 this morning with the mind. Stay up this morning with the mind. Stay evening and welcome to all of you who are joining us in early. I'm Reggie Harrison, I'm co-president of the Living Legacy Project and I'm thrilled that you're here with us tonight for what is going to be an exciting, informative and inspiring program. Right now I'm gonna invite you to sing along with me. Woke up this morning. Well I woke up this morning with my mind. Stay up this morning with the mind. Oh I woke up this morning with the mind. I'm singing and praying with the mind. Singing and praying with the mind. Well here's the. Stay walking and talking. Walking and talking. Walking and talking with the. Walk we gotta walk. Walk we gotta walk. Walk you gotta walk. Walk and then we'll talk. Talk. Talk. Talk. Sing it. Talk. Talk. With the mind. Talk. Talk. Yeah. Talk. Talk. With the mind. Talk. Talk. Talk. Well I woke up this morning with my mind. We are here tonight to celebrate and to keep ourselves together as community and nothing builds community like song. On the pilgrimages and when we gather the songs of the civil rights movement continue to keep us focused on the work at hand on the mission of making this nation more just and more free and certainly more able to make people's lives better for the experience of justice and peace. So we sing. Hallelujah freedom. Hallelujah freedom. Hallelujah freedom. Been down into the south. Hallelujah freedom. Hallelujah freedom. Hallelujah freedom. Been down into the south. Well I've never been to heaven but I think I'm right. Been down into the south. Folks up purple black and white. Been down into the south. Hallelujah freedom. Hallelujah freedom. Hallelujah freedom. Been down into the south. Well I've never been to heaven but I think I'm right. Been down into the south. Don't want to go without my civil rights. Been down into the south. Sing. Hallelujah freedom. Hallelujah freedom. Hallelujah freedom. Been down into the south. I've been walking around to spread the news. Been down into the south. Now I've got holes in all my shoes. Been down into the south. Sing. Hallelujah freedom. Hallelujah freedom. Hallelujah freedom. Been down into the south. Well if you don't think I've been through hell. Been down into the south. Follow me down to parchment jail. Been down into the south. Sing. Hallelujah freedom. Hallelujah freedom. Hallelujah freedom. Been down into the south. Well the only thing that we did wrong. Been down into the south. Stay in the wilderness day two long. Been down into the south. Sing. Hallelujah freedom. Hallelujah freedom. Hallelujah freedom. Been down into the south. Yeah but the only thing that we did right. Been down into the south. So on that day we took up the fight. Been down into the south. Sing. Hallelujah freedom. Hallelujah freedom. Hallelujah freedom. Been down into the south. Well I've never been to heaven but I think I'm right. Been down into the south. Don't want to go without my voting rights. Been down into the south. Sing. Hallelujah freedom. Hallelujah freedom. Hallelujah freedom. Sing. Been down into the south. Sing. Hallelujah freedom. Hallelujah freedom. Hallelujah freedom. Been down into the south. Well thank you so much for joining us tonight. That was a song that was adapted by Bob Zellner. A remarkable civil rights pioneer and SNCC worker. And of course we all know that many of the songs that came about were songs that came out of the experience of slavery. The songs that kept people centered on the journey whether they were marching or protesting or sitting in. We're gonna do a chorus of two of this one and then we're gonna begin our evening. I am so happy that you're joining us here tonight. So many challenges ahead of us and yet gathering here tonight will surely be an inspiration to the work that you are doing or maybe the work that you want to begin as we continue to wade through the water. Wade in the water. Wade to the children water. God's gonna trouble the water. Say wait. Wait. God's gonna trouble the dressed in red. God's gonna trouble the moses lead. God's gonna trouble sing it with me. Say God's gonna trouble the water. Say God's gonna trouble the water. God's gonna trouble. Somebody say amen. Hallelujah. I am Reggie Harris and I'm the Musical Education Director and one of the co-presidents of the Living Legacy Project and along with my fellow co-president Jan Sneegis, members of our board and all who have been part of this journey of the Living Legacy Project, I welcome you to this another in series of webinars. This is our first of this year and we are thankful for you joining us on this opportunity to expand our knowledge and to inspire our hearts. And before we begin tonight I would just like to say the Living Legacy Project has been going from about since about 2006. We have been dedicated and committed to the education of all. We run civil rights pilgrimages in person and happy to say that after a three-year hiatus we have now had four pilgrimages into Alabama and Mississippi and Tennessee since last fall. And we invite you to go to our website. We will be sponsoring more pilgrimages later this year and into the future. We've been joyfully connecting with so many of you. Many of you who are here with us tonight who have joined us on the bus traveling from place to place, seeing the sights of the civil rights movement, hearing the stories of those who then and now have been making such a remarkable contribution. And tonight you are going to hear a