they planned it to be a murder of a 14-year-old black boy. they planned for him to be tortured. they planned for him to be t in a pe box, so tt itould be cret. the in, thtrauma of african-americans over the years it's taken its toll on us as a people. the most common thing you hear is we weren't born then, so why are you holding us accountable?

white america was wrong. it did something unspeakably horrific for four centuries. and to come to terms with that takes an enormous amount of moral courage. i would say to manof them, y, but u are prileged you li by a prileged ce overeople li me.hat ges yg wee talkin abouhuman begs you li by a prileged ce that neeto understand each other anthat selm happens.es yg we've goto recogze the ft you li by a prileged ce thatthe trma of th iserhein his. otbelievab catastrophiens.es yg religion and the church have a roll to call injustices by name, to identify the contuing evi in ourorld. onlyod can hl the trma, ly god.

announcer: this program is made possibley generous support fr the edgar and elsa prince foundation, risk family foundation, bill and jill epherd, gesis marketing, the presbyterian church usa, urban ministries inc., umi, the african american christiapublisng u anmedia mpanes inc., the twork of church and indids umi, the african american dedited to sritualit and ligious ucation. re infortion can be und indids atrbanminiries.com. umi, the african american overseas ministries stu: engaging in mission with the world christian movement through residential programs, mission scholarships, and intercultural education, in intercultural christian mission. more information can be found at omsc.org.

we see the sins of the father passed down from generation to generation l the way back to the separation of the families. narrator: reverend keith williams recognizes how the trauma passed dn from h ancesto, still affects him today. ♪ my lord ♪ keith : i can't imagine the physiological and the emotional and the psychological trauma that my forefathers experienced. ♪ lord i'll never, turn back ♪ the wounds of slavery last for a very, very long time pele are t ashamedr they n't knowhere to with it an eert in nabiblicalrauma heing, e post tumatic effects saysple of slavery.e

but theyave thateritage ofhe she living today we enslav, at was cmitted ainst tm. for ma of our milies don't he to go ck to the middle passage to know what post-traumatic stress syndrome is. the effects of oppression are still reverberating in our siety today. [music] phyllis: this was august 24th, 1955. [music] he was taken to the shuridan plantation to a shed and there he was brutly beate narrator: phyllis smith was six years old when she first learned about the highly-publicized murder of her cousin, emmett till. reporter: money, mississippi, a story that shocked the entire united states. emmett till, 14, visiting his uncle mose wright, was kidnapped and killed allegedly for wolf whistling athe wife of the accused roy bryant.

emmett was known as "bobo" and we loved him. he had it all. he w chariatic. he was conversional. he was ce and all of t younr cousinadored h and i waone of tse. he was ce and all of t younr cou[mus]ored h narrator: on his 14th birthday, "bobo" from chicago wanted to visit family in mississippi and begged his mother to allow him to travel to the unknown southern terrain. phyllis: and they took him to the tallahatchie river, tied this 70-pound, coon gin fanround his neck and threw him into t river. narrator: mie till sought help from law enforcement, congress, and even presint dwight d. eisenhower. she wanted justice for the brutal crime committed against her only child. emmett's mother had insisted that the coffin be opened and she nted to let thworn at had bn done to her s.

a♪ord, iyour hd, let thworn yocan rede ♪ and what did god turn it into? god turnedt into sething in wch it wanot and whnailed pe box,n it into? it was aopen coffin, so the wle worldould seeng e heinou tortuus evi perpuated ainst myousin. into? ♪ if you please, oh ♪ reporter: bryant and his half-brother j.w. mylan were acquitted by this jury and subsequently even though they admitted taking the boy from the house, they were freed of kidnap charges. narrator: four months after the trial, look magazine published the brothers' confessions. their interviews detailed how they tortured and killed a negro boy from chicago. it's even larger than a racial crime against all blacks. it larger than that.

it's actualla crime agai. ♪oooh ♪ with emmett till and all the other lynchings that went on, they did it with impunity right up to the time of theivil rights movement in a lot of those cases where they mdered black children in a chur, where they murdered vil righ workers narrator: dr. alvipoussaint, a professor of psychiatry at harvard medical school, devoted his entire career to african-american history. there are still problems of discrimination in many institutions. no matter how protected i may feel being at harvard, i haveo watch levision readhe newspers and dealith the ople getng sh and kild and used i haveo watch levision and son and soorth, and ere's a t of entificaon and sess that gs with oerving i and wahing it,ight, so it's ke you c't e[mic]t.

