Doris Crenshaw: From Rosa Parks' Youth Council the White House

Hello, hello. It's the acoustics, it's not you. It's the acoustics. Okay, so when I was 12 years old, I think it was my grandmother that Mrs. Parks talked to about me joining the Youth Council of the NAACP. And Bernice King said, well, why did Mrs. Parks ask your grandmother? I said, because my grandmother's brother worked with E.D. Nixon. Y'all ever heard of him? Went to brotherhood with E.D. And Mrs. Parks was very close to him. And being in this city, my sister and I were part of everything. I think my mother was happy to have us out of the house because every organization, everything that came by, every church, everything, we were part of it. And so they said yes. And I tell people, and next time you come, I may get the opportunity to take you by Mrs. Parks' apartment. I did some filming there this year. But anyway, I got to be, come, the vice president of the NAACP at 12. So they said, well, how did you do that? Well, when you go to Mrs. Parks' apartment, you will be clear. There were 12 people in the room. It was an over-full crowd. So we did a rotating of the offices, and so I got that opportunity to serve.

Are you all, am I all right with everybody? Okay. I don't do this often. You all are very special. And you are very special. I read about you starting in 1995 with 11 people. And I said, mm, they're kind of like Jesus. He didn't have but 12. Then I asked them, I said, well, how many people are in this church? They said, oh, about 35,000. I said, oh, they're about to catch up with Jesus. But thank you all for coming, and thank you for all the work that you do. Because I tell everybody today, we were then, but you are now. And you represent now what we did then. It was the churches and the what? The young people. I'm not sure about what I said to you all last year that you wanted me back this year. But I'd like to talk to you. I don't give speeches. I just kind of talk to people. And I'd kind of like to talk to you about what you want to talk about, if I may. Is that okay? But I'm telling my story again. Working with Mrs. Parks, and I was on the campus of Alabama State University as a student in high school. And we were part of the students that they gave the leaflets to announce the Montgomery bus boycott. So naturally, we attended the first mass meeting. And after attending the first mass meeting, we went to the second mass meeting. And on and on and on. And because of who we were, every movement that sort of came through Montgomery, my sister and I and our little posse were part of it. And I say today, I founded an organization, the Southern Youth Leadership Development Institute.

And I'll send you all some information on that. With students 12 to 18 years old. And I said, if we are going to do anything in this nation today, we're going to have to set these young people on fire. Young people my age, tired. And can I say what they say on the street? Scared. They're scared. But we know that this church, Crossroads, we are not afraid. And we're going to tackle these issues as they come before us. And you in Ohio, Lord, Lord. Lord, Lord, we need Crossroads in Ohio. But we need Crossroads all over this world. And if the truth be told, if any change happens in the world, it happens because of young people. And most of the time, young women. Don't get excited. I know you do important things. I'm not talking about you. I'm talking about them over there. But we're in a very serious time in this world, and I can talk to y'all all night about us then. Do y'all want to hear about us then? Well, we were scared, but we were determined. We knew that we had to fight for this thing we call freedom. And it was an oppressive time. It was in that time that we heard about Emmett Till. And in Montgomery, there was a young man named Jeremiah Reed, that you don't hear about, who was accused of raping this white lady. And she would summon him to her house regularly and her neighbors got suspicious. And she said, what? Rape. So he was executed in Montgomery. So around that time, and I want you to know also that in this place, I need to sit down, y'all, because my back hurts. And I'm old. But at that time, a lot of women in Montgomery were arrested for refusing to give up their seats on the bus. And that's what's why an organization called the Women's Political Council was formed by a lady named Mary Faye Burke. But anyway, I'm not a great history teacher, but at any rate, it was brewing in the town. Because also, a lot of times when the women were arrested, rather than taking them to jail, they took them off and raped them. So those were stories that we heard all of the time around the table.

