I, Amanda Kayfield, live today to tell of a story that will never leave my heart, or my soul! 

     In December, my family and I grabbed our coats from the cubbard (the only place warm) and headed out the door. We knew it was a long journey ahead of us, so we grabbed a few snacks, or "munchies", as my daughter Jena says. "mother, I am cold!" Jena said. I told her I felt the same way but we where doing great things for our country. We where going to protest at the corner of the most famous street in town for African American voting rights. We where going to Lewis Street. I fugured we would be there for a while. I told my four kids to think of warm and nice places. It didn't work for them. They complained for the entire day! But I handled them. We walked to Lewis Street and Bess walked with Lilly who was walking tightly together next to Jena. John Jr., my son, told me that they looked like hudled penguins. I laughed (even though it wasn't really funny.) along the way, I saw a big group of African American women and men carrying signs saying, "we should vote!" and "let us be one" and one of Jena's favorite, "Vote for our vote!"  we joined the mob and started chanting.

    We passed by the Gorve Hospital and the Rotterway Firehouse. They all turned our way and stared at us like we where from different countries. Sometimes I feel like that though. They where all reading our signs and smirking at us like we where crazy! As we where passing the Rotterway Firehouse, I glanced around and noticed that a man was smiling at us and when he saw me looking at him, he gave me thumbs up. I looked at him ugly but I would soon regret it! I thought he was kidding and antagonising us. I kept walking and ignored him. It was shortly there after when we got to Lewis Street. When we got there, I looked all around us and saw the man again. This time he was walking straight towards me and my family. He had a confused look on his face. He came up to us and John, my husband, punched him right in the right eye. The man fell backwards screaming, "What are you doing? I wasn't going to hurt you! Just back off!" John said, "Sorry man, I thought you where going to hurt us!" John helped the man up. He was the only white man in the crowd. He said that he was inspired by us protesting. He said he was involved with the NAACP. He wanted to joing out protest and help us fight for our voting rights. 

    I asked what his name was and he said that his name was Brookes Kolly. We said we shere sorry and asked him if he was really serious about what he said. He said that he swore to God and that was then that I knew he meant it! Jena said that he yelled louder than anyone she had ever heard! He chanted for hours on end never getting any softer, and never stoping for a deep breath. Jena from then on looked up to him. at 1:00 in the morning, we walked home. It was terribly cold and the kids where anxious to get home. In the morning, we all rose at 7:00 and made signs. They where all creative and whise. We again rushed out the door with our coats and jackets and when we got on the porch, we prayed. We prayed to God that no harm would come our way and that he would guid us through the hard times of our life like today. As we where walking along the street, we saw the man again. He was with someone this time though! He explained and introduced us to his wife. The girl standing next to him. Her name was Charlotte. She was a very pretty red head girl who looked young. Maybe in her early 20s. we met and she said that she too worked at the NAACP and did everything she could to help African Americans and their rights.

    It felt like a longer walk the second time and when we got there, we heard tons of people whispering about and saying that two young men were gone. We saw two weaping couples and we weren't trying to be rude, we were just trying to figure out what all this talk was about. The woman sniffling with the glasses said that her son and a couple of his freinds had gone missing! She didn't know where they had gone or how long they would be gone. We told that we where sorry and we prayed yet again. Jena, Lilly, and Bess had bought a scared expression and where wearing them. I told them that the only thing they could do for the couple was to pray that everything would be all right! Little did we know that everyone and everything would certainly not be all right.

    The next week, in the black newspaper, it listed that the police tried to find the young men, but they were not advanced enough to find them. The only people who could possibly find the boys were the white police. But because of segregation, the white police couldn't help. There was no hope for the boys then. For the next weeks we began making the protests an everyday thing, every morning and every night. We kept seeing more and more white people come to the protests and help campaign for infair voteing rights. But on the 6th week, we found out that the police found the bodies on the outskirts of town in the country and had been killed and murdered! Everything from then on had been depressing in our houshold. Even over-excited Lilly was down and gloomy. My children, even John Jr. had been woried! They kept asking questions like, "Is that going to happen to us?" and "If that happened, would you come and find me before I die?" and of course I answered no and then yes, but inside I wasn't making any promises. We did show up to every protest, and there were many white people who saw us going to the protests, so I was begining to worry if it would happen to us!

    More and more people started disapearing so I kept my darlings close. When I desided to make them go to school again, I helped them put on their coats and boots and all of their warm "Fuzzies" as Jena says. Big john walked them to school that day and he didn't come home for quite a while. I went looking for him. I couldn't find him! I almost got sick from worrying. I figured he had gone into work that day. At 2:30, I knew he didn't go to work because his shift ends at 1:00 and his office is a block away, so he walks. No trafic! when the kids got home, I piled them into the car and went looking. I told the kids we were going to pick up daddy. They asked a lot of questions, but I told them not to ask any, so after that, they didn't. We didn't find him so we went home at 8:00 so the kids could do their himework. I told them that dad probably forgot I was picking him up. But I was worried out of my mind. 

