Q: Selma to Montgomery. Interviewees George Sr. and Wendel Paris take
18.

**Wendel Paris**: Okay. Yeah I was saying that that is -- that is why
what did take place during that era is so significant because here were
folk who -- who in spite of the obstacles decided that they were going
to become first class citizens of this country. In spite of the economic
reprisals, in spite of the -- I mean the just all out fear that was
prevalent in these communities, folks moved forward. I knew folks in
Lawrence County who challenged the vote of the old master. When he came
in there to register to vote folks actually challenged his ballot. And
he was saying, "Lucy you know you still on my place. You live on my
place you know I'm gonna register, I'm able to vote here." She said,
"Yeah, I know that but I don't know where else you voted," cause see the
Alabama Black Belt you had folks, you had as much as a 125% White vote
register population, 25% over and above 100% of the folks who still
would've been registered were on the books here. And so it was difficult
to win election because folk would vote in one county uhm... you know,
through the regular ways and then to vote in another county absentee.
And that's what county we face. In fact, Daddy when you ran for probate
judge in Macon County in 1970 we went to bed winning the election only
to wake up the next morning and we had lost in the absentee box. All --
a number of the elections were determined by what took place in the
absentee box. At least to say we're just getting started. We didn't know
anything about the absentee box. So uh... we came to find out that they
actually mailed letters to send them a ballot. And that's how they would
win the election. If you registered in one county in your maiden name
then you could turn around, and young ladies would register in another
county in their married name, which meant that they now can -- can vote
twice. And that kind of accounted for the high percentages who were
registered in the -- in the Black Belt when uh... the Voting Rights Act
was passed. You probably ransom anywhere from say 95% up to 130% White
voter registration population. And so we had to -- to fight all of those
things. You had to go in there and -- and fight against the interest
establishment at every level. I mean it's nothing to see that doctors
out there are serving as poll watchers. And so if one of their patients
walk up then clearly if the doctor hand them the ballot then they are
prone to vote the way that Dr. so and so said for them to vote, or the
same thing especially to the folks who loan money. See if you had those
people who were loaning money at 25 to 50% interest then uh... no one
dare challenge them in terms of which way you would vote. But there were
folks in spite of that, I know an old lady in sumpter County, we were
voting on a -- we had established a political organization called the
National Democratic Part of Alabama. We couldn't -- we didn't affiliate
with the regular democratic part of Alabama because even to this day the
-- the democratic part of Alabama does not use the national symbol of
uh... the donkey. It doesn't use the donkey. It used the white rooster
that goes all the way back to uh... Charles Gary and uhm... the Gary
Plan or the Mississippi that was put in place in uhm... in the post
reconstruction era to take away the right to vote. So here we were
saying we want to align with the Democratic Party at the national level
because we refuse to align with the Democratic Party in the state of
Alabama because the slogan was uhm... he had the white rooster, White
supremacy over the top and for the right under the bottom, White
supremacy for the right. Now probably around 1968 I think they changed
the slogan. It's no longer White supremacy for the right. It's now
Alabama Democratic Party for the right. So we set up an independent
thing called the NDPA, National Democratic Part of Alabama to be able to
uh... get Black folks to vote and to put in a simple uhm... measure that
really probably reached its height following what took place in Lawrence
County with the establishment, and I'm sure Bob Mass mentioned, the
Lawrence County Christian Movement for Human Rights. Did he tell you how
they came up with the Black Panther?

Q: Well no, I've heard several stories. You gonna tell me another one?

**Wendel Paris**: Well, you know, the Clark \[ph?\] College, which is
one of the Black colleges in Atlanta, part of the Atlanta university
system, its mascot is a Black Panther. So a student that was working in
Lawrence County at the time, I don't know if they were Clark College
student or not, but there was a college yearbook there. And so when
folks were trying to figure out what would be the -- the symbol of the
NDPA, the National Democratic Party --- excuse me, no not NDPA -- the
uh... Lawrence County Movement for Christian Rights, which was the name
of the local political organization. Folks came up with this Black
Panther. So they traced in this Black Panther. And that's how you came
up with uh... with what later became the Black Panther party that uh...
reached this notoriety in California.

Q: (Unintelligible)?

