this year's election.
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May every man in the South, Black and white, be free to vote. Here he is. This year's election. Cabell,
[00:08:00] Unknown:
you're not drinking? Not a skirt, senator. My taste is for bourbon this year.
[00:08:07] Unknown:
Yes. I was the year when a few men with a taste for old times wanted to turn back. But those who believed they could build better years went ahead. And while my months passed, the senator who had been a slave went about his business of binding people together. With fresh copies of the new amendment that had been agreed upon, he traveled throughout the county. He took the words to the farmers and freedmen and told them to read it.
[00:08:32] Unknown:
This the law about voting, senator? It's the new law, mister Jones. What's it like, senator? What's it mean? It says what it means. Read it and tell everybody about it. Well,
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it says fourteenth amendment. Yes. Says the right of citizens to vote should not be denied or abridged by The United States or by any state on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude. It it means the state too. The state too. And it says the Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by a pro legislation.
[00:09:24] Unknown:
It it means it means for the first time, Negroes will vote in the state. It means you'll get a new weapon. Hold on to it. This year, you will need it.
[00:09:35] Unknown:
And the senator went on telling more people about the new right, and they were behind him. Even in the legislature, he helped pass new bills over the objection of the old planters. Together, the white men and black men were making a new south. The senator who had been a slave stood in the legislature and put new ideas into law. Chair recognizes senator Caldwell. Mister chairman,
[00:10:01] Unknown:
in accordance with the thirteenth amendment, I'm proposing that we abolish all segregation in the state of Mississippi.
[00:10:15] Unknown:
And his proposal was made into law, and he rose again. Chair recognizes senator Caldwell.
[00:10:23] Unknown:
Mister chairman, to put teeth in the bill against segregation, I offer an amendment to provide a fine of $5,000 against any officer or agent of any railroad or vessel guilty of Jim Crowism. I offer a bill to recognize the property rights of women to establish free public schools, unsegregated as to race, creed, or color.
[00:11:05] Unknown:
And before I, the year 1875, had passed many months, the laws were written and agreed on. They stood on the books, but there were men who stood outside the law. There was the planter, Preston Whipper. He was one of the wounded lions waiting for his years to come back. He spat when the senator passed.
[00:11:27] Unknown:
Good morning, mister Whipper. What's good about it, slave? This is the last morning of the old laws segregating citizens in our state, mister Whipper. A man who's just been ten years free, you got an awful lot to do with the laws. The law is everybody's business. Alexa, you ain't got no business with it. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I've heard your words before. And when you hear me again, it won't be with words and laws. One day, slave senator, the poor whites will be united with me, not with you. What is there for anyone to unite on with you? Race. Suppose they'd rather unite for the right to vote and be equal under the law. Suppose they don't go with you. Those who don't wanna join with me, we have our ways to persuade them. One day, we'll put an end to you and your reconstruction.
Next time when night riders come your way, you'll not live to tell about it.
[00:12:13] Unknown:
The senator heard, but the senator went on his way. Then slowly, the days in my year began to change. There were jobless men and hungry men joining the riders, looking for the leaders of the reconstruction, and they would come on horseback and knock on the doors at night.
[00:12:31] Unknown:
Hold on. Hold on, Ben. Oh, boy. Is
[00:12:34] Unknown:
This here the place, Bob? I'm sure it's a Jones place. I saw him with the senator. It's him alright. I know his place. No. Sure. What boy?
[00:12:48] Unknown:
What is it? What do you want?
[00:12:52] Unknown:
Open that door. We'll break it in.
[00:12:57] Unknown:
Who? What do you want?
[00:13:00] Unknown:
What is it? For a man who's facing a shotgun, he talks too big, don't he? I'm asking what you want. We didn't come to give you what you deserve. We'll just give you a warning. What
[00:13:11] Unknown:
what have I done? Go on, Wade. Give it to him. Both bells. I tell you put down the gun. Haven't done anything? Yeah. Sure way. Put down the gun and take the rope. Maybe that'll teach him to stay away from ex slaves at that Caldwell and to vote the way he's told when it's time to vote. Go on, Wade. Teach him. He's scared already. Don't need teaching. Just remind it.
[00:13:31] Unknown:
Remind him, and maybe he'll join us in the fun. Fun? Yeah. Putting folks back in the line, teaching them self respect instead of cooperating with ex slaves. You'll come along? No. I I'm not up to it. Please leave me alone. My wife's sick now. All about it. You just remember when you come to the polls, you vote right or not at all.
[00:14:01] Unknown:
They wanted men to forget the new right to vote, to put the right back into the hands of a few instead of the many. They had the rope, the faggot, and my days were filled with terror. And while I was in the middle of my months, the senator went to the governor. The governor listened. The governor was worried.
[00:14:20] Unknown:
Everybody, every official on the reconstruction side says the same thing, Caldwell. What can we do? The mobs are too strong for us to risk an open fight.
[00:14:31] Unknown:
Let them alone. It'll blow over. When we let it blow over, all the good we've done will be blown away with it. Unless people in the South are given a chance at free schools and education for both Negro and white, a chance to live in peace together, the freedom we fought for in the war will be lost. We've moved ahead.