And so most folk around here wanted to fight for freedom. And then the bus was a means of transportation because in 1955, not that many black people in town even had a car. They're mostly the doctors, the lawyers, and the Indian chiefs. But we rode the buses, and we were fortunate because we did not have to give up our seats because of the route that we rode. But we heard many, many, many, many, many, many, many stories. And so I'm getting a little off, and y'all bring me back. Don't feel ashamed to stand up and say, look, you went over that way. Come on back over here with me. We heard all the time the stories. And in our churches and at our schools, the ministers and the teachers encouraged the fight for freedom and to stand up for your rights. And so that's why we were mostly a part of this. So after the Montgomery bus boycott, Mrs. Parks suggested that my sister and I and six of us attended the Highlander Folk School. And then we got invited. I think I must have been in the ninth grade by this time. And so we got engaged with voter registration and voter education. And I think today one of the things we need to get back to is voter education. A lot of people don't understand why they vote. We say vote, vote. You got to vote. We had to vote. But they don't understand the difference between the city council person and the state representative. So we had they called them in Mississippi Freedom Schools. But we had voter education programs where young people talk to old people about the necessity for them to get out and to register to vote. And we would go to their houses after we talked to them on voting day to see if they had actually gone down to register to vote. That's a little difficult today because we are not allowed to walk up and down some of these streets, right? Is that true in Cincinnati? So we do a lot of what they call social media. And so we. We have done a lot, I think. And I am very grateful for the young people, especially in this past election, that turned out that young vote, and the Hispanic vote, and the people of good conscience,

and what the other side of the pond calls them do-gooders, who support what is right. And that's all we're doing, is we're working for what is right, and what is just, and what does say the Bible that we read. Is that correct? Let me know when I get off course now. Keep it focused. Keep it focused. All right. So we started doing voter education. And that became a passion of mine, and it was a passion of Mrs. Fox, because her husband never had the opportunity to register to vote in Alabama. After her third time, she was able to register to vote. So she had a passion about our people, and getting them ready to vote, and to get them out to vote. Mrs. Fox loved children, young people. And let me tell you something, she loved Mr. Fox, OK? Can you keep that, ladies? Love your husbands. Husbands, love your wives. Love each other. And Dr. King talked love, but love, and what we're doing when we work on behalf of our people, is what the Bible tells us to love. Is that correct? You know, I go to church every other Sunday, so sometimes I miss.

But I learned that love is an important ingredient in all that we do. Is that right? I just want you all to keep me focused. Am I doing all right? All right, so we're rolling right along, rolling right along. So I left and went to college. And oh, oh, before I went to college, the students at Alabama State had a lot of sit-in movement. And so we turned our school out to march with the students from Alabama State. So it was in our blood. I mean, we were right there. We, I mean, couldn't tell us that. Anytime they said something that smelled like freedom, we were there, OK? So we got involved with them, and so on, so on. So when the Freedom Riders arrived in Montgomery, they called us. They were beating them up down there at the Grand Bus. Are you all going to the Freedom Riders Museum? It's tomorrow during free time, if people want to go, they can go tomorrow. OK. OK. And you can pitch for it right now. OK. Go. Go.

Go. Go. Go. They told me I'd have it 30 minutes, so I go. So then we went down to meet the Freedom Riders and take them out of harm's way. And we were riding them around town, and we learned that they were having, we went to visit this young man from Nashville, I think. His name was William Barbee. They don't talk about him, but they beat that man's ear off. And we're like, isn't that horrible? Lord, Lord. But at any rate, we got friends with William Barbee. But another lady there named Ruby Doris Smith, who was the executive secretary, and a lot of the SNCC people. And so we were into this thing called freedom, and it ain't shown off. You know what I mean? It was all the way up to here. We had been drinking the beer of freedom, but we had moved to the strong alcohol by that time. Anyway, so I went to school at a historically black college called Southern University in Baton Rouge. Hey. All right. Well, they put me out of there. They got me spammed. But we love them, the Jaguars. We love them.

Yeah, so they had a movement going on down there, started by CORE. We'd been working with the Montgomery Improvement Association and the student movement. And so CORE had this little thing going on down there. So I had to go become part of that, OK? So I went down there. We marched to the jail, because they had some of our students in jail. And they told us, they said, well, if they throw tear gas at any of this stuff, just close your eyes and keep singing. So my roommate and I, we just closed our eyes, and we sang our little hearts out. And they would throw tear gas at us. And we would sing our little hearts out. And we would sing our little hearts out. on tear gas and then we kept singing. And we would sing our little hearts out. And we would sing our little hearts out. Finally we opened our eyes. We were only two standing, I'm not saying anything. So we ran up the hill and I fell and I got tear gas so they knew that I was part of that and we got a letter saying if we got a letter to come back, come back, otherwise don't come. I did not receive a letter, but I did receive a visit from my father who lived in Atlanta. He came and told my mother, he said,

