FEMALE_1: The following program is a West Tennessee PBS special presentation made possible through the generous financial support of viewers like you.

Please visit westtnpbs.org and make a donation today so that we can continue to make local programs like this possible.

Thank you.

Peter Noll: She was an example of determination and drive.

Those words were spoken by Jackson Mayor Scott Conger about Shirlene Mercer who passed away this past summer.

Hello, I'm Peter Noll.

Today we're looking back to West Tennessee PBS's interview with Shirlene Mercer done in 2013.

Let the conversation begin.

FEMALE_2: That's so cool.

MALE_1: Then that's when I said that.

FEMALE_3: The problem with that idea is.

MALE_2: Wow, that was amazing.

FEMALE_2: Then I came up with a solution.

MALE_2: What was that about?

MALE_3: Here's what I think about it.

Now we're talking.

MALE_4: West Tennessee PBS presents Tennessee is Talking.

Let the conversation begin.

Peter Noll: Today's Tennessee Is Talking looks back to a special show WLJT did in 2013 with Shirlene Mercer, who died this past summer.

Tyler Hawks hosted this program.

Tyler Hawks: The month of August marks the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights event known as the March on Washington.

Mrs. Shirlene Mercer joins us on newsmakers today to talk about the famous I Have a Dream speech from Martin Luther King Jr., our present condition here in West Tennessee regarding civil rights, and what she hopes for the future of West Tennessee and this country.

Thank you so much for being here, Mrs. Mercer.

It's been a while since I've seen you.

Shirlene Mercer: Yes, it has been a while.

Tyler Hawks: Yes, ma'am.

I know you've been hard at work.

When did you really get started in being a civic leader the way that you've been?

Shirlene Mercer: Well, I became sort of an activist, as I like to be described, probably in the mid '50s when I was in college, I went to Lane College, and that's when the movement started probably in the late '50s, early '60s, and I became involved at that time.

Tyler Hawks: The I Have a Dream speech was on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, very far away from West Tennessee.

Did it seem like he was talking about changes that could ever, in your lifetime, come here to West Tennessee?

Shirlene Mercer: Well, one of the reasons why I was interested in the march on Washington, I didn't get a chance to go.

I got as far as Chicago.

I didn't get a chance to go to Washington DC, but one of my reasons for being interested was because of the fact that we knew it was coming; it will eventually get to Jackson.

At that time, some of the movement had began in Nashville and Atlanta, Georgia, which we did have an opportunity to go and I knew it would eventually come to Jackson.

Tyler Hawks: Did you see it on TV, the speech, or hear it on radio?

How did you become aware of it?

Shirlene Mercer: Saw it on TV.

Tyler Hawks: It was live on live TV?

Shirlene Mercer: Yeah, live on TV.

Tyler Hawks: People thought that it was going to be some type of violent event.

They thought there was going to be an outburst, but that didn't seem to happen.

There were about 6,000 police officers, 2,000 National Guards.

What did they think was going to happen?

Shirlene Mercer: Well, it wasn't very popular during that time to see a bunch of African Americans gathered in any form.

When it did happen, they knew that Dr. King was going to be able to attract a lot of people.

When it did happen, they were somewhat concerned about it is going to be an explosion of any kind.

It's going to be an outburst of any kind, and it didn't happen.

But they were just an assumption that they were dealing with, they just assumed that it would be some trouble.

Tyler Hawks: I read that there was a big audio speaker systems, about $20,000 system they used to be the PA system for it, and it was sabotaged the night before.

But amazingly, it was fixed that day for the message to be heard.

Faith-speaking, was at the right time for it exactly for that speech to be heard?

Shirlene Mercer: I would think so.

Tyler Hawks: You watched it on TV.

How did the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speech affect you?

Shirlene Mercer: Well, I had heard his speeches before.

Each time that I heard him talk, I was always impressed with the fact that he could really elaborate well to the public.

Dr. King had this way of doing it.

He could just give a speech.

He could elaborate to the point that he could gather your attention for a good amount of time and he was able to do it that day.