[00:14:49] Unknown:
Don't turn back now. Make the law stick. But how? How, senator? Enforce There are too few troops to enforce anything. The planters raise their own armies. You once said the poor whites and the freedmen would be natural allies. Now the whites are going over to the side of the planters. You see that. I see that. I I know why.
[00:15:10] Unknown:
It's because the planters still own the land. They have the power to say work for us, O'Stav. They have the land. Now they want to take the last weapon of independence from the freedmen. That weapon is the right to vote. The election is coming in November, governor. It'll be the most crucial election in the state. If Freeman go to the polls and vote, we move ahead. The civil rights will stick. If they are driven away, there'll be no more free voting for Negroes, all whites. I believe this. And what do you want me to do? Give me permission to organize our own militia from the people to fight the the planters and keep down the clans.
[00:15:47] Unknown:
Very well. See what you can do. There's not much time before November comes.
[00:15:58] Unknown:
There was still time to bring together 300 men in the heart of Mississippi who joined to carry on the reconstruction and to teach the new civil rights. There was still time and the senator took it. They marched through the state and the terror and the clans were quiet. The reconstruction went ahead. The senator stopped at the workshop of carpenter Ira. He was building the new school.
[00:16:22] Unknown:
How long would it take to put up the school, Ira?
[00:16:25] Unknown:
Well, with things quite like they are now, it ought to be, say, oh, two or three years. Two or three years.
[00:16:34] Unknown:
Wonder if I'll be here to see it finished. Oh, sure you will.
[00:16:38] Unknown:
You worried about the election? Don't be. I have the county that had scared us for you, including me. If there's any boat, you'll be in.
[00:16:47] Unknown:
A lot of the men are going over to the side of the plantation owners.
[00:16:51] Unknown:
That's right. Yes. Some of those we thought would stick have gone over. There was Cabella here, and there was George and Brown. They take it safer. And you, Ira?
[00:17:02] Unknown:
I see you got a uniform of the clan hanging here.
[00:17:05] Unknown:
Uh-huh. Yes. They came to be the smartest senator, the men who led the mobs for the platters, and they were telling me, to come on over to the master class. They say the Negroes be natural enemy. Yes. Yes. I told them to look at the schools we're building now. The slaveholders were in power a hundred years. Yeah. But they never built any free schools for nobody, black nor white. And then this voting. They say it's for the white folks only. Well, I told them I never got a chance to vote when there was slavery. Oh, and then they said to me, think it over. And they give me this sheet for a uniform. Well, I ain't got no sheets at home, so I said, I'll take the whole idea home and lay pile it. That's what sheets are for, ain't they?
[00:17:55] Unknown:
Then the senator went to France and spread the news of Ira's stand, and it stiffened the men fighting to rebuild the South. And when the senator was tired, he went home to rest to wait for the voting month. But there was other news waiting for him. May was standing, waiting at the door.
[00:18:13] Unknown:
You
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you've had a message, Charles. What is it? Have the mobs been here again? No.
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Not the mobs, but an invitation
[00:18:23] Unknown:
to the mobs. What are you talking about? Charles,
[00:18:27] Unknown:
there's no more reconstruction. There's no more support from the governor. All the troops have been withdrawn. Withdrawn? Yes. The governor wired you. It had to be done, he said. But
[00:18:40] Unknown:
he said he'd wait until after the voting was done. I told him why. I told him to give us time, a little more time. There's no more time, Charles.
[00:18:51] Unknown:
What are you going to do? We'll wait for the voting.
[00:18:54] Unknown:
We'll gather all our strength to test the new amendments. We'll let November tell what we'll do.
[00:19:07] Unknown:
I am the month of November. I was the voting month. When I came, the senator welcomed me and went to work trying to make the days in my month quiet, peaceful days. The old planters were loose and the mobs were doing their work. Again, they covered the county on horseback with ropes and faggots, hammering on doors, pulling people out into the night. And as I came closer to the voting voting week, the senator went out to the farms and homes. Some men were afraid and wouldn't talk with him. And finally he walked along the streets where mobs rose. And they saw him and called out. Well, look who's a common. Yeah. That's The slave senator. Hey, boy. Look who thinks he's gonna get elected again.
[00:19:49] Unknown:
Come on. He he wants to talk. Let him talk. Let's hear it. He always now what have you got to say about your civil rights? Your reconstruction,
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senator? I've got to say
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the rights are not only for me, and the reconstruction is for every man among us.
[00:20:06] Unknown:
The right to vote is the right of all. The right to vote in this state is for white men and white men only. You hear that, sir? Yes, sir. Aye, Carrot. I don't believe it.
[00:20:16] Unknown:
I came to talk to you because a year ago, before you became afraid, some of you sat in my home. Now you're afraid the planters won't hire you if you work with Negroes. They tell you to segregate Negroes and you do it. If they say these rights are not for Negroes, what's to stop them from saying it's not for Catholics, Jews, Irish, the foreign born?