contribution that well it touches both the past and the present. I would like to thank you for your support and we'll talk to you a little bit more about later on how you can help us to continue this great work. The Living Legacy Project not only takes people to those places to those sites but also many of you know that we have been online since 2020 doing webinars such as this continuing in the education process. And so we thank you for joining us tonight. Thank you for your generosity and thank you for the spirit of curiosity and wonder that keeps us all striving to become better advocates for justice and peace. I would like to invite actually I'd like to introduce my colleague who will host us tonight. A dear friend and and educator Dr. Janice Johnson is one of our co-founders of the Living Legacy Project. She is committed to building communities that are multicultural, anti-racist, anti-oppressive, multi-faith, multi-generational, justice-centered and innovative within the context of collaborative experiential learning and living. Dr. Johnson is an educator, an author, an activist, an artisan who is deeply rooted in family. Janice is a Jamaican, a New Yorker, an internationalist and her motto is let us build together. I am so grateful for her friendship in my life and as she and her dear sister Dr. Hope Johnson was also one of our founders have made such a difference in my life and in the lives of thousands. So tonight I welcome my colleague and my sister Dr. Janice Marie Johnson. Thank you. Thank you Reggie, thank you so much. Well friends, good evening, good evening and what an evening this will be. Tonight we welcome Dr. Steve Schwerner whom you know is brother of Mickey Schwerner. Now Steve, Steve is a man with a deep heart and twinkling eyes. He is deeply committed to family, to justice. He's a wonderful educator and storyteller. So how did I meet Steve? I met Steve through one of his two daughters, Cassie, in 2018 at a wonderful and let me say formidable organization with which I'm affiliated Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility. This organization deeply committed to social emotional learning and values that are hurting the world desperately needs. Cassie serves as the executive director of Morningside. Cassie would you greet us please? Hello everyone. There she is. Great. So let me say a little more about Steve. We're so grateful that Steve said yes to share his reflections from the movement and the lasting legacy of racism in the United States. He'll share some of the experiences that shaped him as an activist, as an educator, and certainly as a mensch. Welcome Steve. Welcome. Thank you. Steve, I want to take just a moment grounding or centering if you will so that we're very focused on why we're here this evening. We're here this evening because on June 21, 1964, three freedom summer organizers, James Cheney from Meridian, Mississippi, and Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner from New York City, disappeared after being released from jail in Nashoba County, Mississippi. Seven weeks later, their bodies were discovered buried in a nearby earthen dam. The investigation showed that the murderers were members of the local white knights of the Ku Klux Klan, the Nashoba County Sheriff's Office, and the Philadelphia Police Department. Let us let that sink into our minds and hearts as we move into our programming. Thank you. Thank you. Enough about me. Steve, let's you and I dive in. The goal is for me to say little and for you to say much. So here we go. Let me pose a question. Steve, what experiences did your parents have that actually crossed lines of race? Well, I can't think of any specific experiences, except that Mickey and I were both brought up in a household that believed that all people were equal and that segregation in the United States was thoroughly inappropriate and wrong, and was a huge mistake in terms of the way the country was built and continued, and that we grew up in a household that I would call extremely humanistic and believing in the good in all people. That's what my parents were like. Now, I must say the things that influenced me immediately that I could think of is they were very much involved in what I think of as European classical music on the radio, but they were also very involved in listening to what I think now is political folk music. That Woody Guthrie and Led Belly and the Weavers were, and Josh White were in my house all the time in terms of their music, and Paul Robeson was in fact the hero of my house. And then I actually went to see Robeson at one of the peak-skilled concerts that he gave, and that I grew up feeling very strongly about how that the music which crossed racial lines was such that there's no reason to think that one group of people is better than any other group of people. And then as you know, Ginny's, I became in the eighth or ninth grade, I became a jazz fanatic, and I fell in love with Charlie Parker, and that when your heroes were all African American, it was impossible to think that African Americans were any lesser than anybody else, and that the country was wrong in not having equality, and I still believe that. A story that I told you that we lived half a mile from Yankee Stadium, and Mickey and I begged my father to take us to see the Yankees at the Yankee Stadium, and he said he would do that, and he did, but only on the condition that we went with him to see baseball games, and we actually saw the Negro baseball