at the time, i was six years old and i knew that mamie, my cousin, had asked my dad, what should i tell emmett? and my dad was very much against bobo going to mississippi and told her, "he doesn't understand the ways. "you have to know ur place to me "and he will not mami don't let him g" think 's somhing th really unted hi the rest of his life. narrator: a short life at that. seven years later, phyllis's father, sam smith, died, and in death, received an indignity that further deepened phyllis' pain. we had to delay the funeral because there was no cemetery in the western suburbs who would take a cold, "cored man and all these tngs ilt up iide of m inerms of otional auma a coldd anger. man i thinwhen youon't or y don't proce it we, yobecome sck.

you beme arresd athe pointf the trma. i thinwhen youon't or ani think many ways yobetil now,. i ha been stk ashat six-ar-old. usic] don't thk it's ibiny shoes,or sobody tk even thoh they might we it well grew uin new oeans dely segregated ke bls and in constant fear. losing my life was a serious reality because you never knew-- you never knew when you would meet those people who were so oughtless aboublack life, care so little about black life,

you ner knew when you were naator: while his mother g worked as a maid, gus polished shoes in the french quarter to help pay the bills. one particular time, i shined the shoes for a chap in the french market and fosome rson, he refused tgivee thfee for shining his shoes and even went beyond that and became angry and just puhis shoen my stoch and i cod never undersnd . ev if you don'want to y me at's no ason to ck me. narrat: gus al founddersnd . no rson for blacks to endure daily injustice. he began to lose hope in his faith. i asked god a question, i said, "is it that you just love white folks? why is it you -- you can do all these things for white folks and don't do anything for us?"

at was aurningoint. that's wn the relationip start. anthat's wn prayer becamu at's wn god beme real. rrator: turning int that ledim to psue a thlogy dege d began his felong cl dressingace in arica. i ow what did to r spirit to psue a thlogy dege d ani know wt it didto their. dressingace in arica. you askethat question. whyouanytng much r us?hemand yoo ani rememb the swer ogod. he sd, "no. . dot you everelievehat!"

that w the begning ofhe journ. thconscioujourney th god. how is r[music]u? i can remember at seven years old i had gone with my mother to a dry goods store, a little sewing shop.. [music] you just go outside of that sidewalk and let them pass by. i remember asking my mom as a child, i just needed to use the bathroom... [music] i was five years old and a friend of mine invited me to his club to go swimming its when seone is eply rt at a rsonal lel... whites would drive along and threaten us.

[music] and i remember we'd only been there a few minutes and the lady came up to , one of t clerks, and said, "iidn't pu you pu" anythi in my pket." anshe id think y did." and i id, "wel mom, the's bathom rightver ther" d she rned my head a said, "comalong, we've t to go er the." and we got to the door and they wouldn't let me in and i didn't understand why they didn't let me in so had to pty my pke d quite ankly, it waseved and i still member i like iwas yesterday. i still remember that pain today that i felt as a five-year-old child. i know that my grandfather was a klan member for a time. parentsgenerati, th made break om that, i think at in tes ofhe subseent genetions,

but the legacies of that history,ou know, remain. narrator: reverend greg thompson grew up in traveler's rest, south carolina. as a childiving in theegregatesouth, he nev really ought in traveler's rest, about s racialdentity,. until one fateful da in elementary school. i was in fourth grade. myest frie was who had the same name as me. we were know[mus]the two greg's. we're fourth grade boys, soe got in lots of trouble lots of times. we were always joking and i remember this one day the teacher called us wn. we both laughed, but shcame andrabbed him by his shirt and threw him against the chalkboard but shcame andrabbed him front of the wholclass and sa to him, "why d't you we that n----r sle ousicr face?" to be held up in front of the whole class as if there is something fundamentally wrong with him a way that is visible in his face, that our teacher, who we all looked up to, pointed out for us.

and i've spent a lot of time thinking about what the trauma of that wasor him. but the other trauma is the trauma of shame because as a child i knew that i didn't come to his defense. i lt embarssedbout that er theourse ofy life win i'veealized re and meame justow deeply emdded i tually tnk that' the deeplymbeddede naator: as child, greg developed a strategy for dealing with the shame and trauma he experienced as he watched his closest friend publicly humiliated. i mean, were two boys. we had the same name. we were doing thsame thing. i think that i learned that in that moment in that fourth-grade claroom, that he was chosen and i wasn't because something was wrong wit. [music]