[00:20:36] Unknown:
If the right to rule is for white men only, what will you say to the majority of the world which is not white? Listen. Don't listen to him. You've talked enough. You changed nothing here. Understand that? Get on. And stay away from the voting if you wanna keep alive.
[00:20:51] Unknown:
Gentlemen,
[00:20:52] Unknown:
I'd like to say You said enough. We're not listening. Your days are numbered, senator. You live longer if you keep away from the polls.
[00:21:06] Unknown:
I am the weak when the voting began. And though he knew he was being watched, he was at the polls. There was terror in the streets and in the counties. The platters were turning time back ten years. But the senator who had been a slave stood in line, waited for his ballot.
[00:21:23] Unknown:
Name?
[00:21:24] Unknown:
Al Golsby Lee. Uh-huh.
[00:21:27] Unknown:
You're not voting for none of them. They're scalawags of Negroes, I am. Oh, no, sir. No, sir. I am never Take your ballot then. Next. You here? I'm here. They warned you not to show up here, Caldwell. I heard them. Ballot, please. Look. Can't you tell when your sign ain't winning? You know how many people they've given the rope and last two already? It's a white prime they're here after.
[00:21:50] Unknown:
Look, the planners have the power now. They got their own militia. I'm trying to help you. You'll help more by giving a ballot to every man registered for it. You're holding up the voting.
[00:22:00] Unknown:
Alright. Here's your ballot. But if you take it, the planners will see to it that there'll come a day when a bullet will go with it.
[00:22:14] Unknown:
And I was that day in the year 1875. I was the Christmas day, and the planters still celebrated the death of the reconstruction. Still they were unsure as long as leaders lived who remembered the civil rights and the new laws. I was a disastrous day when the men in the art regalia came back. They knocked on the door of the senator's house.
[00:22:39] Unknown:
Who's there?
[00:22:40] Unknown:
What do you want? She still says, what do we want? Hey. Sorry. Do you hear that, Will?
[00:22:46] Unknown:
Open that door, we'll bastard her. Give it here.
[00:22:52] Unknown:
You
[00:22:53] Unknown:
what are you looking for? Well, at least she recognizes us now. We're pretty well known around these partners a year ago. Amen? What do you want? You know as well as I do what we want. That slave senator, where is he? He's not here. I don't know where he is. He's telling me right, Wade. I looked around. She's alone. Why don't you let him alone? Why don't he leave the voting alone? Him and his scallywags and the equal rights stuff. You won the election. Let him alone. The boss says it ain't safe leaving ideas like those in his head loose in the county.
[00:23:24] Unknown:
We'll stay here till we get them. No. You stay in here, Wade. If he's any way, he's been Clinton. We got Cabell with us. He knows the senator's habits. On Christmas day, he goes to Clinton. It's there we'll get him.
[00:23:35] Unknown:
And on my day, the men in sheets went to Clinton to find the senator, and they spoke to Cabell, the ex overseer.
[00:23:43] Unknown:
Now, you'll be coming down the road, Cabello. You'll see him? Yeah. I'll see him. You know what to do. You know what told you. I know. I know. I'll be sure you do. He knows you. He trusts you. You'll offer him a drink. But if he refuses This is a holiday. You can insist, can't you?
[00:23:59] Unknown:
You'll take him to the open barred mode. Sit him near the bar his back does. You understand? Yeah. Yeah. Then when you raise your glass, tap it in a toast. That'll be the statement. We'll go to work.
[00:24:11] Unknown:
You nervous? The the drink will help me. You'll be rewarded. You'll earn a place in the order. Understand? Yeah. But can't you get someone else? You with us or against us? I'm with you. But he has a devilish way of knowing what's happening. He has a way Well, we got better ways. We picked a day and a place. Now you set the hour and a minute. We'll be watching.
[00:24:34] Unknown:
I am the hour on the Christmas day, the year 1875, that was picked to spot the senator. And as I ticked into minutes, Cabell came to him and spoke.
[00:24:48] Unknown:
Senator Caldwell? Yes? It's, me, senator old Buck Cavell. Don't you recognize me? Why, yes.
[00:24:55] Unknown:
It's been a year since I've last seen you at my house. New Year's Day, I believe. Yeah. Yeah. It was.
[00:25:02] Unknown:
World seemed to change a lot since then. Lots happened. Some good, some bad. Would you care for a drink? I I haven't much time. Oh, I just won on a holiday. I know how you feel about the election, the reconstruction plans. This will make you feel better. Well, maybe it will. May always say it, I'd end up like Lincoln.
[00:25:22] Unknown:
And in my hour, according to plan, Cabell sat down with the senator in a booth
[00:25:29] Unknown:
near the bar.
[00:25:30] Unknown:
Sit this way, senator. Take this seat here if you don't mind.
[00:25:34] Unknown:
No. I don't mind. I know when my time's up. What's that? Nothing. You still drink bourbon?
[00:25:42] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. I do. Mind if I pour yours? Not at all.