**Wendel Paris**: Yeah. But they actually had come to Lawrence County to
help uh... with the protection that was needed once folks registered to
vote. In Lawrence County we had a slogan. Vote for the Black Panther and
then go home. Vote for the Black Panther and then go home. What we were
saying to folks was, once you vote they will know it. That means that
the economic and the other types of reprisals will start immediately. So
you needed to go back home, get your gun and be able to protect
yourself, uh... and protect your property and stuff because you never
knew when folk were coming at you. So that's kind of when folks in
California saw that we were uh... preparing people, encouraging people
to defend and protect themselves, which was I understand one of -- one
of the tenets of the constitution that you had the right to bear alms
and be able to protect yourself. Then clearly folks would say, "Hey we
gotta back off from now." Daddy used to teach us at an early age, you
know, folks don't respect you unless --- they understand you do the same
thing to them that they will do to you. Now that brings about an
equality there that you don't -- that you don't run into a whole lot.

**George Sr.**: I -- I played football portion of college life and uh...
we had a coach who says that, "In football you change the golden rule.
You do unto others before the do to you." And that's been the philosophy
seemingly of some of these folk who don't want us to live decently live
in their country. And it's just as much as our country as anybody's
country.

**Wendel Paris**: Yeah. But I mean when you challenge all of this stuff,
now you really do get -- you come under that eye of uh... especially the
economic reprisals that people can bring on you, and uh... you know, you
can't make any loans. You surely can't get in --- uh... what about Mr.
Aaron Selos \[ph?\]? I mean he was -- he was affiliated with the NAACP
and as a result of that although he had some of the best cotton
producing land in this country he couldn't make a farm-operating loan,
right dad?

**George Sr.**: They -- they refused. See, with the Farmers Home
Administration there is a County committee who certifies as to the
eligibility of anyone getting a loan. Some of them went to third grade
and some of them went maybe through the fifth grade. But they told me
that uhm... if I could get Aaron Sella to \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ or
disassociated himself with the NAACP and stop trying to integrate these
White schools, we could make him a loan. And uhm... course I knew my
lesson and I know this man cotton land would produce cotton. And uhm...
my state director got \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ fire me because I didn't
agree with these three members of the county committee. And of course I
could tell a big story about that, but anyway they -- I won the side of
it.

**Wendel Paris**: But that's an example of the economic reprisals.

**George Sr.**: Yeah.

**Wendel Paris**: I mean if your land was anywhere in any type of
trouble and needs to say most of the farmers of the Black Belt were
subsistence farmers. So it was touch and go as, you know, depending on
what cotton was doing that year as to whether folk could keep the lands
or not, and if your -- if you land was in any trouble and you came out
to register to vote, then that was it. I mean lands that may have been
in your family for 80 to 100 years was just wiped away overnight. I mean
they just took it away like that. If you register to vote then clearly
the next day you had to get off of folks property. They were -- and
that's kind of what the situation was and with Tenth \[ph?\] City.

Q: Right. Tell me more about Tenth City, you and \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_.

**Wendel Paris**: Yeah, well when folks had gotten up enough nerve to --
to go to the local uh... board of registrars to -- to get registered to
vote then clearly if there ever was such a thing as a black list, then
the black list was put out and there names were on it as folks now who
were trying to get registered to vote. And so a lot of people was just
evicted, just thrown out. You got 24 hours to get off of my place. So
when they evicted the folk in Lawrence County who were registering to
vote, then that's when SNCC came forward, Student Non Violent
Coordinating Committee, with the idea of building a city of Tenth, Tenth
City. It was kind of based on what had taken place in uh... in some
counties in Tennessee where similar thing had gone on. Tenth City
Alabama was -- was patterned after Tenth City Tennessee, but it all
centered around, you know, folks getting evicted for them getting
registered to vote. And man you're talking -- it was rough in Lawrence
County when we were building Tenth City. I mean you -- the uh... \-- Bob
Mance \[ph?\] and uhm... Stokly \[ph?\] Carmichael and Red Brown all
said, "Well listen, we need to devise a way where we know who is driving
through our community during the time that uh... especially at night
time. So when you turn onto Highway 80 -- I think it's 81 in Lawrence
County, you need to be blinking your lights and blowing your horn to let
you know that, hey, I'm -- I'm a part of this because if you just went
through there in the normal manner, then you -- you were subject to get
shot back at if you did shoot. So folks -- folks kind of prepared. I
mean it was necessary. This was a survival tactic now. Didn't mean,
don't wanna give the impression that folks were -- were openly hostile
or aggressively seeking to do wrong, but it was a matter of protection.
You know, uh... the -- the picture that is --- and daddy done noticed
--- the picture that was taken with the young lady holding the double
barrel shotgun in Lawrence County saying they voting for the Panther and
go home. Well that shotgun was Long Tom. Now Long Tom is my daddy's
double barrel shotgun. Now Long --- how far would Long Tom shoot daddy?

