i never gave it any thought. >> pitts: williams runs newsouth books in montgomery, alabama, cradle of the confederacy, and where jim> we don't want the niggers going in this school. it's a white school. >> pitts: williams, a son of alabama, says the civil rights movement changed him, as it did much of the south. for him, the subject of race and the n-word goes beyond any debate about the book. it's also about how far the south has come. >> williams: we learned to think differently about it, and thank god we did. i mean, the movement didn't free, you know, black southerners. i mean, it freed white southerners, too, and you know... >> pitts: freed you from? >> williams: freed us from the sin of... you know, this... this was a big... a big sin. >> pitts: kids use it-- you know, the... the rap. >> bradley: well... >> pitts: artists use it, the black rap artists use it, as you know, as i well know. brothers use it all the time... >> bradley: oh, yeah. >> pitts: ...when they talk to each other. >> bradley: i love it. >> pitts: sorry? >> bradley: i love it. >> pitts: you love it? >> bradley: yeah, yeah. "you're my nigger,