Tyler Hawks: I read that the MC of the program moved him up on the program, brought him on before it was even time for him to speak.

When he did speak, correct me if I'm wrong, he spoke from the script, but then there was a moment where he was just speaking from his heart.

Do you remember that moment when he was just, I Have a Dream?

I don't know if that was scripted or not, but it seemed to just come from his heart.

Shirlene Mercer: I don't really know anything about that particular portion of the speech, but I know that he could do it.

If it was done, he could do it.

He had the ability to talk and he could talk from the script or he could talk straight from his heart.

He had the ability to do that.

Tyler Hawks: Were people afraid of Dr. Martin Luther King?

Not only whites, but African Americans too?

Shirlene Mercer: Well, we were afraid he was going to get hurt.

We were really afraid of that.

I can remember the night when he was killed in Memphis.

I was watching television that night when they came on with a broadcast that said that he had been shot in Memphis.

We looked forward to that happening.

I always thought that he was going to get hurt, and many other people felt the same way.

Eventually, of course, it did happen, but we weren't afraid of him causing any problems, but we were concerned about his safety.

Tyler Hawks: When you look back at history, back after the civil war, you look at history books, amazingly, it says that African American voters actually voted Republican back then.

Then we had this sea of change where it seemed like they started voting democratic.

Am I right about that?

Shirlene Mercer: Yeah, I've heard that too.

Tyler Hawks: Why did it happen, you think?

Shirlene Mercer: Because of Abraham Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln, when he had his infamous speech that he did, and the forwardness that he was pursuing with African Americans caused us to think that possibly his movement in this country and in this world was going to make some changes in government.

Because he was a Republican, a lot of African Americans followed his footsteps too.

Tyler Hawks: When did it turn over to the Democrats, about 90% I guess, of African American voters started voting Democrat.

Shirlene Mercer: I think that happened during the time when African Americans could not see any more progress being made by Republicans.

There was a period in our lives where we couldn't see that we were making any progress with the Republican Party, so we decided to find another friend, and that friend, of course, was the Democratic Party.

Tyler Hawks: I along with my generation and of course, people younger than me, I mean, we're out of touch with 1963.

We don't know what that was like.

What was life for African Americans back in 1963?

Can you take us there?

Shirlene Mercer: I sure can.

I can remember in 1963 there before even in the early '60s, we were faced with segregation of public accommodations.

The water fountains and lunch counters and all of these places were segregated by race.

I can remember here in Jackson, I could go to Woodworth's downtown and order a hamburger from the restaurant, that part of Woodworth's, but I couldn't sit down at the lunch counter.

Now, I know you're frowning because they don't make no sense to you.

It didn't make any sense to me then either, but we couldn't sit down and enjoy a meal like everybody else.

We had to stand up and order it.

Then once you ordered it, you'd have to leave with it.

Shirlene Mercer: The city buses in Jackson, it was so silly to me to get on the bus, pay you $0.15 or whatever it cost at that time, get on the bus and go all the way to the back to sit down.

You couldn't sit down in the front of the bus.

Now, I guess you're saying to me, Mr. Hawks, that what sense does that make for anybody to pay their money and then walk all the way to the back of the bus to ride the bus?

It didn't make any sense at all.

We've made so much progress, in my opinion.

We've made so much progress until it's just phenomenal that we're living such a better life now.

Tyler Hawks: Would you ever think back in about the '50s or the '60s someday there's going to be a black president?

Did you ever think that?

Shirlene Mercer: I didn't think Shirlene Mercer: I'd ever lived to see it.

Shirlene Mercer: I really didn't.

I thought maybe we would have a black president, but I didn't think I would live to see it.

The night when he won the election, I lay down on the floor and cried because I was so moved by what had happened in my lifetime that we'd gone from the segregation of public accommodations all the way to a black president, and that to me is a movement.

Tyler Hawks: What about schools became segregated, did that help mend the fence between blacks and whites in any way you think?

Shirlene Mercer: I can remember that also.