[00:25:50] Unknown:
Shall we make a toast if I can think of one this minute? I am the minute in the hour in 1875 when the drink was poured and the senator raised his glass for the toast. What were you gonna say, senator? I was thinking of something Lincoln said. I had wanted to say it to men who tried to stop me from voting. Yeah? Lincoln said, liberty is the heritage of all men. Destroy it and you plant the seeds of despotism at your own door. Get familiar with hatred and put chains around others and you prepare your own limbs to wear chains. Accustom yourself to trample and destroy the rights of others. You will become fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises among you.
It will be easy to destroy me, Charles Colwell, and turn back the demands now for civil rights, but they'll grow stronger and demands will be born again in another generation. Then no mob will be able to destroy them. A toast to tomorrow when the whites and Negroes in my state will again try for the civil rights I tried to bring them. Toast.
[00:27:02] Unknown:
And I am the split second in the year 1875 that marked the time when the glasses were touched, And the signal was given, and the assassin snapped the life of Charles Caldwell.
[00:27:35] Unknown:
Caldwell, a senator who had been a slave and who planted the seed of civil rights in the Mississippi soil.
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Oh, freedom. Oh, freedom. All freedom over me. And before I'd be a slave, I'd be buried in my grave and go home to my lord and be free.
[00:28:29] Unknown:
You have just heard Destination Freedom's dramatization of the story of Charles Caldwell, Negro and Mississippi state senator during the days of the Reconstruction. Destination Freedom is written by Richard Durham and produced under the direction of Homer Heck. Senator Caldwell was played by William Nicks. Others were Ernie Andrews, Oscar Brown Junior, Don Gallagher, Ken Griffin, Jonathan Hole, Janice Kingslow, Charles Mountain, Art McCoo, Fred Pinkard, and Cliff Sabir. Greg Pascoe was the singer. The special music was written by Emil Soderstrom and was played by Elwin Owen and Bobby Christian. This is Hugh Downs inviting you to be with us again next week for another in our series on the Negro in democracy, destination
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freedom.
[00:29:29] Unknown:
This is NBC, the national broadcasting company.
Oh, freedom. Oh, freedom. Oh, freedom. Oh, freedom.
[00:00:13] Unknown:
Oh, the me. And before I'd be a slave, I'd be buried in my grave and go home to my lord and be free.
[00:00:37] Unknown:
Destination, freedom. The Chicago Defender and station WMAQ bring you Destination Freedom, a new radio series dramatizing the great democratic traditions of the Negro people, interwoven in the pageant of history and a part of America's own Destination Freedom. Today, Destination Freedom tells the story of the reconstruction leader Charles Caldwell in a chapter entitled The Story of eighteen seventy five.
[00:01:26] Unknown:
Five. I am a year. Of course, you know all about years. We inherit the habits of history. Men go by names. We go by numbers. I bear the number eighteen seventy five AD. I came into the world with my faults, my blunders, my heroes, my cowards, just ten years after the civil war. I inherited the ideas of the years before me. I set the seeds for the years to follow me. I was the year 1875, and in Mississippi on January 1, in the morning of my first day alive, 10 men in odd regalia came to the home of senator Charles Caldwell and woke his wife.
[00:02:16] Unknown:
Who is it? What do you want?
[00:02:18] Unknown:
What do we want, she says. You hear that, boys? We hear her what we want. She ought to know. Who are you? If this is a New Year's joke, I'd Well, she thinks it's a joke, boys. We gotta visit this county more often. People ain't heard about the organization. Fred, take a look around inside. Sure way. Sure. I said, what do you want? Woman, what could 10 men with 16 shotguns wanna do with a senator who goes up and down the state preaching race equality and yelling for the new voting laws? Where's Caldwell? Come on. Where's a senator? Where's your old man? He's not home.
[00:02:52] Unknown:
No one's here but me. He's telling us straight, Wade. Nobody in there. Nobody's around. You sure?
[00:02:57] Unknown:
Well,
[00:02:58] Unknown:
come on. Let's go to Clinton. If he ain't here, he'll be in Clinton. What do you want with him? What has he done to you? He's tried to fix it so people like me can't live here. So ex slaves and poor whites will be running and ruining the county. That's right. Those like him got no business playing senate. The people in never Fire the people. She calls them people. Let her alone, Wade. Let's go to Clint. First, I want this old woman to know we'll be back. Not tonight, Wade. You'll have them scalawags and yanks with them. Not tonight, woman, but some night we'll get him. Maybe it'll take days, weeks, or months, but we'll get him before he gets us. Him and his Yankees songs and his scalawags and poor white friends. We'll get him forty years out.
[00:03:44] Unknown:
That was the way I started out in Mississippi. I was a Reconstruction year. They were the men who wanted to make me over like the old years. And on New Year's night in his home, the senator who had once been a slave was singing with men who were carrying me ahead to a new freedom.
[00:04:08] Unknown:
Alright.
[00:04:19] Unknown:
That's enough, Lance. Enough, Lance. Now it's late. Surely, you can see missus Caldwell getting ready to tired of us being here and keeping the senator around. Oh, no. Oh, yes. It is. Now it's time we left him. Not so fair, sir. I
[00:04:32] Unknown:
I haven't heard the senator say a word all evening. He's just been listening to that. Yeah. How about it, Calvin?
