**Carl Morgan:** We've had a good number of uh\...of the motels are
owned now by uh\...by other than white entrepreneurs uh\...we have
uh\...both of the McDonald's franchises in Selma owned by blacks.
Uh\...I don't see that uh\...I don't see that the prejudice is nearly as
outstanding as they once were. Uh\...there's always going to be a
certain number of people for some reason they're resentful of the
opportunities that other people have had or they feel like that the only
reason they have the uh\...the success is because of the fact that
uh\...people have given them this and given them that. The biggest
problem that we have today is education of the\-- of the young people.
Uh\...it's\-- it's a shame in the sense of the word that uh\...that we
don't have better facilities for young people to\-- to find employment
and to uh\...and to be recognized for the capability that they can
actually produce and so forth. But the parent, the biggest problem we
have is teenage pregnancy. Uh\...we have a tremendous problem with
uh\...with parents not really looking after their children they way they
should. There's talk about putting on a curfew to try to keep some of
the young people uh\...off the street after ten o'clock at night. That
ought not to be a problem. If you've got a family situation they're
going to make sure that the children are at home. But, unfortunately,
we've got so many single parent families uh\...I\-- I am not trying to
be critical or anything but I'm just saying that\-- that this is one of
the biggest problems that we have, not only just in Selma but you have
it in Montgomery and you have it in Birmingham you have it and, of
course, one of the things that I think has kind of helped push this
along has been some of the government giveaway programs whereby if
you\-- the government's trying to look after the child and, as a result,
they make monies and programs available to these families and
unfortunately many times that particular program never reaches the
children. It's stopped at the parents. The parents are taking the money
that should be spent on the children and spending it in other ways. But,
it's going to take a while to get that worked out and I'm not sure that
you'll ever get it completely answered to.

Q: Were you personally\-- you obviously have clear memories of those
days. You would call this progress. We've made progress. What regrets
might you have about the past?

**Carl Morgan:** Well, I've lost some friendships because of it. I
regret that. Uh\...I\-- I was tarred and feathered with uh\...with the
wrong connotations as far as I knew right was right and, of course, a
lot of people didn't want to accept the way I looked at it. Uh\...I lost
some good friends and some of them I've made up with but uh\...some of
them I probably never would regain and, of course, at my age now, you
know, uh\...many of those people are gone. Uh\...all of the people that
were foremost in the fight against integration, so many of them are no
longer with us. In other words, the point is right here in Selma all of
the leaders that were\-- that were tantamount to\-- to trying to prevent
this thing from happening, I'd say 95 percent of them are dead now and,
of course, the point is there's some remnants of what they were thinking
about and the way they acted and so forth still evident. But, by and
large, I think it's almost a new day in a sense. I think that without
any question at all there's not anything like the prejudices and not
anything like the backbiting that was at one time about they way you
felt and the way you acted and so forth.

Q: What advice might you suggest to the future? Obviously, we've come a
long way and, as you pointed out, there is still some distance to
travel.

**Carl Morgan:** Well, the only thing I can say is this. I think that\--
that most everybody uh\...has the capability of weighing right and wrong
and I think that the very fact that we don't\-- we're not teaching the
prejudices, we're not handing it down to the younger generation that
uh\...that happened for so many years that uh\...I think that\-- that I
really feel like that a person who does not train their children to
recognize right and wrong, give and take and so forth, you're doing them
an injustice and so many of the kids who go to private school are really
not prepared when they go to college where you've got complete
integration in just about all the schools today. And uh\...so I'm\-- I'm
happy to say that even though uh\...there's still some resentment I
think that we've come a long way and I would say the only thing we can
do is just to recognize the fact that these people pay taxes just like
everybody else does. Uh\...they should have the right to enjoy the same
things that everybody else does. What we need to do is to try to
encourage them as much as we can to prepare their children, to keep them
in school and to make them aware of the fact that without a good
education they're not going to be able to be successful. Now, everybody
wants a good car. Everybody wants a television set. Everybody wants
uh\...good food on the table and so forth. But there's going to come a
time where if you're left to your own resources and you don't have that
education and you don't have the capability of going out and making the
necessary money to get it uh\...you're going to be up against it. And
so, as a result, this is what we've got to bear down on. We've got to
make sure that these young people are prepared to go into the world.

Q: How about tolerance? How can we work on tolerance?

**Carl Morgan:** Beg pardon?

Q: How about tolerance? How can we work on tolerance?

**Carl Morgan:** Uh\...that's a very good question and a very, very\-- I
don't have the complete answer. The only thing I can say is this. I
think that the only way you're going to teach young people tolerance is
to become tolerant yourself and I think that the point is you've got to
realize that it's\-- it's a give and take situation. In today's world
uh\...we've got to learn tolerance as much as we learn anything else and
the only thing I can say is this. We need to make sure that we teach
that in our schools and, you know, I think really in a sense the
churches are responsible for some of this and they have not done a good
job. I\-- now I'm not trying to reflect on all religion but I'm just
saying that some of our churches to me are more interested in building
tremendous edifices and uh\...new buildings and uh\...and trying to keep
up with what the other churches are doing and so where the very things
that we're supposed to be teaching in\-- in our religious endeavors
uh\...are just not getting through and\-- and the monies are not being
spent uh\...in\-- in my opinion the monies are not being spent in the
areas that they ought to be spent.

Q: You've been very patient with us. We are working on this movie that's
going to be shown at the New Visitor's Center in Whitehall, Kent City
out there. Is there anything that you'd like to see included in that
movie, anything special that you'd like to have said out there?

**Carl Morgan:** I don't know when you edit it, when you edit this thing
and so forth and I'm sure that uh\...you professional people are going
to do the best job you can and so forth but I\-- I really feel like that
uh\...that I hope it's just not just a lot of finger pointing. Uh\...I
think one time I have been to several meetings where uh\...somebody is
always going to try to place the blame uh\...that they're going to say,
"Well, you all are responsible for the way this thing is." Well, the
point is we possibly were responsible for it but we've tried to make
amends for that and we're trying to come around now to recognize the
fact that everybody has an opportunity or should have an opportunity to
the same things that all of us want. I remember when Andrew Young, who
came down here and uh\...and he really was kind of the brains behind
that last march. In other words, I\-- I went up after we were activated,
I went up uh\...with Sheriff Baker. I beg your pardon with Mr. Baker who
was uh\...the public uh\...safety director for the city. He and I met
with Mr. Young on several occasions to find out in their observation if
they thought that we were doing all we could do to make sure that it
was\-- that the march was going to be successful and so forth. But, I
remember and, of course, he went on into bigger and greater things after
that but he was a person who also, in my opinion, recognized the
weaknesses that uh\...that the program had at that particular time and I
think he encouraged us. You know, Mr. Baker always said, he said\-- I'd
ask him. I said, "What time do you think the march is going to start?"
And he said, "Well, it's scheduled for uh\...ten o'clock." But, he said,
"They operate on CP time" and so he said, "You never know when it's
going to start." And I said, "What do you mean CP time?" He said,
"Colored people's time." And that was always kind of a\-- a joke between
us is get prepared for what they say but don't uh\...if it doesn't\-- if
it doesn't start exactly on the stroke of the moment just wait because
eventually it will get around to us. Okay.

Q: Well, we enjoyed this very much. You've been very patient and we
appreciate it.

**Carl Morgan:** Well, I don't know. I tell you, I hope you were able to
get something out of it.

Q: We were. We are. We will.

\#### End of A23 cont. \####