the last real memory i ve of him, honesy, is that afternoon we were on the aygrnd together and he w playing off by the side of the playground by himself and i went over and kind of sat down in front of him. and i just remember watchi his tears hit the dirt. i ha literal no memories of him after that. [music] it destroys the person from the inside out. hate is a malignant spiritl cancer at will read beyd the bounries of at onhad inteed for ito do towards particul group, and tually consum the pern. naator: pshiatrist dr. chaels towards particul group, rectly affects our n. thit affects your ability to develop healthy relationships with other people of your own raal group andy anaffects ur abili to have a trueositive lf-ima of yrself. if your lf-imageas to beve based you bei better than ,

it's a a very insecure self-image. [music] narrator: revere greg thompson now lives in crlottesvle, virgia, the rth placof the american presints, whbuilt a tion on t princip that, the rth placof "allen are cated equal, hiorical and siologicay yohave to derstand that arican lture the rth placof "allenwas found, equal, on docratic inciples that arican lture t utthathe institiscies and noofmerican ltureists, wereargely cated in mindset ere theyertained to n d they ptained t whiteuropeanen. 0 years slavery 0 years etty muc of j crow, d they ptained t whiteuropeanen. small ndow of a civ rights vement, d to tnk that l of the centm

d inequality would be overcome by a singular movement is at best a wish, at worst it's illogical. narrator: dr. charlie dates is an expert onhe 20th ntury blk church narra and itrole rlie dates in arican history. gardnetaylor, the de r whosname n belgs to the age heaid thatacism la like aleeping coil undeeath theable th whilehe ink w still w on t constition, racism was alive and well breathing through the ink. in order to justify a system that on e one hand says that everybody is created equal anhas these alienae rights, and the samtime youe enaving alof theseeople, up to eighmillion of your n, that requires you to develop certain strategies. and those strategies are animalization,

that they're not human, this kind of demonization, that they are human but that something is very wrong with them, or this infantilization which is to say they're human, nothing's really wrong with them, but they're just really not our equals, and that has been at the heart of the white american characterization of black americans from the beginning. i've got a number of friends non-black friends, white friends in particular, who will say to me "i'm n racist. i wasn'tround dung jim cw. white friends in particular, s a matt of facti had nothing do withnything i wasn'tround dung jim cw. withhe probls of black p. white friends in particular, and i uld y to manof them "y'r, "but you arerivilege "and y live by th gives y an advaage prer peopllike me.ri moray i'vead to he by lettinafrican-ericans say ings to like, "youdon't " ori've had to al moral mu yoby ltening tthat.s. so healing is going to be a long-term press for

anfor all ofs. ad music demonstrating and parading without a permit. how long does it take psychologically to overcome 350 years of slavery and jim crow segregation? ♪ we shall overcome ♪ how could people today still be dealing with this, the problems related to race? it makes an assumption that we talked about it and dealt with it back then, which we didn't. narror: righafter the cil war, southern states enacted jim crow laws, meant to keep blacks separate from whites in every area of life. the very purpose of segregation was not to hate black people, it was to imagine that they didn't exist. it was to give them stairways in another part ofhe hou. itas to gi them barooms mewhere se. it was to give them schools somewhere else. it was to let them have their churches, start their banks, do whatever they wanted to do

as long as we didn't have to see it. narrator: even after the supreme court dismantled these laws in the '50s, segregation remained alive and well until the late '60s, almost 100 years after slavery ended. we've only been liberated for how many years now? sixty? i say liberated because i'm thinking about the vil righ act of 1964 and 65, righ en maybends jim ow, buloo's ouruty to w!gered. [c] look at the residues and remnants of jim crow segregation around the country. this has been a constant criticism from the african-american intellectual community of american whites, that segregation hasreated a formf moral mage in , a form of moral blindns. i think metimes they m keept when whis ask them about it.

it could be that well, i'm not going to talk about it beuse you' not goi to undstand menyway. imagine you're a place and you that you know arin pover, thatou know arbeing haed, that you know are being abused, that you know their lives are just not going to be what your life is going to be, which is what white americans have had to know about african-americans for four centuries to the extent that th've thout about . now imagine then, that the only social option available to you, this only soally acctable topti availab to you is to igre that worse,to bme t. that crees a funmental hit 's a wild sortf moral indness and thats a profnd formf damage alvin:e blame or peopl in thicountry r being or. we don't blame the fact we don't pay them enough, even though they're working full-time. we just say something's wrong with them that they don't have any money,