[00:04:37] Unknown:
How about drinking a toast? A toast to the New Year, senator, and and the common election. Yes. Give us a speech, senator. Speech. You want me making speeches when we ought to be making merry on New Year's night? Sure. Go on. A word from the state state senator. Go on. They say it's not so hard to get you talking when you're on the senate floor. I didn't say you did plenty talking to stop the planets from holding on to the taxes.
[00:05:01] Unknown:
Alright. Alright, gentlemen. I'll say a word.
[00:05:05] Unknown:
A word I would have said to the men in white robes who came looking for me today.
[00:05:09] Unknown:
Something Lincoln said. Now, child, don't keep quoting mister Lincoln.
[00:05:13] Unknown:
Maze, Fred. I'll come to the same end as Lincoln if I keep using the same words. I'll say this. We're starting out on a good year, friends, all of us. Men who ten years ago would never have been allowed to live together as free and equal men. I was a slave. Ira was a carpenter for the slaveholder.
[00:05:33] Unknown:
They paid me last year's wedges yet.
[00:05:36] Unknown:
And brand for slaves. Mason Cabell, ten years ago, you were overseers. Remember it?
[00:05:43] Unknown:
I've never quite forgotten it. And here we're together
[00:05:47] Unknown:
on the same side, on the ground that was once a plantation, planning how to make it so there'll be more freedom, sure freedom for everyone this year, and we'll do it. There's a civil rights bill to be passed in Washington that'll wipe out every trace of the old system, gentlemen. The last ten years have been good. This will be better. It won't be better.
[00:06:08] Unknown:
All over the county, we hear of men who demand the right to be free of plantations being beaten and driven back. No, sir. No deny that, senator. As fast as the federal troops live,
[00:06:32] Unknown:
We, the poor whites and the Negro freedmen, we are the majority, not the old slave holders. We know they organize bands against us and wait on their plantations like wounded lions, ready to split us apart when we quarrel. But for eight years, we've been together. You've even elected me as senator. They voted against us. We were stronger. I don't know now, bro. And we'll get on with reconstructing the state for the benefit of all the people in it, not for a few who still hold the land. Here, but when the troops are withdrawn, Senator. The governor has promised that the troops will stay until the changes are made. But the planters, they're there still waiting for a chance to Let them wait. They are bourbons now, like the old bourbons in France, clinging to an old decayed way of living.
They'll defy the new civil rights amendment. They'll poisonous in their papers. They'll play one of us against the other. But if we keep white and Negro together here in the South for ten, five more years, we'll win out. We'll have a democracy. Now, there. I made a speech.
[00:07:33] Unknown:
May always says you can't keep me from making a speech. Well, that's what we came to hear and what we need to to start off the new year. A toast, gentlemen, and we'll drink it in good old Scotch whisky. Alright. What will it be, senator? What's on your calendar that's important? A toast to it. To this year's election.
[00:07:53] Unknown:
May every man in the South, Black and white, be free to vote. Here he is. This year's election. Cabell,
[00:08:00] Unknown:
you're not drinking? Not a skirt, senator. My taste is for bourbon this year.
[00:08:07] Unknown:
Yes. I was the year when a few men with a taste for old times wanted to turn back. But those who believed they could build better years went ahead. And while my months passed, the senator who had been a slave went about his business of binding people together. With fresh copies of the new amendment that had been agreed upon, he traveled throughout the county. He took the words to the farmers and freedmen and told them to read it.
[00:08:32] Unknown:
This the law about voting, senator? It's the new law, mister Jones. What's it like, senator? What's it mean? It says what it means. Read it and tell everybody about it. Well,
[00:08:43] Unknown:
it says fourteenth amendment. Yes. Says the right of citizens to vote should not be denied or abridged by The United States or by any state on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude. It it means the state too. The state too. And it says the Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by a pro legislation.
[00:09:24] Unknown:
It it means it means for the first time, Negroes will vote in the state. It means you'll get a new weapon. Hold on to it. This year, you will need it.
[00:09:35] Unknown:
And the senator went on telling more people about the new right, and they were behind him. Even in the legislature, he helped pass new bills over the objection of the old planters. Together, the white men and black men were making a new south. The senator who had been a slave stood in the legislature and put new ideas into law. Chair recognizes senator Caldwell. Mister chairman,
[00:10:01] Unknown:
in accordance with the thirteenth amendment, I'm proposing that we abolish all segregation in the state of Mississippi.
[00:10:15] Unknown:
And his proposal was made into law, and he rose again. Chair recognizes senator Caldwell.
[00:10:23] Unknown:
Mister chairman, to put teeth in the bill against segregation, I offer an amendment to provide a fine of $5,000 against any officer or agent of any railroad or vessel guilty of Jim Crowism. I offer a bill to recognize the property rights of women to establish free public schools, unsegregated as to race, creed, or color.
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And before I, the year 1875, had passed many months, the laws were written and agreed on. They stood on the books, but there were men who stood outside the law. There was the planter, Preston Whipper. He was one of the wounded lions waiting for his years to come back. He spat when the senator passed.