you know, I'm taking her to Atlanta with me and she's not gonna be a part of that mess. My mama said, okay. So I went over to Atlanta, got in the car, he sent me to the Atlanta School of Business to be a secretary. I didn't want to be no dead blasted secretary. So I hopped up the street to Spelman where all of my friends were over at Spelman. So I said, well let me go over here to this school right here. So I went over there to Clark and I was graduated from Clark, thank you very much, Southern Clark, Atlanta, okay. So I went to Clark and there was something in that center, it was called the Atlanta University Center then, which was comprised of the Morehouse, oh, let me start first, Clark, Spelman, Morehouse, Morris Brown, and Atlanta University and the Interdenominational Theological Seminary. So all students from that were all kind of part of this thing that we now call the movement. So I wasn't gonna miss out on that, okay. So I signed up, I became a deputy registrar. I went down, did a little sit-in, did this, that, and that, trick-a-trick-a-done, back home. I think I must have been about 40 years old when my daddy found out that I was a secretary. I don't know.

I became a deputy registrar, I was on the employ of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and in that vein I went to Chicago with Dr. King on the open housing movement stuff. And so then I moved on, a lady named Dorothy, hi, y'all ever heard of the National Council of Negro Women, okay, I was part of her first professional staff, that was in 1967, okay. So then we moved on from that, we became, on and on, in some kind of way I got involved in this thing called politics. I didn't like it, okay. Then I was working down here with the farmers. We were trying to get a fair wage for the farmers and their food and cooperatives and this, that, and the other and a little farmer came to town, named what? Farmer, famous farmer. Jimmy Carter. And I went to hear him speak and he was kind of like me, he sat in a chair, turned the chair around, rolled up his sleeve and started talking. So I told my friend that took me and said, you know he's gonna be president. Nah, Humphrey, Humphrey, Humphrey, Humphrey. I said, no, he gonna be president. Nah, girl, you don't know what you're talking about. So I was the one in the room that asked all the questions, and everybody else got a chance to ask a question. I asked all the questions. So he said, who is she?

And asked me to put 50 people in the room and I put 150 in the room. So he said, bring her on with us. And so then I got a chance to work in the Carter White House and it's been, I just want to tell y'all that because she told me, she said I woke up one morning and was born and then y'all met me here. So, I'm like, ah, Lord Jesus. So, but, oh, it's a long story. So I cut it a little short because we don't have but 30 minutes. But I want you to say, I want to say that we're in a very serious time. And we have to take each day very seriously. And I want you to know that as a man, I'm not gonna call his name, but he just don't like the way we govern. And especially when it applies to him. And so we have to make sure, from my perspective now, I don't know what y'all think, but I'm asking you to please come on my side. Because we don't need that. We don't need that. Now, with that, I think I will take some questions, and I hope I didn't shortchange you. And I'm here, I mean, so any questions you want to ask, ask.

Turn it over to them. Turn it over to you. Yes, sir? Pastor? Doesn't have a far link. Thank you, Ms. Critchell. OK. Do you need to ask a question to the mic? I'm going to just repeat your question. OK. OK. Yeah, there's not much. Put me in it right next to you. My question is, I would love to hear, we went to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute today, and you lived in situations where you knew going into that day you would probably be met with violence. Say what did he say? He said you would probably be met with violence. Violence, yes, of course. Tear gas. Yes, sir? Talk about what was the role of prayer and faith. Oh, absolutely necessary. One thing that popped into my head when you said that, was we were in Chicago with Dr. King for the open housing movement, and we were in Gage Park. But every time we went, there was always prayer. And they threw everything they could at us.

The police that was supposed to be guarding us went up on the porch and ate watermelon with their cousins, and I mean, they broke the sidewalks up and threw tear gas and everything. But we knew going into Gage Park that we would be met with violence. And so every time we entered a place, we would kneel in prayer. Prayer all the time. I even learned how to say more than our father who art in heaven. It was that serious, and we took it serious. And most of the people in there came from one church or another, or one organization or another. Prayer was essential then, and it is essential now. Did I answer you? Yes, you did. Okay, don't be shy, y'all. Y'all make me think I didn't say nothing if you don't want to ask no questions. I'm going to get my check if y'all are okay. Yes, she will. Come on. Ms. Critchell, what were some of the songs that you associate with that time of struggle in the movement? What are some of the songs? What are some of the songs that you hold dear? Well, mine is, We are soldiers in the heart.