    John was't there in the morning so I called the police and they sent out a search imediatly. The policed seemed to take all the time in the world to get to our house, and when they finally got there, the police were eating Bryans Big Donuts! Typical. I ran over to the police car and explianed everything. How we had met the two white  nice man and his wife. I was beginning to trust them less and less. And then I told them the last place I saw him and the last thing he did, and what he was whearing and what he looked like. He said that he would send a search out  ASAP! I spent the rest of the day crying and when the kids got home from school, I quickly got out the knife and a couple of onions to make it look like I wasn't crying, but in fact, I was really crying. It was inevidable that the kids knew it wasn't the onions. It was friday, so on sunday, we went to church and prayed the entire time and if you can guess, we were a very religous family. I was guessing that John was praying for himself too. 

    We didn't see the Brooked and Charlotte Kolly at the protests and I was beging to get suspicious. Too suspicios, because the kids were asking when he would be home and if he would ever be home. I told them that i promised he would come home and I promised that he would be back soon and that we would have a normal life again. 

    On monday, my children went the child devision of there school.(One of the freedom schools) and when I got back from dropping them off, I saw the Brookes and Charlotte walking along the sidewalk. I stopped and told them the bad news and he was devistated. He acted like he had no idea what we were talking about, and after a while, i started to think that. I wasn't too sure. I drove off after we said our goodbies, and I drove home. I sewed all day long thinking about what I sould do about Big John. At the end of the day, I decided to go looking for him myself with the kids because the police had not found anything and i felt gulity just sitting there and not doing anything to help find my own husband. It was a cruel world out there. When the kids got home we went to a freedom summer campaign and we all got inspiration to finding John. The speaker was great. He helped enforce the fact that it is unfair to be treated like the way we were being treated, and if we had lost something or someone(which was us) than we should fight against it and come to the protest and demand equal rights because we too are humans as well, not just white men and women. 

    That weekend, we went to the counrty-side and stayed with my cousin, Jacob. He's a real charm! I always looked up to him for advice and other life lessons. He is and was 10 years older than me so he knew everything, or so I thought. He knew just what to say at the right time, and he was also very wise. Well we stayed with him and the girls instantly fell in love with him. he always made them laugh! He helped us look for John.

    On the first day, we looked in the outskirts of town and we would work our way back to Jacob's house. We didn't find a single clue through the first week and I was begining to miss the protests and the campaigns at Freedom Summer because they gave me hope in succeeding. On the 9th day, Brookes and Charlotte showed up at Jacobs house early in the morning. He said that he had looked at files and other things from the campaigns and protests and he came up with something that might lead them to John. He had found were the first campaign was held and it was an area not far from where so many African Americans had been spotted and killed by the murderers. It might have actually been the spot where they were killed!   

    We dicided that was where they would look tomorw, but Jacob would stay with the Kids and Charlotte while we went. I no longer thought that Brooks and Charlotte had done the crime. They were at the bottom of my list now. I was getting anxious as we were marching quietly throught the bushes and bristles. We came upon and old run down bulding that looked to be occupied. Brookes said, "Jack-Pot" very quietly. We peeked through the crack in the window and there he was!!!! There was my darling John! I felt so sorry for him all tied up like that, and Brookes and I came up with a plan. Then I noticed two other bodies and they looked just as bad as John did. They looked like they would be killed any minute now. I had done something just then that I would regret, but no one was watching. I was so happy that he had found my John, that I kissed him right on the lips! I don't know what came over me!, but I did it, and he looked just as surprised as i did. I explainded that it was just to say thank you, and in a wierd way, he said OK. He didn't know what to think. But he was going to take his gun and shoot both of the goons, while I stayed hidden. He said that his dad was a mighty fine shooter and so was he. I was trusting him. Once he shot them, I would go and untie the three men. The plan went into motion and my heart started beating faster than a cheetah hunting a baby gazel after the cheetah had not eaten for three days!!!!  I was releived! Brookes was a good shooter!!!! A mighty fine one at that! He got both of them square in the head and both fell to the ground in a very dramatic way. I was glacing at the killers and untying John. Once he was untied he gave me the biggest and strongest hug he had ever given me. I felt safe. but he should be the one who felt safe.

    We scrammbled put of the place and ran all the way to Jacobs house. We had a big family reunion when the four little ones reunited with there daddy, and the next day we headed on home. When we got there, we told the police officers the whole story and they asured us it would never happen again. We held the biggest march through town ever in my life an everyone saw us. We went to the Myor and said that the violence had got to stop! We told him about John and asked him if that was how he wanted our community to live! We asked hime if he wanted life to drag on like that, and on that day, a very special speaker came and had a long talk privatly with Mr. Mayor. We don't know what he said and will never know, but he said something that got through to the mayor! He called up The President and requested the idea of equal voitng rights...

    and six weeks later, we had equal voting rights! All that we had done in Freedom Summer had gotten through to the government and we had accomplished our goal!!! We had gained equal voting rights and never again was my family ever threatented because we were protesting!  That doesn't mean that the violence stopped completley, but violence from not having equal voting rights had stopped for our lifetime and many more lifetimes. I do not know what is to come in the future, but there will always be a solution to obsticals that we face, and we can defeat those obsticales if we work hard, stick with it, and have HOPE!

    And that is the story of me, Amanda Kayfield.