Equal Ground [Program 3]

Join David Freudberg for a stirring, wrenching, and remarkable tale of human endurance, spirit, and strength. Travel back to the era of civil rights in Mississippi as Mae Bertha Carter, a former sharecropper and mother of 13 children, describes her struggle to have her daughters schooled with white children. This inspiring woman fended off gunshots, harassment, and unrelenting hostility to ensure her children would not be sharecroppers and, amazingly, not grow to hate those who opposed them. Her daughters talk emotionally about how they survived daily torment to become successful professionals, the lessons instilled by their parents that still guide them today, and what it meant to play such a significant, but unknowing role in the changing of a country. Humankind also talks to a white classmate of the Carters and to Connie Curry, the author of a book about Mae Bertha "Silver Rights." Family, fortitude, and the will of the soul...this is an unforgettable half-hour.