Harlem in 1967: The Vietnam War, Racism and Self-Defense

The white man holds your life in the palm of his hand.

I agree with you. You're afraid to open your mouth- Not me ... because he can take your bread out your mouth.

Not me, darling. Not me. He can put you out of your apartment. He can take your job.

So you walk along and they come out and say, "What do you think about so and so and so?" "Oh, I ain't got nothing to say. I ain't gonna say nothing.

I don't make no difference to me." What can you do?

What you're hearing is the raw, unfiltered voice of Harlem in 1967. This footage comes from the landmark documentary, No Vietnamese Ever Called Me , filmed during the massive anti-war march from Harlem to the United Nations.

At this moment, the United States was a powder keg, and for the Black community, the mood was one of profound, cruel irony.

While the government was drafting young Black men to fight for democracy 8,000 miles away in Southeast Asia, those same men were returning home to find they couldn't even get a job or an apartment without facing systemic walls.

The Black man been going over away in foreign countries fighting for wars ever since I can remember. And even before your time or mine, the Black man has been sent all over the world fighting for his rights.

And today, there's Wallace and his wife down there forming some kind of thing to keep the Black child out of school.

I agree. In America. I agree with you. Let us clean up here, my darling.

I agree with you. We would live what we preach in the world. We wouldn't have to fight.

I agree with you 100. You understand? I agree with you 100%.

We are fighting for nothing because the white man say you fight, but you pay your taxes. When I get my little envelope, the man got my money. He don't ask me for it, he takes it.

He takes it. I'm a citizen then. That's it.

But if I open my mouth about anything else, I'm a communist, I'm a rabble-riser, I'm stirring up things.

But the same thing that I'm speaking for, for myself, the white man does it and been doing it all of his life.

What do you think of the Black man defending himself with guns in, over in Vietnam, and yet not supposed to use guns here in the States?

You don't, why do you keep on saying that?

He's not supposed to do it, but the white man's telling him to do it.

He's defending himself. He ain't sent there. He ain't sent there.

He's supposed to defend himself. When, when they push him like that, what the hell are you ...

If somebody keep on coming up to you with a damn gun, what are you gonna do?

Yes. Sit back? They teach him to fight and kill over there.

You gonna sit back? And they come here and kill the same- Huh?

... because they're taught to kill. They're taught to kill over there in life.

The hell are you talking ... You keep on talking about why the Black man can't ...

Well, he's supposed to defend his damn self.

Listen, you said to me a Black man is sent over to Vietnam with a gun. What should he do? Isn't a white man sent over there, too?

Right. Well, what the hell would he do? No, I asked you if he should defend himself at home here, too, with a gun.

That's what I asked you. You bet your damn life. If they keep on bucking him.

If they keep on bucking him, yes. Shoot the hell out of them.