**George Sr.**: It'll shoot five miles and then start throwing bricks.

**Wendel Paris**: So -- so we had -- we had snuck Long --- daddy didn't
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_, you know, I guess later on we could hunt with Long
Tom, but during that time nobody hunted with Long Tom but daddy. And we
had snuck Long Tom out of the house and brought it to Lawrence County
for folks to uh... - to protect themselves and they'd taken this picture
with Rueben Taylor holding Long Tom. You didn't know that did you daddy?

**George Sr.**: (Unintelligible).

**Wendel Paris**: But Long Tom is what fed us, you know. I mean, you
know, we were always uh... - we hunter ever since we were small, you
know.

**George Sr.**: Well on that particular day that uh... you all were
marching in front of Tuskegee \[ph?\] University I was uhm...
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ and summoned myself in the post -- in the post
office. This was in June, hot, and I had on an overcoat, and uhm... and
I was there to protect these students when they marched downtown to meet
their governor. And uhm...

**Wendel Paris**: And they go to the church too.

**George Sr.**: Yeah, \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ the governor. And I had prayed
to the Lord. I didn't wanna hurt anybody, but I surely watch on standby
and see anybody mass murder these children, you see. And uhm... they
supposed to come marching downtown to
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_, and I don't know where you
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_. And I'm standing there in the post office.
I was there. You'll were supposed to come at 10, and I'm standing in the
post office sweating like I don't know what, and uhm... looked out at
9:30. Nobody was on the street. Lord have mercy, looked out again at
uh... 20 minutes to 10, nobody on the street, and I'm sweating still,
wondering whether I got to get out there out and fight these folk by
myself. And uhm... I open the door of the post office and looked out
there. There was a lady sitting there. The street was lined with Black
folk. They've come to our rescue. And this lady was sitting there
sipping coffee with song, with a song between her lip. Said, "Go ahead
George Paris. We're with you."

**Wendel Paris**: She had her weapons right there. It's a weapon in
everybody come out to protect us as we -- as we were uh... doing that
there for the march. And -- and that's, you know, although the -- the
movement itself was uhm... non violent there were times when we had to
uh... defend ourselves, and uh... I'm just thankful for my daddy that
uh... he taught me and taught me well to defend myself.

Q: And had Long Tom.

**Wendel Paris**: Yeah, and had Long Tom. Well we had --- well to tell
you the truth every time daddy's car moved there were at least three
guns in that car, at least three. We had a 22 riffle. It shot 18 times.
It had a -- it had a 38 special that was right down in the seat. You
could push the 38 special in the -- in the front of the car seat, and
under the front seat there was a sawed off shot gun that daddy found in
the woods. Belong to John Dilling \[ph?\].

**George Sr.**: John Dilling, yeah.

**Wendel Paris**: Yeah. He found one of John Dilling's gun over in
Georgia hunting over there, but he kept that gun and it was fully
loaded. It wasn't even choke before that gun had a --- it's a sawed off
shotgun. That's probably where Red Brown got that idea, that sawed off
shotgun. And we had that sawed off shotgun under the front seat of any
car that dad was driving. And he is a peaceful person, but you know, it
just was necessary to -- to take some measures to defend yourself, and
that's what we were doing. Good Christian. He's a deacon to this day,
but uh... you know, you had to defend yourself.

Q: Well yeah, my grandfather we grew up around guns, taught respect for
guns at a very, very early age. And you know, the first gun I was given
was, Jesus Christ, it was a 22 long riffle, you know.

**George Sr.**: Uhm... okay.

Q: And it uh... - I used to shoot rabbit with it.

**Wendel Paris**: Right. Hollow Point \[ph?\]?

Q: Yeah.

**George Sr.**: Lord have mercy.

Q: Yeah.