leagues, also which played in Yankee Stadium, and so that I saw a satchel page in Roy Campanella and Henry Aaron when they were not allowed yet in the major leagues. To understand how that the country really divided people up for no good reason was something that I think was always implanted in me, and that as I've gone through life, I've been trying to convince other people of that point of view. And this is really fascinating to know, Steve. Would you say a little bit about your grandparents perhaps? Well, all four of my grandparents came from Russia or Poland, whatever year you drew the line on, and that my two grandmothers were both the oldest of seven sisters, and they came from the United States and brought over all of their sisters, and that I think some of my parents, aunts and uncles, were people who believed believed impressive, progressive ideas, and taught my parents about such activity, and then my parents then passed it on to us. I'm not sure what else I could say about that. No, no, that's great. I have the sense that it moves this spirit of compassion plus a deep commitment to equity moves through the generations within your family. Well, I think that that's probably true, and it's gone down through Nancy and I to our kids, and I think to our grandchildren as well. Generational legacy, what a wonderful thing. What a wonderful thing. Tell me, Steve, so I understand the values with which you were raised. What is it that actually led your folks, let me say, to anti-racism and to anti-racism as white people? Well, my mother was one of the original organizers of the Teachers' Union in New York, and that my father had worked for various unions, and that the view of struggling labor and the inequality between labor and capital was one of the things that was always discussed in our house, and that when you talked about labor, you had to talk about all laborers, and that some were no better than others. That all laborers should be treated equally, and that be cared about as individuals. If I recall, some family members were members of NAACP or core organizations, but when it was not quite fashionable, I would say. Mickey and I joined core in probably about, I joined core actually when I was an undergraduate in the late 50s, and that Mickey and I both joined the chapter in core in New York, well downtown core, and with our wives also, and the four of us were very involved in the activities of downtown core, and that the Congress on Racial Equality is still an organization I hold very deeply in my heart. Great, good to know, and you mentioned, as you mentioned Mickey, Mickey and you, you were involved with core with your spouses, Nancy in your case and Rita in Mickey's case. What, I wanted to learn a little bit about what motivated Mickey and Rita to go salad. Well, we were all involved in various activities in New York City, dealing with the civil rights movement, and that in the summer of 1963, Nancy and I went to Europe, but Rita and Mickey got very involved in doing a variety of demonstrations, both in New York and outside of New York, and going to the Mount March on Washington, and that when the church in Birmingham that killed the four girls was bombed, Mickey and Rita decided they really wanted to go south, because Mississippi was the belly of the beast, as far as the movement was concerned, and they went to, they went to SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and SNCC would not take a white couple to lead an organization in Mississippi thinking it was much dangerous, but they went to core, and core was in charge of the fifth congressional district of Mississippi. Mississippi was divided into five congressional districts, and SNCC was responsible, four of them, but core was responsible for the district around Meridian, and Mickey and Rita were accepted by core to start the Freedom School, and to do voter registration, and to do organizing among black folks in Meridian, a wonderful human being named Dave Dennis, who everybody should know of, was their supervisor. Let me back up this a bit and ask you, if I may, what you Steve, what you remember of Mickey's departure to Mississippi? Well, we were all of course worried, we were nervous about it, but we knew that that's what they really wanted to do, and the whole family spent much of time, from the time that they left in January of 64 until the murder, trying to raise both money and books, and sewing materials, and whatever we could use to send down by truckloads to the Freedom School, and so we were involved in what they were doing in that peripheral way, and that there was a lot of letter writing back and forth, and so we cared a lot about what happened, and that until we found out that Mickey had disappeared. Disappeared. And then after that, my family decided they would, what we should do is rather than just go into a shell, is work for the movement. My father actually probably raised about a million dollars for Corrin Snick, which in the middle 60s was a considerable amount of money. Wow. You know, I'm also, that's a lot of money that your father raised, my goodness. That's very touching to me personally. So back in the day, they didn't have these cell phones. How on earth, how did Mickey and Rita communicate with you? How? Mostly by mail, and it came from an occasional phone call, but mostly by mail. The assumption was that the Freedom School and their apartment in Mississippi had the touch phone tap. We knew that the Ku Klux Klan particularly did