[00:11:27] Unknown:
Good morning, mister Whipper. What's good about it, slave? This is the last morning of the old laws segregating citizens in our state, mister Whipper. A man who's just been ten years free, you got an awful lot to do with the laws. The law is everybody's business. Alexa, you ain't got no business with it. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I've heard your words before. And when you hear me again, it won't be with words and laws. One day, slave senator, the poor whites will be united with me, not with you. What is there for anyone to unite on with you? Race. Suppose they'd rather unite for the right to vote and be equal under the law. Suppose they don't go with you. Those who don't wanna join with me, we have our ways to persuade them. One day, we'll put an end to you and your reconstruction.
Next time when night riders come your way, you'll not live to tell about it.
[00:12:13] Unknown:
The senator heard, but the senator went on his way. Then slowly, the days in my year began to change. There were jobless men and hungry men joining the riders, looking for the leaders of the reconstruction, and they would come on horseback and knock on the doors at night.
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Hold on. Hold on, Ben. Oh, boy. Is
[00:12:34] Unknown:
This here the place, Bob? I'm sure it's a Jones place. I saw him with the senator. It's him alright. I know his place. No. Sure. What boy?
[00:12:48] Unknown:
What is it? What do you want?
[00:12:52] Unknown:
Open that door. We'll break it in.
[00:12:57] Unknown:
Who? What do you want?
[00:13:00] Unknown:
What is it? For a man who's facing a shotgun, he talks too big, don't he? I'm asking what you want. We didn't come to give you what you deserve. We'll just give you a warning. What
[00:13:11] Unknown:
what have I done? Go on, Wade. Give it to him. Both bells. I tell you put down the gun. Haven't done anything? Yeah. Sure way. Put down the gun and take the rope. Maybe that'll teach him to stay away from ex slaves at that Caldwell and to vote the way he's told when it's time to vote. Go on, Wade. Teach him. He's scared already. Don't need teaching. Just remind it.
[00:13:31] Unknown:
Remind him, and maybe he'll join us in the fun. Fun? Yeah. Putting folks back in the line, teaching them self respect instead of cooperating with ex slaves. You'll come along? No. I I'm not up to it. Please leave me alone. My wife's sick now. All about it. You just remember when you come to the polls, you vote right or not at all.
[00:14:01] Unknown:
They wanted men to forget the new right to vote, to put the right back into the hands of a few instead of the many. They had the rope, the faggot, and my days were filled with terror. And while I was in the middle of my months, the senator went to the governor. The governor listened. The governor was worried.
[00:14:20] Unknown:
Everybody, every official on the reconstruction side says the same thing, Caldwell. What can we do? The mobs are too strong for us to risk an open fight.
[00:14:31] Unknown:
Let them alone. It'll blow over. When we let it blow over, all the good we've done will be blown away with it. Unless people in the South are given a chance at free schools and education for both Negro and white, a chance to live in peace together, the freedom we fought for in the war will be lost. We've moved ahead.
[00:14:49] Unknown:
Don't turn back now. Make the law stick. But how? How, senator? Enforce There are too few troops to enforce anything. The planters raise their own armies. You once said the poor whites and the freedmen would be natural allies. Now the whites are going over to the side of the planters. You see that. I see that. I I know why.
[00:15:10] Unknown:
It's because the planters still own the land. They have the power to say work for us, O'Stav. They have the land. Now they want to take the last weapon of independence from the freedmen. That weapon is the right to vote. The election is coming in November, governor. It'll be the most crucial election in the state. If Freeman go to the polls and vote, we move ahead. The civil rights will stick. If they are driven away, there'll be no more free voting for Negroes, all whites. I believe this. And what do you want me to do? Give me permission to organize our own militia from the people to fight the the planters and keep down the clans.
[00:15:47] Unknown:
Very well. See what you can do. There's not much time before November comes.
[00:15:58] Unknown:
There was still time to bring together 300 men in the heart of Mississippi who joined to carry on the reconstruction and to teach the new civil rights. There was still time and the senator took it. They marched through the state and the terror and the clans were quiet. The reconstruction went ahead. The senator stopped at the workshop of carpenter Ira. He was building the new school.
[00:16:22] Unknown:
How long would it take to put up the school, Ira?
[00:16:25] Unknown:
Well, with things quite like they are now, it ought to be, say, oh, two or three years. Two or three years.
[00:16:34] Unknown:
Wonder if I'll be here to see it finished. Oh, sure you will.
[00:16:38] Unknown:
You worried about the election? Don't be. I have the county that had scared us for you, including me. If there's any boat, you'll be in.
[00:16:47] Unknown:
A lot of the men are going over to the side of the plantation owners.
[00:16:51] Unknown:
That's right. Yes. Some of those we thought would stick have gone over. There was Cabella here, and there was George and Brown. They take it safer. And you, Ira?
[00:17:02] Unknown:
I see you got a uniform of the clan hanging here.