**Wendel Paris**: Yeah.

**George Sr.**: He would've tear you up.

Q: He would tear up a rabbit too. I didn't know that. So, but yet and
still with your, you know, your security measures in place, you know,
the record sort of reveals that there was still a lot of shooting at
Tenth City. I mean the people would drive along the highway and fire
guns at the place. Is that true?

**Wendel Paris**: Oh yeah, that was -- that was true, uhm... because we
were right at that intersection and uhm... of Highway 80, and I believe
it's Highway 81, State Highway 81. But it goes in to uh... Whitehall
there. So yeah, there were some -- some folks that came through and shot
uhm... but again they -- they were traveling pretty fast when they went
through there because you didn't -- you didn't slow down on that road
because folks had come to the point where they were prepared to defend
themselves. And that in itself is a major step that -- that a Black Belt
had taken at that time that you had the indigenous leadership of the
area that came forward. Whereas in Mississippi you had a lot of folks
that had come from the outside, students from up north and everywhere.
But the indigenous leadership of -- of Alabama stepped forward. The
reason that SNCC was able to go into Lawrence County was because of Mr.
Matthew Jackson. I mean Mr. Matthew Jackson was a -- one of your
borrowers daddy.

**George Sr.**: All right.

**Wendel Paris**: My daddy was the USDA, the farm -- Farmers Home
Administration. He was a loan - the -- the Negro loan officer for the
state of Alabama.

**George Sr.**: The only one.

**Wendel Paris**: The only one. But uh... Mr. Jackson uhm... had opened
his home as well as provided a -- a house that he owned to be the
freedom in Lawrence County. So we had sanctuary there because Mr.
Jackson, you know, just the nicest person that you'd every wanna meet,
but uh... he recognized that uh... you couldn't have -- you just
couldn't violate his family or his community any kind of way and not
suffer some type of reprise, uh... even if the FBI came in there. I
remember one day the FBI drove up in Mr. -- Mr. Hensen's \[ph?\] yard
with one of his uh... son-in-law, and they was gonna pull in there right
quick and slam on brakes and jump out. And Mr. Henson came out shooting
that 45. yaw! Yaw! You should've seen the FBI getting out of his yard
cause folks recognized that people had come to the point where they
would defend themselves. And so everybody respected that. And uh...
unfortunately it's still a lot of that lingers today. You don't get
respect unless uh... folks know that you would do the same thing to them
that they would do to you.

Q: Or before.

**Wendel Paris**: Or before. Yeah. So, but it was -- it was really a
time that uh... it's just unable to describe how uhm... things were just
popping up. You know, we would hear -- dad would come and tell us tails
about folks who fought the Klan single handedly, you know. Uhm... the
Klan comes to somebody's house and they get the gun and shoot back, and
you never hear anything else about it. But uh... say from March of 1965
onward there was concerted, collective action on the part of the people
to really uh... uhm... to make some -- make some constructive changes.
That's -- that -- cause you always had folks --- I mean all over people
were -- were protesting. All over people were fighting against racism
and discrimination, but uh... for the Alabama Black Belt that period
probably uh... say from late '64 all the way through to uh... 1968 or
'69 was a direct result of the Voting Rights Act. Folks now uh... would
go out and get registered to vote and folk would -- and those
communities where you had a political reaction to the deaths, to the
killings that were taking place are the areas that really uh... where
you saw folks rising up. I mean because in most instances that was the
only avenue of -- of correcting many of these atrocities. You just had
to vote people out of office. I mean other than that, you know, it just
-- it was not gonna -- wasn't even a change is gonna take place. So that
was --- that kind of prompted the -- the efforts across the territory,
Selma, Lawrence, Terry, Macon, Wilcox, Green, Sumpter, Pikins \[ph?\]. I
mean all of these counties that -- where you saw uh... folks coming into
their homes, it was prompted because now the -- the collective action.
Folks read in the newspaper what was going on in adjoining county. So it
gave them a little more strength and a little more courage to stand up
and fight the -- the injustice. I mean so daddy fought by himself
individually a long time to make those changes. But here now the whole
community stands up. The whole community stands together. And uh... we
need to get back to some of that.

Q: Well I understand. I mean I experienced Chris's story. I mean I
listened to the concepts you -- you put forth -- go by. I mean this is
just -- just the initiation of this idea of sanctuary, I mean it was so
important to be able to provide. It's just precious. It's very precious.

