|
|
General Larry PlattSCLC, SNCC, NAACP, Alabama, Georgia, 1963 — |
The photo above shows six singers. I am the young man (16 years old) on the left looking at the camera. We had come by bus in 1963 to a church in Savannah, Georgia to plan a march to desegregate the city. Reverend Hosea Williams and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were our leaders. That particular planned march was canceled and we were singing to raise our spirits before returning home.
At the age of 3, I was shot in my right eye in 1949 by the KKK on Ashby street accross from E.R. Carter elementary shool in Atlanta. Black people where voting on the right side of street, but whites didnt want Blacks to vote.
I participated in the Movement from 1963 and am still active in the Movement. The organizations I was a part of are NAACP, SNCC, SCLC. I did Movement work in Alabama, Mississippi, Savannah, Chicago, North and South Carolina. I protested, I was Dr. King bodyguard, I watched out for everyone, I led people through the doors, I intergrated places like Newberrys, McCrorys, Grady Hospital, Lebs restaurant, Holiday Inn, Riches Department Store, Morrison cafeteria, Hotels and motels, the Coca Cola place and stores etc.
I marched for voting rights across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma Alabama on March 7, 1965 (Bloody Sunday) with Congressman John Lewis and Hosea williams. When we marched from Brown Chapel church, Sheriff Jim Clark told us to go back home to Georgia. Our leaders Hosea Williams and John Lewis didn't listen and the state troopers sprayed us with tear gas, they ran over us with horses and beat us with billy clubs. We were injured by state troopers, but were not locked up by them. On March 21, 1965 Dr. King led us accross the bridge. Dr.King had been in atlanta when first march took place.
In 1966 the KKK ran over me on my bicycle. They were in a car. They busted my head on the side, and skined my knees. I walked from Hunter Street. to Grady Hospital. I went in job corps in 1966 and in 1967 they tried to kill me. This happened in Kentucky.
Copyright ©
Webspinner:
webspinner@crmvet.org
(Labor donated)