''You Got to Move'' is a 1985 documentary by
Lucie Massie Phenix and
Veronica Selver that follows people from communities in the
Southern United States
The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...
in their various processes of becoming involved in social change. The film's centerpiece is the Highlander Folk School (now known as
Highlander Research and Education Center
The Highlander Research and Education Center, formerly known as the Highlander Folk School, is a social justice leadership training school and cultural center in New Market, Tennessee. Founded in 1932 by activist Myles Horton, educator Don West (e ...
), a now 89 year-old center for education and social action that was somehow involved in each of the lives chronicled in the documentary.
''You Got to Move'' features folk, country and gospel music from the Southern United States and in fact takes its name from an old
spiritual.
Featured people
Bernice Robinson
A black beautician who became the first teacher of a literacy program on
Johns Island, off the coast of South Carolina, talks about teaching adults to read and write in order to pass voter registration requirements during the mid-1950s and 1960s throughout the Southern states.
"I will never forget Anna Vastine. She couldn't read or write and it was the greatest reward when I had all the names up on the board one night, in jungle fashion, you know and I'd asked them could they pick their names out. Mrs. Vastine said, 'I see my name,' and she went down the list and she took the ruler from me and she said, 'That's Anna, that's my first name.' And then she went over on the other side up and down 'til she found Vastine and said, 'That's my name, V-A-S-T-I-N-E ,Vastine.' And goose pimples just came out all over me, because that woman couldn't read or write when she came in there. She was 65 years old."
Bernice Johnson Reagon
Bernice Johnson Reagon (born Bernice Johnson on October 4, 1942) is a song leader, composer, scholar, and social activist, who in the early 1960s was a founding member of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee's (SNCC) Freedom Singers in t ...
A college student who participated in challenging the legality of segregated public facilities in her hometown of
Albany, Georgia
Albany ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Georgia. Located on the Flint River, it is the seat of Dougherty County, and is the sole incorporated city in that county. Located in southwest Georgia, it is the principal city of the Albany, Georgia ...
—a student protest that grew into one of the first city-wide mass Demonstrations of the Civil Rights Movement.
"Now I sit back and look at some of the things we did, and I say, 'What in the world came over us,' you know? But death had nothing to do with what we were doing. If somebody shot us we would be dead. And when people died, we cried. And we went to funerals. And we went and did the next thing the next day, because it was really beyond life and death. It was really like... Sometimes you know what you're supposed to be doing, and when you know what you're supposed to be doing, it's somebody else's job to kill you."
Bill Saunders''
A former worker in a mattress factory who now runs a community radio station in
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...
, and was involved in creating a hospital workers' organization at the
Medical College Hospital
The Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram (also known as Thiruvananthapuram Medical College or Trivandrum Medical College) is in Thiruvananthapuram (the capital of Kerala), India. Founded in 1951, it was inaugurated by Prime Minister J ...
in Charleston, which organized a 100-day-long hospital workers' strike in 1969.
"It was really an experience for me, because again, I was able to learn that there were whites tha were suffering the same way that blacks were as it relates to economics. Now, not having access to all of the restrooms, not getting into the lunchroom, they didn't have those problems. But, actually, they weren't making any money, and that's where the problem lies."
Rebecca Simpson
Fought to get damage payments for the people in her community in
Cranks Creek,
Harlan County, Kentucky
Harlan County is a county located in southeastern Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 26,831. Its county seat is Harlan. It is classified as a moist countya county in which alcohol sales are prohibited (a dry county), but conta ...
much of whose property was destroyed by a series of floods related to strip-mining abuses; succeeded in reclaiming much of the mountainous land around Cranks Creek.
"My education was just like a big black spot in my life. I couldn't go beyond that, I thought. I thought, probably if you try to do thing like I've done, you'd need, you know, like a college degree. But if you ain't got it, you have to go on without it. So I found out you don't have to be educated to do what you have to do."
Gail Story and
MaryLee Rogers
Two housewives from
Bumpass Cove in
East Tennessee
East Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. Geographically and socioculturally distinct, it comprises approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee. East Tennessee consists of 33 count ...
helped organize community action to stop trucks from dumping hazardous chemicals in the garbage dump in their area.
"Oh mercy, five years ago, and now. Well we was jus ordinary housewives. We taught ourself to drive. We didn't go any place that we didn't take the kids, which was just to the grocery store and maybe to the Laundromat. We wasn't involved in anything, not even PTA. We didn't feel like we could donate anything. We didn't think there was anything we could do."
— Gail
"First thing we should say: Our mothers taught us to be good mothers and wives— that's it. That was our role in life, you know. That's what was taught and that's what we did five year ago—watch soap operas. Now I don't even get to watch a soap opera. I never see a soap opera."
— MaryLee
Myles Horton
]
Myles Falls Horton (July 9, 1905– January 19, 1990) was an American educator, socialist, and co-founder of the Highlander Folk School, famous for its role in the Civil Rights Movement (Movement leader James Bevel called Horton "The Father o ...
One of the founders of
Highlander Folk School
The Highlander Research and Education Center, formerly known as the Highlander Folk School, is a social justice leadership training school and cultural center in New Market, Tennessee. Founded in 1932 by activist Myles Horton, educator Don West (e ...
, a 50-year-old center for education and social action.
"I think the future is... well, as somebody said one time, 'it's out there.' It's not only out there, but it's ready to be changed. It's malleable, and there's nothing fixed that you can't unfix. But to unfix things that appear to be fixed, you have to not only be creative and imaginative, but courageously dedicated to the long haul."
External links
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* {{Amg movie, 227733, You Got to Move
Documentary films about American politics
1985 films
Documentary films about the civil rights movement
1985 documentary films
American documentary films
1980s English-language films
1980s American films