not like Mickey because he represented a huge amount of things that they disliked intensely, and that we worried about their safety. But I don't think we worried about it in a huge way. But anybody who went to Mississippi in the summer of 64 would have people worrying about their well-being. Yes. What a time, what a time, what a time that was. In many ways, what a time it still is. But I, you did communicate. May I ask if Mickey ever came back to New York when he was actually living in Mississippi? Came back at least once that I can remember. And we talked about what they were doing and how excited they were. He was about the work they were doing and how excited we were for him. And we thought he was doing wonderful work. And we thought there was a thoroughly appropriate activity to be involved in. I'm sure there's a measure of pride in that. Oh, yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, I'm just reflecting on my first visit to the south in 2008, 15 years ago. And just reflecting on how strange that is for me, a world traveler who had never been to the south. Can you believe it, Steve? Yes, I can believe it. And it must have been, you must have known a lot about what was going to happen. And it still must have been a shock. That is true. And one of the things that I remembered was my dad, who had come from Jamaica, traveling by bus from, I guess it was, maybe I'm not sure where he was, but traveling by bus and trying to the six foot four man trying to keep as low a profile as was humanly possible until he got to New York City. And sort of, I think there's an inherent fear that I had about the south. And I did see the photos, the dogs in particular, the horses trampling on people. And I never wanted, I never had the desire to go. And that's something that's really saddened me for a while. And at some point, Hope and I saw this little ad, a civil rights tour, being led by our members of our faith community with Unitarian Universalists and coming out of one of our seminaries, meet the Lombard in Chicago, and saying, we're going to sign up for this. And being stunned that we actually did sign up and so grateful that we did. I fell in love with the south. I fell in love with the people I met, the hospitality. I knew the struggles were real, but meeting the veterans did broke my heart wide open. And the rest is kind of history. There's that little reflection. And the other thing about that is I come from a family, Steve, of nation builders. So my grandparents and parents were very involved with the independence seeking the independence fighting for the independence of Jamaica from British Empire. So I do come with the possibility of difference making. And that was brought home to me when I was learning about the movement. I think that if you can't, if you stop thinking that change is possible, that you can move forward, then there's no purpose in doing anything. And that I think the real purpose for many people should be keep working for things. It's a slow process. You don't always see results right away, but that it's necessary to keep wanting to move forward to make the world a better place. That's great. Now I know, excuse me, that we have a virtual photo album, if you will, that we'd like you to lead us through. Let's switch gears and take a look at some of your precious photos, Steve. There we are. Well, that's of course, that's my brother wearing his usual overalls out organizing. And that was the usual outfit. And you'll notice that Nicky has a little goatee. And the clan's nickname for him was goatee, because they disliked him so much. That's a picture of, that's my father in front with some mustache. Over his right shoulder is my mother, Ann. And next to her is Fannie Lou Hamer. And in front of Mrs. Hamer is Ella Baker, who, Mrs. Hamer and Ella Baker are two of the greatest Americans of the 20th century. Far as I'm concerned. I think Ella Baker is in fact one of the leading philosophers of the 20th century. This is a march, I believe it's in New York for Selma. And you can see the very top of my father's head in the very front. You see his forehead and his hair. And that's about all you can see of him in that particular picture. And that's on the boardwalk at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City in 1964. King is speaking. That's the posters of Andy Goodman and Jim Cheney and my brother behind King. And on the right hand side is a, the gentleman with the bow tie is my father, is my father. Right behind him is a young woman wearing glasses. That's my wife, Nancy. And I think I'm in there someplace. But that's right. I'm right behind Nancy. That's right. And so that's Atlantic City. And if you want to talk about that, I think the convention in Atlantic City was a time that the movement changed because of what happened in Atlantic City. Would you share with us that story, please? I want to do that now, where you want to hold that. Let's see. Now, I think it's, I'd like you to share the story of Atlantic City, the significance of that being a moment in the movement, if you will. In 1964, the civil rights organizations organized the Council of Federated Organization, which ran delegates in the Democratic National Convention. The argument being that black people could not become members of the Democratic Party of Mississippi. So they were set up their own political party and they sent, I believe it was 64 delegates to the Atlantic City Convention with the hope that they would be recognized as