Y'all don't want me to sing. We have to fight. You know? We have to fight. Yeah. We got to hold it up, the blood stained back. Yeah. We got to hold it up until we die. Hey, y'all singing it like you mean it. Now sing it like you don't mean it. Okay, all right. So, songs and prayer. Now I had, let me see, now that was absolutely my favorite one there. And it's one that they call Ella's song that Sweet Honey and the Rocks sing now. You know that song too? We who believe in freedom cannot rest. Come on with it. Now you know if I sing it, you're going to cry. Cannot rest until it comes. Come on. We who believe in freedom cannot rest. Yeah. It's easy. We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes. I think they got it. Those are my two favorites. Yes? Well, there's the part about until other sons,

well, anyway. Yeah. Yeah. He knows it. It's not that hard. Do you want to sing the whole? Come on, Troy. Come on, Troy. Come on, Troy. All right. Let me work on it. I'm trying to think of it. Black mother, son, and wife. Until the freedom is the same. That's what I like about this technology. I can't do it, but somebody around me can. Okay. The killing of black men, black mothers says is as important as the killing of white men, white mothers says. Right. That which touches me most that I have a chance to work with anybody. Good choice, son. We together, man. I knew I liked you for some reason. Could you tell us about your relationship with Mrs. Parks? Relationship? Yes, ma'am. And what you learned from her. Well, I learned to fight for what you believe in. Stand on the courage of your conviction.

That's what I learned. I learned to love yourself and to love our people. Okay? All right, let's go. Y'all want to do another song? Hey, Trinity can sing. Hey, Trinity can sing. What's the song we have our children singing? We are the world. We are the children. But I play so let's start giving. There's a music in. We're saving our own lives. It's true. Amen. I like that one, too. That one back then, that was the 70s or 80s? The 70s. The 80s, okay. But the thing is we're still in this fight. And Coretta Scott King said freedom is never won. It's fought by every generation. Some of us have to fight a little harder than others. And I really do believe. I don't know it, and you can help me with this, but I think our fight is a little harder right now. And I think the social media plays a great role. I don't know how we turn these people, mine around, who listen to Fox News all day long. And the social media of these folks is telling them that we got some babies at a pizza place somewhere doing something crazy. I mean, I don't even know that I would even accept that under any terms. But you don't know why.

But some people are telling me these people feel underserved and underappreciated. And maybe we need to start to walk. Now, we used to do that now. We used to go over to the white people and say, white people, this don't make no sense. And what about if they were doing it to you? And look at me. I breathe like you. And make simple stuff. But the thing that's missing today is communications. We don't talk to each other. We talk even in the house now with people. Talk past each other. We don't sit around the table anymore. We grab something at McDonald's. Y'all don't do that. I know y'all don't. Taco Bells. Chick-fil-A. Now, my kids love Chick-fil-A. We had the Chick-fil-A. But I learned that. But I had the distinct privilege of working with the women leaders in the movement. I worked with Mrs. Parks, Mrs. King, Dorothy Height, Ella Bell, name it. I had that honor for some reason. I was given that privilege of working with them. Now, don't get me wrong now. I worked with some good men, too. I had a chance to work a little bit with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And Jesse Height. I mean Jesse Height.

Jesse Jackson. And some others that I won't go into all that. Any more questions? How did you first meet Rosa Parks? Because you mentioned you were like 12 years old. How did you first meet Mrs. Parks? And you mentioned you were young. So would you go into that a little bit? I first met Mrs. Parks in her apartment. That was taken back then. to an NAACP Youth Council meeting, and that's when I first met her. And we went every Sunday. What would you tell young women today, maybe as encouragement to continue the fight going forward from here? What would I say to young women today? Intimate. I am asking as a young woman, right, or as a mom of a young woman. Oh, then you're critical to the whole situation. As a mother, that's the first heartbeat right there. And you, your women, these are women with children or women, women, women? Women with children. What's your question? Is your question, what do I tell women, period, or women mothers? Maybe both. I'll probably tell them the same thing. I'll take all the wisdom you'll share. I think that have the courage, have courage, and stand firm on your belief. And especially with your children, because your children leave home and people say da, da, da, da, stand firm and teach your child whatever. It used to be when my child was growing up, they said, if we can't talk to our children, well, the pushing man talked to them, the dope people talked to them, the television talked to them, you feeding them, why can't you talk to them? One of our problems stems from the home. A lot of parents, help them, help them, church, afraid of their children. Now, how did that happen? Y'all help me with that. They're afraid of their children. Now, I know some are not in this church right here. I know not that,