[00:17:05] Unknown:
Uh-huh. Yes. They came to be the smartest senator, the men who led the mobs for the platters, and they were telling me, to come on over to the master class. They say the Negroes be natural enemy. Yes. Yes. I told them to look at the schools we're building now. The slaveholders were in power a hundred years. Yeah. But they never built any free schools for nobody, black nor white. And then this voting. They say it's for the white folks only. Well, I told them I never got a chance to vote when there was slavery. Oh, and then they said to me, think it over. And they give me this sheet for a uniform. Well, I ain't got no sheets at home, so I said, I'll take the whole idea home and lay pile it. That's what sheets are for, ain't they?
[00:17:55] Unknown:
Then the senator went to France and spread the news of Ira's stand, and it stiffened the men fighting to rebuild the South. And when the senator was tired, he went home to rest to wait for the voting month. But there was other news waiting for him. May was standing, waiting at the door.
[00:18:13] Unknown:
You
[00:18:14] Unknown:
you've had a message, Charles. What is it? Have the mobs been here again? No.
[00:18:19] Unknown:
Not the mobs, but an invitation
[00:18:23] Unknown:
to the mobs. What are you talking about? Charles,
[00:18:27] Unknown:
there's no more reconstruction. There's no more support from the governor. All the troops have been withdrawn. Withdrawn? Yes. The governor wired you. It had to be done, he said. But
[00:18:40] Unknown:
he said he'd wait until after the voting was done. I told him why. I told him to give us time, a little more time. There's no more time, Charles.
[00:18:51] Unknown:
What are you going to do? We'll wait for the voting.
[00:18:54] Unknown:
We'll gather all our strength to test the new amendments. We'll let November tell what we'll do.
[00:19:07] Unknown:
I am the month of November. I was the voting month. When I came, the senator welcomed me and went to work trying to make the days in my month quiet, peaceful days. The old planters were loose and the mobs were doing their work. Again, they covered the county on horseback with ropes and faggots, hammering on doors, pulling people out into the night. And as I came closer to the voting voting week, the senator went out to the farms and homes. Some men were afraid and wouldn't talk with him. And finally he walked along the streets where mobs rose. And they saw him and called out. Well, look who's a common. Yeah. That's The slave senator. Hey, boy. Look who thinks he's gonna get elected again.
[00:19:49] Unknown:
Come on. He he wants to talk. Let him talk. Let's hear it. He always now what have you got to say about your civil rights? Your reconstruction,
[00:19:58] Unknown:
senator? I've got to say
[00:20:01] Unknown:
the rights are not only for me, and the reconstruction is for every man among us.
[00:20:06] Unknown:
The right to vote is the right of all. The right to vote in this state is for white men and white men only. You hear that, sir? Yes, sir. Aye, Carrot. I don't believe it.
[00:20:16] Unknown:
I came to talk to you because a year ago, before you became afraid, some of you sat in my home. Now you're afraid the planters won't hire you if you work with Negroes. They tell you to segregate Negroes and you do it. If they say these rights are not for Negroes, what's to stop them from saying it's not for Catholics, Jews, Irish, the foreign born?
[00:20:36] Unknown:
If the right to rule is for white men only, what will you say to the majority of the world which is not white? Listen. Don't listen to him. You've talked enough. You changed nothing here. Understand that? Get on. And stay away from the voting if you wanna keep alive.
[00:20:51] Unknown:
Gentlemen,
[00:20:52] Unknown:
I'd like to say You said enough. We're not listening. Your days are numbered, senator. You live longer if you keep away from the polls.
[00:21:06] Unknown:
I am the weak when the voting began. And though he knew he was being watched, he was at the polls. There was terror in the streets and in the counties. The platters were turning time back ten years. But the senator who had been a slave stood in line, waited for his ballot.
[00:21:23] Unknown:
Name?
[00:21:24] Unknown:
Al Golsby Lee. Uh-huh.
[00:21:27] Unknown:
You're not voting for none of them. They're scalawags of Negroes, I am. Oh, no, sir. No, sir. I am never Take your ballot then. Next. You here? I'm here. They warned you not to show up here, Caldwell. I heard them. Ballot, please. Look. Can't you tell when your sign ain't winning? You know how many people they've given the rope and last two already? It's a white prime they're here after.
[00:21:50] Unknown:
Look, the planners have the power now. They got their own militia. I'm trying to help you. You'll help more by giving a ballot to every man registered for it. You're holding up the voting.
[00:22:00] Unknown:
Alright. Here's your ballot. But if you take it, the planners will see to it that there'll come a day when a bullet will go with it.
[00:22:14] Unknown:
And I was that day in the year 1875. I was the Christmas day, and the planters still celebrated the death of the reconstruction. Still they were unsure as long as leaders lived who remembered the civil rights and the new laws. I was a disastrous day when the men in the art regalia came back. They knocked on the door of the senator's house.
[00:22:39] Unknown:
Who's there?
[00:22:40] Unknown:
What do you want? She still says, what do we want? Hey. Sorry. Do you hear that, Will?
[00:22:46] Unknown:
Open that door, we'll bastard her. Give it here.
[00:22:52] Unknown:
You
[00:22:53] Unknown:
what are you looking for? Well, at least she recognizes us now. We're pretty well known around these partners a year ago. Amen? What do you want? You know as well as I do what we want. That slave senator, where is he? He's not here. I don't know where he is. He's telling me right, Wade. I looked around. She's alone. Why don't you let him alone? Why don't he leave the voting alone? Him and his scallywags and the equal rights stuff. You won the election. Let him alone. The boss says it ain't safe leaving ideas like those in his head loose in the county.