**Wendel Paris**: Right. And there were very few places where you --
where you had that type of sanctuary, and uh... other than that, you
know, you just had to run like a scared rabbit. I mean dad would
probably tell you the tales of the folks who -- they had -- some of his
borrowers who uh... their relatives would come and get them at six
o'clock in the evening, and uh... \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ dusk, dark. And then
you could load up at night and the next morning you were in Birmingham.
So you slept maybe two or three hours in Birmingham and that evening you
were either in Detroit or Chicago cause you were getting out of here. I
mean it was just that folks would run off and leave the animals, turn
the cows out, turn the hogs out, uhm... turn the chicken a-loose and
uh... give them to the neighbors to keep or something because folks
recognized that a lot of time escape was the only avenue of -- of
addressing...

Q: Survival.

**Wendel Paris**: Of survival, exactly right. But uhm... from '65 onward
we started to turn the table a little bit. Right here in Selma uhm...
the Selma Times Journal ran a paper on uh... where the independent
grocers uhm... of this area had gone -- had made a trip to Washington to
appeal to the government to put food stamps in place. Food stamp program
was really set up to keep those mom and pop stores from going out of
business. It was set up to help the individual merchants. It wasn't set
up necessarily to help the poor people that were supposedly receiving
the stamps. But the food stamp program really kind of in several ways
help to balance the economy of uh... these communities. I mean, you
know, cause you just didn't buy food with food stamps. I mean, you know,
you could pay your car notes. You could pay your house note. I mean
there were all types of...

Q: Through the medium of exchange.

**Wendel Paris**: Exactly right, and it was largely uhm... \-- you know
in some of these stores around here 80% of -- of the trade was in food
stamps. So, you know, it -- it really sustained the -- the black belt in
terms -- and other communities as well in terms of the economies, the
local economies. But at the same time it kept people from having to move
to the north cause as long as you could get food then you could -- you
could --- and a few of the uh... the item that meant that you could kind
of stay in place and that's more than anything I think was one of the
reasons that the mass exited from the south went on -- was on the
\_\_\_\_ because folks could at least have something to eat. And folks
could, you know, trade with those stamps and keep other folks living.
But a number of the things that we saw coming forth came as a result of
what had taken place uh... around the uh... voting rights movement or
the political movement that was taken -- that was going on here.

Q: Well I mean this is all good stuff man. Appreciate it because I mean
the extension of the voting rights in fact, you know, nibbled at it with
other interviews, but you kind of capitalized it for me very, very
nicely. What should my audience know that you might have not touched
upon? But we've spent, you know, we're coming up --- I could see the
clock on the wall. No, the tape is about to run out and we've covered a
lot of territory. Is there something we're forgetting? Is there
something you wanna mention?

**Wendel Paris**: I think we'd be remiss if we didn't mention that the
struggle is not over. This is a continuous effort that we are involved
in. It's a lifetime struggle. Uhm... I can't remember, but there's a
saying. You who love freedom cannot rest. Therefore we say to the young
people, you know, you have to look for those ways where you can make
some impact on what's going on in your communities now. I mean I gotta
--- I was arrested when I was 16 for -- for integrating the state park,
Chewackla \[ph?\] State Park in Alban \[ph?\] Alabama. You didn't even
know that, did you daddy?