Brenda Monroe Moses integrated the schools here in Jackson.

She went to Jackson High School and she would always talk to us and tell us about how she was treated when she went over there, and she said that nobody would sit at the table with her in the cafeteria, she wasn't welcome to sit at a library table with other kids and all and how she was treated.

I said to myself, well, hell, I wouldn't go to that school and they do me like that, I'd rather go to Mary High, which I did do and graduated from Mary High School.

Tyler Hawks: Well, now it seems that you have risen to all of your aspirations.

It seems like your resume is not only impressive, but you've held high positions that have influenced a lot of people.

How did you do that during some very tough times for African Americans in the South?

Shirlene Mercer: Well, one of the jobs that I have held in my life, and I haven't held but two, but one of the jobs that I've held has been with the United States Congressman John Tanner.

Tyler Hawks: Yes, ma'am.

Shirlene Mercer: I will never forget that when he asked me to come to work for him after the election was over, I said to him, John, why do you want me to come and work for you?

He said, his father thought that I would be a good person.

He said his daddy knew about your history and what all you had done and what all you've been through and he thought that you'd be a good person to work for me.

I said, yeah, but there are other people who don't like my history.

He said, well, they just have to live with it and I worked for Congressman Tanner for 20 years.

Tyler Hawks: There were a lot of challenges during that time?

Shirlene Mercer: Lots of them.

Tyler Hawks: It was a time for things to get done, I guess, through a congressman.

That's your connection to Washington.

Shirlene Mercer: Yeah.

I got to tell you something to you before you go to the next part.

There's something in my resume that most people don't quite understand, and that is, I was a public school teacher.

I taught school for 24 years and I taught school in Bolivar, Tennessee, which is not my hometown, but I had to teach in Bolivar because I couldn't get hired in Jackson.

Now, you got to know why I couldn't get hired in Jackson.

It was because of all that stuff I did back in the 1960s when we were having sit-ins and the integration of buses and lunch counters and so forth.

I was extremely active in that part of the Civil Rights Movement.

As a matter of fact, I can remember going to jail every day for one week.

One solid week, I was in jail, and I never will forget the judge asked me, he said, young lady, how many times have you been in my court this week?

I said, I don't know, sir.

He said, I know.

He said, you've been here every day and I don't expect to see you back anymore.

I said, I won't be back until tomorrow and he laughed and he said, well, if you do, I'm going to take care of you.

I was never able to do what I really wanted to do, and that was to teach school in the Jackson Madison County System.

Never I was able to do that.

I always said it was because of the fact that I was so active doing that during the Civil Rights movement.

As a matter of fact, I know that was the reason, but I have moved my life away from that part of my day and I'm just going on about my business.

Tyler Hawks: Yes, ma'am.

As we say, getting things done definitely here in Jackson and Madison County, and people know you all over the Southeast area here, it seems like the United States, but that's what happens when you definitely get things done and also work for a congressman, that's very good exposure.

I'm sure you had a lot of challenges and so many situations that people needed help with.

If you could do one thing to make things better between whites and blacks, what do you think that would be?

Shirlene Mercer: I went to an event Sunday evening, down at the fairgrounds, where we had the US Attorney, who is an African American, who is over this particular district.

He was here to talk about crime and what we need to do.

I guess one of the things that I want to focus on because I was very active in the late '90s and with the crime marches, as we call it in Jackson, where every Friday evening we would take to the streets, a bunch of us would and just go and march in a particular neighborhood where there has been a lot of crime.

If there was something that I could do to bond the feelings between African Americans and whites, I guess I would say you all need to sit down and look at each other and tell the only difference between the two of you is your skin color, and that's all because you got the same problem.

I think a lot of people don't believe we do.

They don't think that we do have the same problem.

I could tell that because of the fact that our schools are still almost as segregated as they once were.

It's just a shame that we have not grown to the fact that we don't believe.

We can't see that there's not a dime's worth of difference between us other than that little skin color.

That's all.

We just need to think a little clearer about it, in my opinion.