the Mississippi delegation. They were pledged to Lyndon Johnson and they were pledged to the Democratic Party. The Mississippi Democratic Party was not. And that, that they thought they should be, that they should be recognized as the legitimate party. And Lyndon Johnson, pictures of people probably seen some of the film of Mrs. Hamer giving her a speech in front of the credentials committee. But that, that Lyndon Johnson engineered a compromise, he called it a compromise, in which he said the Freedom Democratic Party would be given two at large seats, not from this Mississippi, but at large, although he then went on to say, but not that woman, meaning Mrs. Hamer. On that, the Freedom Democratic Party had a long discussion about whether to accept the compromise or not. And there were various liberals in the Democratic Party who urged them strongly to accept the compromise. That included some of the members in the civil rights movement. But they decided not to. And they didn't accept the compromise. And they were not seated. And they went back to Mississippi, unseated and unrecognized. And a lot of the SNCC workers and civil rights workers decided at that point, you simply can't press white liberals. That the three leading people who argued for the, for the compromise, were Hubert Humphrey, who, when he was the mayor of Minneapolis, let a walk out against this, the strong Thurman and the Dixiecrats, and was the leading civil rights advocate in the Senate. Walter Ruther, who is the head of the United Order of Automobile Workers, which was the most integrated large union in the United States, and essentially flipped the bill for the march on Washington. And the third person who pushed for the compromise was Joe Rao, who was head of the Democratic, the Americans for Democratic Action, which was the little wing of the Democratic Party at that time. And the argument was, white liberals are simply going to sell us out when, when, when a push came to shove. And so you can't trust them. And I think that changed the way people who were civil rights workers function and well, and how a lot of the population saw the world. Hmm. One wonders if Lyndon Johnson had accepted the compromise, what would, what, what difference it would have made in American history? And one can only wonder, it wouldn't have cost Lyndon Johnson's the whole, anything, because the whole South World of Barry Goldwater, any, but what if he had accepted it and who knows what the world would be like? Yeah, it really makes, it makes one wonder. Oh my, there's a lot of power in that wondering, too. So that, that's King's funeral march. And you'll notice one person in a bow tie with a white face, that's my father. And the reason my father's there is he was in the back of the march, and John Lewis and Andy Young both came to the back and dragged him into the front and said, say, you have to be in front of this march. And so he was working, marching in the second row in the funeral march that occurred at King's funeral. I'm very proud of that picture. Should be. Oh, Renner Evers Everett and Steve Schroeder. That's Merrily and, and Merrily's daughter. And that's me. We met at some, some, I forget what the, what the place was, but Merrily, who I got to know somewhat is, was a spectacularly woman. I did not meet, I, I, Merrily had been murdered before I knew anybody from Mississippi, but Merrily was, was just an exceptional human being. And that's, that's me. And that is the person I've been married to for over 50 years. Nancy, beautiful. And that's me with Nancy and Cassie's two children, Esra and Vivian. Beautiful. Oh, this looks familiar. That's Cassie's organization. This is Cassie's organization, Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility. And if I look very closely, I see familiar faces, including Cassie's and mine. Okay. It is a wonderful organization that I said. And it's Cassie in the middle in the black shirt. That's right. And there's Janice. I'm wearing red. No surprise. No surprise. If those of you who are not familiar with Morningside, look, look, look us up. You know how hard the work of re-educating is. That's what we're about. That's of course, Ella Baker in picture of my brother behind her. And as I say, I think that Ella Baker was a major force in the 20th century. And just an incredible human being who doesn't get enough recognition or mention much in the history books. But she was really exceptional. That's the Sweet Honey and Rock song. Oh, well, that's right. It became, it became... Stand them, if you will. Yeah. Yeah. Toshi Reagan. Right. She was one of the freedom singers and that she worked with Ella. Toshi? Yeah. Well, thank you. You know, thank you for sharing those at once very public facing and very personal photos with us. It really helps to make this grand circle of life more explicit. I'm also noticing I can't see them, but the photos behind you reminding us that the generations and those who came before are with us still. Steve, I want to go in two directions. Two big questions. One, we've talked about music. We talked about the folk music. I want to talk about jazz. I want to say, well, another type of classical music that is jazz. Tell us about your love of jazz. How did you fall into jazz? What is that all about? Jazz is appropriately called African American classical music. And it really is. And that I, as a kid, I was playing the clarinet and I was in a band and learning various music. And I listened to some swing music. And