but you've heard about some people that have some children with some guns and stuff like that. But see, if they ever put that down, if they ever put that gun down, because you know the old saying, it ain't no fun when the rabbit got the gun. So, you have to find a way to remove it, but I'm convinced, and you know, I'm going to tell you the truth. I really don't know the answers to some of these questions, but all I can do is tell you what I believe. And I think if you believe what you believe hard enough and fast enough, you can do anything you want to do. Let me look at my notes and see what else I want to say to y'all. All right. Okay. Okay. Wrong page. Hold this. Okay. Nothing profound. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Hey, is that? Oh. Okay. I know one thing that I want to say, is I can't thank you enough for being here in Montgomery. Did any of y'all see the brawl that happened out here on the day? Huh? Oh, really? Well, they got it on TikTok. But anyway, I want to thank you for being here, with all sincerity. And more than being here today, is the fact that you came back. That's important. And we want you to keep coming back. And I'm grateful for your church, who's doing the work that you're doing in Cincinnati. Wasn't there a TV show called Cincinnati or something? WKRB. Is that a real thing? Yeah. It was. It was. WKRB in Cincinnati. Okay. They had a song. Now look, don't be shy with me. You know, I tell people, and this is what you need to recognize. And I tell my students. All of us are just a little set of protoplasm. We all have the same thing, just gels, cells, and blood, and hair, and eye, tooth. Every human being has the same thing. It's what you do with what you have. And it's to tell the children, it's not what they call you. It's what you answer to.

Amen? Amen. Are there any other questions? And that was a reference to when they call you communists, because I know they're going to call y'all that. Okay. I just would like to say thanks for your courage at such a young age. I'm trying to think when I was young, what was I thinking? I clearly was not thinking about what I could do in a movement. So thank you for having the courage, and the will, and the desire to make things better for others. Thank you. Okay. Thank you for continuing. Yes, and I'm going to get to it. I meant to bring some information about my organization. We started in 2008, and every year I have a summer enrichment program, and we train young people, 12 to 18, to become leaders. This year, for the first four weeks, and I'll send you all that, they're in a film camp, and they make a movie. They write, produce, direct, hire five people. All of that, and they come up with, I think it's about a 20-minute movie, and they had their movie premiere. They had a little red carpet, and they were so excited about it. So following that, we do four weeks, and each week, one week is about leadership, and developing leadership skills for the whole week. We do health and wellness. We do financial literacy. What else? And civic engagement. Is that four, five, or six? There's another one I may have forgotten, because you all got to remember. What, I'm 80? And so the last week, the last event that they have, we used to take them to Washington, D.C., and this year, I honored the CEO and president of Occidental Oil, Vicki Halep,

and she invited us to come to Houston and be the guest at Occidental Oil, and that was an outstanding event. So they traveled through New Orleans and stopped at historically black colleges, and on into Houston, and we went to Occidental Oil, and they went to the Space Center, the Johnson Space Center, and some of them had a VIP pass, and they got to go through the astronaut training and all. But I know from my perspective, being 80, it was a very worthwhile summer, and we had some awesome kids. We had 25 of them. You cool. Thank you so much for coming and sharing with us today. I wanted to ask, how did being put in those positions of leadership when you were so young help to prepare you for what you were able to take on later? What did that instill within you? I don't know. I never thought about that. I said we in it to win it, and I mean, it just went on through the years, everything. One thing I tell, I've always had a lot of faith. I always believed in that, and I tell everybody, I never applied for a job. It was just, let me tell you all a big secret. I graduated from Clark College at that time with a degree in psychology and sociology. I barely knew how to spell it. Then I went there and I got this job, but I never applied for a job. I don't think I ever used, I might use a little psychology, I don't know, psychology and sociology. But if you, I think if you have a passion for what you do. And I said, and do your job well, then you'll be asked. I tell people that come to me, I say, it's called productivity. It's like with the Jimmy Carter thing, say give me 50 people, I'll give you 150. Productivity. Everywhere I've been, you do more than what you're asked to do. And in your mother, kick it up a little notch, you know. And you look like a proud mother. I mean, you keep smiling over here. And your daughter's a little cold, but she's, is that a daughter?

Yeah, your daughter's a little cold, but she keeps smiling. So once again, it's my pleasure, and I hope that I answered your questions, and I hope you invite me back again.