The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011)

Mable Carmichael: Self

Quotes 

• Stokely Carmichael : Mrs. Carmichael, when you came to the United States with your children, where did you live?

  Mable Carmichael : We lived at Stebbins Avenue for a while.

  Stokely Carmichael : What kind of neighborhood was it?

  Mable Carmichael : It was kind of a mixed neighborhood, but a little on the rundown side.

  Stokely Carmichael : What do you mean by 'the rundown side'?

  Mable Carmichael : Streets were dirty, garbage pails all thrown around and not covered; and things like that.

  Stokely Carmichael : How big was the place you lived in?

  Mable Carmichael : We had a three room apartment there.

  Stokely Carmichael : And how many people lived there?

  Mable Carmichael : When my kids moved to the United States, we were still living there, my husband and I; so that made five children, because I had to there.The five that came with their aunt, my husband and I.

  Stokely Carmichael : How many is that all together?

  Mable Carmichael : Five and three. Eight.

  Stokely Carmichael : How was life in general for you children? I mean, could they do other things most children in the United States could do? I mean, did they have enough money to do those things?

  Mable Carmichael : No, we didn't.

  Stokely Carmichael : Why didn't they?

  Mable Carmichael : Because my husband didn't make enough money.

  Stokely Carmichael : Why didn't he make enough money?

  Mable Carmichael : He was a carpenter and he worked two weeks in, four weeks off. He drove a taxi cab part of the time...

  Stokely Carmichael : But there were other carpenters who lived better than your husband.

  Mable Carmichael : Of course.

  Stokely Carmichael : Why didn't your husband?

  Mable Carmichael : Because he was laid off. He was always the first to be laid off.

  Stokely Carmichael : Why was he always the first to be laid off?

  Mable Carmichael : Because he was negro. He always said, because he was a colored man. Because, naturally, in Trinidad, we used the word colored. We never used the word negro. So, he always said, because he was a colored man.

  Stokely Carmichael : Thank you.

• Mable Carmichael : Let's see, I think Stokley was a sophomore in college when he went down to Mississippi. I stuck by the phone and by the radio, all day trying to hear what happened. And... when I heard they picked up four of them, I knew one was Stokley. I think I died a thousand times.

  [laughs] 

  Mable Carmichael : It was the first time he had been to jail. Every time he goes, I die a thousand times.