[00:23:24] Unknown:
We'll stay here till we get them. No. You stay in here, Wade. If he's any way, he's been Clinton. We got Cabell with us. He knows the senator's habits. On Christmas day, he goes to Clinton. It's there we'll get him.
[00:23:35] Unknown:
And on my day, the men in sheets went to Clinton to find the senator, and they spoke to Cabell, the ex overseer.
[00:23:43] Unknown:
Now, you'll be coming down the road, Cabello. You'll see him? Yeah. I'll see him. You know what to do. You know what told you. I know. I know. I'll be sure you do. He knows you. He trusts you. You'll offer him a drink. But if he refuses This is a holiday. You can insist, can't you?
[00:23:59] Unknown:
You'll take him to the open barred mode. Sit him near the bar his back does. You understand? Yeah. Yeah. Then when you raise your glass, tap it in a toast. That'll be the statement. We'll go to work.
[00:24:11] Unknown:
You nervous? The the drink will help me. You'll be rewarded. You'll earn a place in the order. Understand? Yeah. But can't you get someone else? You with us or against us? I'm with you. But he has a devilish way of knowing what's happening. He has a way Well, we got better ways. We picked a day and a place. Now you set the hour and a minute. We'll be watching.
[00:24:34] Unknown:
I am the hour on the Christmas day, the year 1875, that was picked to spot the senator. And as I ticked into minutes, Cabell came to him and spoke.
[00:24:48] Unknown:
Senator Caldwell? Yes? It's, me, senator old Buck Cavell. Don't you recognize me? Why, yes.
[00:24:55] Unknown:
It's been a year since I've last seen you at my house. New Year's Day, I believe. Yeah. Yeah. It was.
[00:25:02] Unknown:
World seemed to change a lot since then. Lots happened. Some good, some bad. Would you care for a drink? I I haven't much time. Oh, I just won on a holiday. I know how you feel about the election, the reconstruction plans. This will make you feel better. Well, maybe it will. May always say it, I'd end up like Lincoln.
[00:25:22] Unknown:
And in my hour, according to plan, Cabell sat down with the senator in a booth
[00:25:29] Unknown:
near the bar.
[00:25:30] Unknown:
Sit this way, senator. Take this seat here if you don't mind.
[00:25:34] Unknown:
No. I don't mind. I know when my time's up. What's that? Nothing. You still drink bourbon?
[00:25:42] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. I do. Mind if I pour yours? Not at all.
[00:25:50] Unknown:
Shall we make a toast if I can think of one this minute? I am the minute in the hour in 1875 when the drink was poured and the senator raised his glass for the toast. What were you gonna say, senator? I was thinking of something Lincoln said. I had wanted to say it to men who tried to stop me from voting. Yeah? Lincoln said, liberty is the heritage of all men. Destroy it and you plant the seeds of despotism at your own door. Get familiar with hatred and put chains around others and you prepare your own limbs to wear chains. Accustom yourself to trample and destroy the rights of others. You will become fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises among you.
It will be easy to destroy me, Charles Colwell, and turn back the demands now for civil rights, but they'll grow stronger and demands will be born again in another generation. Then no mob will be able to destroy them. A toast to tomorrow when the whites and Negroes in my state will again try for the civil rights I tried to bring them. Toast.
[00:27:02] Unknown:
And I am the split second in the year 1875 that marked the time when the glasses were touched, And the signal was given, and the assassin snapped the life of Charles Caldwell.
[00:27:35] Unknown:
Caldwell, a senator who had been a slave and who planted the seed of civil rights in the Mississippi soil.
[00:27:43] Unknown:
Oh, freedom. Oh, freedom. All freedom over me. And before I'd be a slave, I'd be buried in my grave and go home to my lord and be free.
[00:28:29] Unknown:
You have just heard Destination Freedom's dramatization of the story of Charles Caldwell, Negro and Mississippi state senator during the days of the Reconstruction. Destination Freedom is written by Richard Durham and produced under the direction of Homer Heck. Senator Caldwell was played by William Nicks. Others were Ernie Andrews, Oscar Brown Junior, Don Gallagher, Ken Griffin, Jonathan Hole, Janice Kingslow, Charles Mountain, Art McCoo, Fred Pinkard, and Cliff Sabir. Greg Pascoe was the singer. The special music was written by Emil Soderstrom and was played by Elwin Owen and Bobby Christian. This is Hugh Downs inviting you to be with us again next week for another in our series on the Negro in democracy, destination
[00:29:25] Unknown:
freedom.
[00:29:29] Unknown:
This is NBC, the national broadcasting company.
Introduction to Destination Freedom
The Story of Charles Caldwell Begins
New Year's Night and the Reconstruction Vision
Challenges to Reconstruction
The Growing Threat of Violence
Organizing for Defense and Education
The Crucial Election and Its Aftermath
The Assassination of Charles Caldwell
Legacy of Charles Caldwell