so it contributes to the feelings of being an outsider and being stigmatized and stereotyped. i think that that kind of trauma is extraordinarily pfound and peop who do trauma they, is that for all one of of the evidenceou see the opprsors become soamagedby , to the victims, and that one of e reason it mes it soard heal fr this. ♪ shall orcome ♪ we are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. that's why dr. king said that part of the answer anwhatever affectoney was going to be spiritual. affects all indirectly. damaging another person, damages you, that enslavi anothererson enslaves you. fosome strge reaso i can never be what i ought to be

until you are what you ought to be. that rejecting another person ends up a form the rich man can never be what he ought to be until the poor man is what he ought to be. i think the call to listen and say how can we do this together, here iwhat i'mringin to t table, i think the call to listen and at do u think we suld do?gether, thator me isoing to a real importa step as we forward manyf our pele are sll suering fr the memories i think the call to listen and at do u think we suld do?gether, and theye bued them deep that ty can'even ta about tm. the trma stillingers a is iergeneraonal, rit. ju like thtrauma othe ta about tm. hocaust is intgeneratial. the trma stillingers a is iergeneraonal, rit. have a 9year-old grandmh. 's th she expienced a lk the fects ofeing treed like s was thr-fifths of a p.

narrat: today ttie wilams, ith's grdmother, remembers living through the jim crow south. one generation closer to her slave descendants, she still carries its trauma. my mher was rn in orgia. she moveto pennsvania when sheas six yrs old. narrator: hattie'saughter, d grew up in t north, but still feelthe pain her ancestors experienced growing up in the south. your grandfather and your grandmother, why did they come up here? for a better life than down south.

narror: doris' grandfather, spurgeon marshall, left georgia during the great migration, when nearly 11 million negroes sought a better life up north. but escape from the rural south did not always mean more freedom. my mother's father went to jail because they had segregated the schools and he said rather than have his children go to an all-black school he would go to jail. myrandfather went to jail for. rratorwhat gw up in her, a symptoresearch describ as post traumatic slave syndrome, a survival mentality stemming back to her ancestors. the trauma of the oppression and abuse is internerational. black women will say, and black mothers, that one of the major pressures on them is to protect theichildren.

discipline was harsh, it wasery harsh because they knewthat if, my african american son, to learn how to submit to authority and obey authority and respect authority, he'd end up in a penal institution. parents have tbe stricr, stct with eir children and mt in a penal institution. because they feel they pay a high price for disobedience. you may get arrested and go to jail, right? the white man didn't really care whether we got an educatio or that we ate, sto prere my chdren r th cold, cruel wor. narratorto ppare her chilen for the cold, cruel world, doris raised them with a firm disciplined hand. i used to say to him, keith you have to pick up your room before baseball. oh, i'll do it. keith, you have pick up youroom befo basebal

keh you haveo do theoom. so he di't do it. e box spng, the ttress, the dr, everhingn the flr, efromhaday tohis,o i n naator: acrdingeaves ar to dr.oussiant ese strict disciplinary measures are learned behaviors, passed down through generations. my mother was very strict. if my mother woke up at 3 a.m. you got at 3 a. then wscrubbedalls, an woodrk, and paint, a windows like yoshdid not ay.ve. my mom didn't pl. as aatter of fact, she ld me, that ii'm de in thgrave and te you to ve, noif she'sead in t graveand i , yobetter me. shdon't ha to worr aboume movin but at's howight it s.

t i thangod thathe was thatm naator: wi this no-nonsee upbrinng, doris had little time for anything else. when keith decided it was time for him to go to school, i worked three jobs. i cleaned uses, i anito go school.talbecause many tim, ouparents, nobo wrapped their ms m anthey were o busy ting, to p food onhe table and clots on the back. narrator: keith's children live four generation pastheir anctors' trma. ey feel e pain their ther cares. pastheir anctors' trma. a und he tes keep fr them. ey feel e pain it w hard fohim to on becae his moer wodn't opeup, d his grdmotherwouldn'tpep ey feel e pain it w hard fohim to on sollhese unawered estions d here ces me with all t quesons and ing rejeed and not understanding what w going on. my fathespent a t of tim never ing told tt he was lop

never aring the wos i loveou. for , we fee a little bit of that. my fher is theost givi, lovinggenerous person know. but he so hardn himsel 's so hard on hielf. i ink somemes but h feels ls thansel becausof his pt 's so anashamed.elf. d i thinhe may he but h ffe that waansel due to nody taing abouit. we g to breaay he buthose rriers.waansel we got to eathem. ti does nonecessary heal. ople cane bitter for thr enre lives. rratordr. harrt hill lds a biblic traa healin ssion he in philadelphia. he's going to sit down and maybe have his devotions,