living with parkinson's disease." that was a nonsensical question, but what i really thinking.iously, was is it going to affect my thinking. thinking is how i learned -- how i earn my living, so that became important. i asked this neurologist, what's going to happen? he says, he was trying to tell me it was not such a big deal, and he says, you may lose your edge, as if that was nothing. myhought, g, my edge is living. it's why i have my friends, maybe even my wife. announcer: sunday night at 8:00 eastern and pacific on c-span's "q&a." weekend, american

history tv is featuring hattiesburg, mississippi, home to the university of southern mississippi. was founded in 1910, originally as a teacher's training school called mississippi normal college. staff --cities for r staff recently visited many sites showcasing hattiesburg, mississippi. .earn about it here >> for what reason did anybody want to come and kill my daddy? it came as a result of orders from the head of the klan, "go annihilate him." and they came to kill a whole family.

>> my husband was a civil rights activist in hattiesburg who worked to try to get african-americans registered to vote. he was a pastor at the shady grove church, he was a teacher of the sunday school and also sang in the choir. he owed a small grocery store, a sawmill, and he grew commercial cotton. we planted as much as 70 acres of cotton, a lot of cotton. >> my dad, vernon senior, was one of the founders of the naacp. it was nine men who established the naacp. at that time, it was definitely an underground organization. he felt having the opportunity to vote, because he could not vote, was hopefully the pathway to first-class citizenship. >> you had places the whites

could go, the blacks couldn't go. the courthouse was the only place where they had bathrooms for black people. white and colored doors. water fountains were even like that. they would be side-by-side and have a white fountain and a black fountain, a colored cotton, what they really called it. >> my dad and other black citizens in the nearby town of hattiesburg, mississippi, which is only about 5.5 miles south, they would go up and pay their property tax and pay their poll tax, and my dad did that religiously, and he would go to the voter registration office to try to register, and then the register would refuse to let them register. consequently, he was just paying a poll tax. >> he had pushed for black people to be able to vote. he knew that would make a change in their condition.

during the two or three days before he came in and killed him, an announcement was made on the radio that people would be able to pay their poll tax at the store and not have to go all the way to the courthouse. anybody who did not have the money, he would pay it for them. the banks sold us out. they would not loan us any money. the two banks he had already done business with, but he was able to borrow money from some other source. by that time, they were getting so many threats. we would sleep in shifts, i would sleep the first part of that night, and then he would sleep the last part of the knife -- of the night, because we knew it was not safe for two grown people in the house to be asleep at the same time. >> they were sleeping in shifts. my dad had five sons on active duty protecting the very people who wanted to take their lives. i did not find out that until

the home was destroyed and my dad lost his life. there were always guns in the house, but this one time when i came home, my dad had a wife and three kids, i came home and my dad said, hey, don't walk in front of the window at night, even though they pulled the curtains, and he told me why. that did not bother me. that was the first time i was introduced to that level of fear.

by that time, they were returning fire from guns, because we kept loading guns, and he was yelling at me. set of facilities on fire at the same time, and while they were burning, they were shooting in the flames to make sure, if the flames don't get you, hopefully we will kill you. they came to wipe out the family house. >> i put my legs out the window. i raised the bedroom window. i could not find the stake, i was holding it up with my shoulder. i turned around to get ready, and the window fell down, and i could not get the window up again. i hit the window so hard with my shoulder, and i fell out with the final sash.

the girl who went out before me got burned on both arms and her forehead, and he had got earned -- burned real bad. >> by the time my dad got out, he had stayed inside too long, and by the time he got out, he inhaled too much of the frames and his respiratory system was -- of the fumes and his respiratory system was parched. >> i went to the hospital. said it was crime. that he was crying, because she was scared. becktty was crying because she was scared. so i went with betty. he left betty and then came back. they put them both in the same room at the hospital. and i thought he was getting better, but everybody else could

see he was not getting better. >> when i arrived here, there is a site along with the grocery store which is about 100 feet from the house. it was still smoldering. it had already passed away -- he had already passed away. and there were law-enforcement spectators, newspeople covering the site. my dad was a highly expected man. the reaction from the community was surprising, i'm sure, to the white population, because it was hostile. marches, the community came in out of defense. they said, if it can happen to vernon dahmer, it could happen to us. so they laid aside their fears and said, we have got to do something. and we had the leader of the

india play cb -- leader of the naacpe -- leader of the who came down and organized a march. >> they went up through the black neighborhood to the courthouse. after that, the community began to make demands, and the black community put up a boycott that was so successful. the merchants got together and met demands the community had. >> and the president got involved. president lyndon baines johnson. he sent a telegram to my mom and family expressing his regret and his condolence to the family. >> both the klansmen went to prison, but they did not stay that long. one of them died in prison. it was terrible, because i had to take the witness stand. i had to testify each time for them, for the grand jury to indict them.

and i was the lead witness every time. i don't know how many times, something like 75 times, i took the stand, trying to get something done. >> what i hope is that, that time, and the things we experienced in this country, our country, will not ever happen again to anybody. our cities tour staff recently traveled to hattiesburg, mississippi to learn about its rich history. learn more about hattiesburg and other stops on the tour on c-span.org/citiestour. you are watching "american history tv," all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. >> madam secretary, we proudly

give 72 of our delegate votes to the next president of the united states. ♪ looking torica is get to the activities of the church committee, which did a broad examination of the fbi, the cia, and the nsa. as we continue, we will be looking at the testimonies of two fbi informants.