**George Sr.**: Yeah. I went over there and got ya'll out of jail.

**Wendel Paris**: No you got us out of jail when we would try to get
folks to register to vote \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_. But I'm say,
prior to that when I was 16 Sammy and I had driven that \_\_\_\_
national truck to Chewackla State park and uh... we've been there plenty
time before. But Sammy was very fair complexioned. From a distance he
looked White, okay. And so and he would drive and I guess they just
automatically assumed that here's this White man driving his car and got
his Black boy sitting in there with him. But this day I was driving and
time we drove into that park, the park ranger got in behind us and
chased us down and put me in jail. But I'm saying, this was for a state
park now. I mean just by just driving through. I didn't get out. I
didn't do anything but just riding on a state park, highway through the
state park was enough to get me arrested. And what I'm saying, you have
to understand how it is that they have to take up this banner to take it
to the next level. You know, my father is here and he brought me a
pretty good piece. So as Jesse Jackson say, I stand on his shoulders.
Now, you know, I've done my best to have my children involved, but here
comes other generations now. There are other folks who need to -- to
look for creative ways to attack what's going on here, to address what's
going on here because a lot of the games that we were making in 1965 and
onward are being taken away from us. And I'm sure somebody had
mentioned, I hope someone has mentioned prior to this that in the year
2007 many of the uh... provisions that we have under the Voting Rights
Act are gonna run out. It's cut off. And for those of us who understand
the power of the act and especially of Section five, the section that's
gonna be -- uh... would be blotted out in 2007, without Section five you
do not have a Voting Rights Act. See Section five of the Voting Rights
Act uh... permanently outlawed the poll tax. So you never have to worry
about paying poll, I don't reckon that you have to ever worry about
paying poll tax anymore. But there is nothing to stop these -- these
state governments after 2007, especially in the south, Alabama and
Mississippi from going back instituting those literacy tests that uh...
my father had to deal with in the uh... when was that, in the early
forties when he tried to get registered to vote. So you -- we won't see
the bubble in the bar of soap questions come forward, but you can bet
we're gonna have some -- some ingenious schemes put in place that's
gonna diminish our right to vote. They won't try to take all of us off
the vote -- off the rolls anymore, but they will diminish our numbers to
the point where we can no longer get our people elected to office. And
we're saying, we're sending out the uh... - an alert to folks. Lets
don't wait til 2007. Lets start to look now at ways that we can organize
folk to uh... to -- to prepare them for what is coming down the pipe.
You know, I mean in terms of economics that's an area that we haven't
touched. You know, and that's an area that we have to look for some
creative means of pooling the resources that are available in our
community. Folks are saying there are no resources in our community.
That's not the case. We haven't organized those resources that's in our
community. And our effort has been uh... to continuous uh... battles of,
to continue to fight to try to organize our people, so that we can come
and -- to our full glory in terms of what it means to be the majority
people in majority communities that you -- that you uh... own and
control. So that -- that I see as being quite significant in terms of
uh... a continuing struggle that must take place.

**George Sr.**: And to -- and to help out that struggle son, I feel also
that these schools, these high schools, Black schools needs to start
teaching the children at an early age of the importance of becoming
registered voters. The White folk could teach in there, but we are not
teaching our children. You see what I'm saying?

**Wendel Paris**: But daddy...

**George Sr.**: Yeah.

**Wendel Paris**: You can't teach what you don't know. You can't lead
where you don't go.

**George Sr.**: Well I guess it's up to you and me and others like us to
educate the parents through the necessity of -- of these schools. We got
enough sign being raised about we're missing -- missing this thing
because we are not teaching our children of the importance of voting
because you check the college registration see how many students will go
take time and register.

**Wendel Paris**: And then vote. That's the (inaudible).

**George Sr.**: But they won't even register. You know they aren't gonna
vote.

**Wendel Paris**: So those are areas that we -- that we believe, and
it's, I mean it's broad. It's wide open for us. I mean, you know, uhm...
shoot, some of the uh... statistics show that we have larger --- we have
pockets now with higher percentages of poverty in 2003 than we had in
1965. I mean when folks say that the Haves uh... have and what that is
just uh... widening gaps between the Haves and the Have Nots. That's
areas that folks need to organize around, but we have to have that right
to vote. The only time that Black people in the United States reach any
semblance of equality cause I know five minutes that you'll give them on
voter registration day. My vote counts for one just like the president
of the United States vote counts for one. But it now is my job to make
sure that my vote is not stolen. It's my job to make sure that my vote
counts and we have to do that by just being concerned and involved by me
voting and my voting and my family voting. But the whole community needs
to come forward. You ought to have at least 100% participants. I say at
least cause we gonna -- we gonna follow the pattern of the Black Belt
early on. We had 125% voter registration. I at least wanna see 100% of
voter registration and participation going on, and until that happens
then you really don't have the represented democracy that uh... this
country uhm...

**George Sr.**: Needs.

**Wendel Paris**: \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_uh... - what it needs. But those
are the pronouncements that were made. Our struggle was, put your
pronouncements in line with your practices.

Q: All right. We're gonna cut.

**George Sr.**: Okay.

Q: Good. Excellent.

**Wendel Paris**: Thank you Sir. You're \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_.

Q: Cause you're very welcome. Thank you. Thank you Sir.

**George Sr.**: I'm glad I made ya'll wait for him.

**Wendel Paris**: Oh no.

**George Sr.**: Appreciate you coming.

Q: No I appreciate you. Thank you.

\#### End of Tape CD 18 \####