Tyler Hawks: It's probably very difficult for someone who's white to realize what the life of a black person looks like, their perspective.

What are some of the things that white people are missing through their own eyes that they just can't see the difficulties of African Americans?

Shirlene Mercer: Well, that's because they still are looking beyond the skin color.

They stop at the skin color.

They are not paying any attention to the reasons why we're here.

How the Lord has created us, and what he's got us here on this Earth to do.

They think that they are here to do something different for me, and we're not, we're here to do the same thing.

It's just almost shameful that people can't see that.

I've been to white churches, and I've been to black churches, and they all are talking to the same master, I believe.

If we are, then we need to know better.

We say that we have been born again and that we know the Lord.

If we do, we need to do better than what we're doing.

Tyler Hawks: Of course.

That famous phrase, thank God Almighty, I'll be free at last.

Taking that from a song, I believe, is that?

Shirlene Mercer: Yeah.

Tyler Hawks: That may have been part of his speech that he did extemporaneously from his heart, that was something that came to him.

Do you think it's important for white children and black children to go back in history to the Civil War and post-Civil War times?

The end of slavery and learn about that.

Is that important, you think for them to know that that's part of their history?

Shirlene Mercer: It's always good to go back and study any portions of the Bible.

My father is a Baptist minister.

I have grown up in the Baptist church all of my life, and I have only known for the teachers of the Baptist church.

I have decided that if I'm going to live and do the right thing, I'm going to have to be taught the right things.

I believe I have been taught the right things, and I'm going to try to live and do the right things for the rest of my life.

Tyler Hawks: You talked a little bit about crime in Jackson and West Tennessee.

What other problems do you think plague a community like Jackson?

Shirlene Mercer: Well, I think Jackson has been an example for these other rural West Tennessee counties.

But Jackson still has a long way to go.

We have two forms of government here that I'm really concerned about.

One is the County Commission, and the other is the City Council, and I'm really concerned about both of them.

It seems like that we still are wobbly when it comes down to getting things done and working together in order to get things done.

It's just seem like we still a little wobbly when it comes to that.

Tyler Hawks: Well, I know after 20 years of working for Congressman Tanner, are you now still an activist?

Shirlene Mercer: Are you kidding?

I am retired.

I am watching television every day, and I'm a professional CNN watcher.

Tyler Hawks: Okay.

Shirlene Mercer: That's all I do is sit at home.

I got a recliner.

My husband bought me a recliner.

I sit in that recliner all day long, basically, and watch CNN and any other N that comes on television.

I don't do anything else.

I have retired.

Tyler Hawks: You have retired?

Shirlene Mercer: I don't do anything now.

Tyler Hawks: I know you have some children.

Shirlene Mercer: Yes, I do.

Tyler Hawks: You've done a wonderful job with them.

I've known them since we were just kids trying to get through school.

Well, Shirlene Mercer, in the present and in the future, when West Tennesseans and people in this part of the country talk about an activist, a civil rights movement pro, someone who cares, and someone who gets things done.

We will always talk about Shirlene Mercer.

You're a legend in this area, and we appreciate you coming by so much and talking to us.

I really appreciate your time.

Shirlene Mercer: Thank you.

Peter Noll: Well, that's our time for this edition of Tennessee is Talking.

Remember, you can stream today's program and all local Channel 11 programs on our app, the PBS app, the West Tennessee PBS YouTube channel, and on our website, westtnpbs.org.

I'm Peter Noll.

Until our next conversation, take care, and thank you for watching West Tennessee PBS' Tennessee is Talking.

MALE_5: Do you have a topic you'd like to see discussed on a future episode of Tennessee is Talking?

Maybe you want to be a guest and have something to talk about.

Send your ideas to TNisTalking@WestTNPBS.org.

Include all your contact information, and let the conversation continue.

FEMALE_4: The program you've been watching was made possible through the generous financial support of West Tennessee PBS viewers like you.

Please visit westtnpbs.org and make a donation today so that we can continue to make local programs like this possible.

Thank you.

FEMALE_5: It's all about home.