in 1948, an uncle of a friend of mine gave me a 12-78 record in which Charlie Parker played a two-minute solo on the blues. And I listened to the same two minutes for three hours. It totally changed my life. I did not believe it was humanly possible for anybody to make music that beautiful. And I've been a Charlie Parker fanatic ever since. As you know, when I went to Antioch as the Dean of Students, I also did a disc jockey show, which was my creative outlet. And from listening to Charlie Parker and the people he played with, I became a person very much involved in the jazz world. I was fortunate that I could be in New York a lot and hung out a lot of jazz clubs. And I got to know a few musicians, but not very many. I was much more interested in listening to people and then meeting them. A student, when I taught at Antioch after I left the Dean's office, I got the rank of college professor. And one of the courses I taught was a jazz class. And a student asked me if I ever heard Coltrane Live. And I said, sure. He said, how much, how many times? And I said, I don't know. And I thought about it that night. And I probably listened to, I probably heard John Coltrane Live about 50 times. If Coltrane played in New York for two weeks, I was there every night. And you mean live at the concert or in the space? And typically at nightclubs, like the half of the nightclubs. Five in a nightclub, not, yes. And I heard Coltrane playing at the five spot with Lonious Monk in the summer of 1957, which was a rare experience for anybody. And I became a jazz fanatic and I still am. That in retirement, the only two things I really want to push for is I want to talk about jazz and I want to talk about the civil rights movement, which are the, along with family, the two things that are closest to my heart. And jazz surely energizes you. Pardon me? Jazz surely energizes you. Does. There's no question about it. And energizes you for struggle. Well, who knows? But yeah, yeah, it is, it is a major function for me. Well, let me, let me move into another question. Then that is, so we touched on the 60s. We're now in the year 2023. What, what is some of what has happened for you with, with you? I know, Antioch, I know Professor, this and the other. What has been your own work in actually living into coming full circle? What your grandparents, parents with the family, the generations? I think, aside from family, aside from my family, I think the major contribution that I made was, was, was teaching and being a faculty member for many, many students. And that I still get letters from students and I get emails from students talking about what they learned both about about jazz and also about the civil rights movement and about the world around them. And I think if I, if I could be a little immodest, if I made any contribution at all, it was to, to help some students understand the world that we were living in and why it was necessary to be part of the process of change. Be as immodest as you'd like. Just hearing your words reminds, your words remind me of Angela, Angela Lewis singing, if I could help somebody, my life would not be in vain when she sings that to us every time we go down and pay tribute to her dad's life at his grave. I can understand that. I really can't understand that. And Cassie reminded me, one of the things I've done since I've come to Brooklyn is I've spoken in public schools. When Ezra was in elementary school, I spoke a lot to his school and that I was always impressed with how excellent the questions were that students asked and how much they really cared. Okay. And I trust that that continued on. That's great. And I know that Greta, your other daughter, is also an educator. She's a master's, second grade teacher at a Brooklyn school called the Brooklyn New School, which is a fascinating public school in Brooklyn. That's right. Oh, how wonderful. The legacy continues. Is there a student who you might conjure up in your mind's eye or in your memory who you know you really touched? One student who might come to mind? Well, I'm not sure any one individual person does come to mind. That mainly I dealt with a lot of students and that both individually and in groups. And that I remember at one point there was going to be a demonstration in Columbus. And I wrote out a two-page document to hand out about how you function in demonstrations and how you made the nonviolent and how you work together and worried about each other. And I've occasionally had students still write me say they still have that document below. I don't Oh my document and still look at it. And I think I think that if I if I help students understand how to get around in the world and how to make things better, then I think I made a contribution. And I would like to who knows, but I'd like to think that was true. You have made many, many, many a contribution. Your family has made many a contribution and our lives are all the richer for your presence and action in in our world. Wow. Thank you, Steve. Thank you so much for having said yes. I say that again. And really modeling for us a depth of generosity that is not easy to find you and your family could so easily have shut the door and turned inward after Mickey's murder. You continued your values, your principles. It's in your DNA to struggle for justice, to struggle for equity. And we give thanks. Well, thank you for having me on. And it would we go to the question and answer period I'll be able to answer almost any question anybody might have. We'll be going there in a little while. But now I'd like to a big round of applause. And you'll see folks later. But let me turn this over to one of the trustees of the Living Legacy Project, Pam Zappardino, Dr. Pam Zappardino. Hi, everyone. And thank you so very much for being with us tonight. It's an evening I'm not going to forget ever. And gratitude to Dr. Schwerner and to Janice for such a wonderful conversation. As Janice mentioned, I'm a member of the board at the Living Legacy Project. And if you got something from tonight's program, if you felt something, if it stirred a memory or made you think of something you really want to do, a change you want to try to make happen, I hope you'll think about supporting the Living Legacy Project. We are a very small organization. We have one staff person who is not full time. And the rest of our work is carried on by members of the board and other volunteers. We take people as Janice and Reggie said at the beginning on pilgrimage pilgrimages to the south, all through the south to places where major events of the civil rights movement happened and we meet veterans. There are still veterans. My students are very startled to find out that the civil rights movement was within my lifetime. I don't know how old they think I am, but they think it happened a very long time ago. And when we take students south with us on the bus, we show them that it wasn't that long ago and that the work continues. The civil rights movement isn't over. And so if you made a contribution when you registered tonight, we really appreciate that. And if you would like to support our work both in taking people south and in presenting these kinds of educational programs and that our wonderful operations manager has just put up on the screen, a website by which you can donate and a QR code. We have come into the 21st century with QR codes for making donations. I hope you'll consider it. There is no amount too small and we will be grateful for anything you can give us. We hope that some of you might think about coming with us on a pilgrimage. I know some of you already have. And if you haven't or if you'd like to come again, we'd be very, very happy to have you with us. So thank you again for being with us tonight. And you have in the email that you received with this link, a link to the after session, where Dr. Schwerner, as he said, will be happy to answer any questions you have. So please make use of that, but not quite yet because I am going to turn things over to Reggie, who is going to close out this portion. Well, thank you, Pam. And indeed, what a wonderful night of conversation. And please take advantage of the opportunity to join us in our Zoom room for questions. Dr. Schwerner will be more than happy to entertain you with any requests or questions that you might have. And before we go there, I have a little bit of time here to sing with you. You know, singing is hardwired into us as human beings. They knew that for the civil rights movement. That is why they would gather sometimes for two, two and a half hours to sing before they went out into the streets or went to protest or sit in. They were singing songs like, I'm gonna sit at the welcome table. I'm gonna sit at the welcome table. One of these days, hallelujah. I'm gonna sit at the welcome table. I'm gonna sit at the welcome table. One of these days, sing that chorus with me again. Say, I'm gonna sit at the welcome table. I'm gonna sit at the welcome table One of these days, Hallelujah I'm gonna sit at the welcome table I'm gonna sit at the welcome table One of these days Food for all There's food for all At the welcome table One of these days, Hallelujah At the welcome We're gonna sit and eat too I want to sit at the welcome table. The sacrifices that have been made and the energy that has been expended by people like Dr. Schwerner and all of those who have continued the fight have made this song which we are still singing in our hearts and in reality. I just had the opportunity to sing this song with students from Worcester College. Worcester College collaborated with us in a pilgrimage just three weeks ago along with 20 amazing folks who also filled our bus with 44 people as we traveled all around Alabama. We shall hold your voices tonight, sing into the reality that we are going to keep working, keep fighting, keep marching, keep loving until we and this world stand up and change in a way that truly does make the dream that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and so many, we shall live in peace. We shall live in of all of the hatred and the violence that is surrounding us these days. Let's sing that verse that rose into the mouths of those, the Highlanders School in Tennessee. All of us together because that's what it's going to take, sing all. In just a minute or two we're going to go to that Zoom room. The link should be right there in the chat and we welcome you to join us. Please join us again next month when we have the State of Voting Rights Today. It's a program that will be hosted by one of our founders, the Reverend Dr. Gordon Gibson and special guests Amir Badat, manager of the Voting Rights Defender and special counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. We thank you so much for joining us. We'll see you in the question and answer. Be very well. For those of you who cannot join us, we wish you well and stay tuned. Keep in touch so we can be in touch. Change is going to come.