Theresa Burroughs: I went there for two years
with a minister named Reverend J.J. Simmons.
The white men, they would not let us register to vote...
Maya: The first time I heard Theresa's story,
she has such an immediately commanding presence.
- TB: And I told him, "You don't know how many jelly beans--"
He told me to shut my black mouth.
- And she's also just such a visual storyteller.
You can see the scenes kind of unfolding,
as she's telling them.
- Mike: Every year we sit down with StoryCorps,
and we're looking for stories
that are gonna translate well to animation.
- Tim: Up and to that point, all we have to work with are
photographs and the audio.
- So when we animate it, it becomes even more important
to meet that person face-to-face
and get that more full impression of who they are.
*
- We're now just a few miles outside of Greensboro.
- We're going to meet the participants.
Depending on the story, and a lot of these are pretty serious,
it can be a little intimidating
-It looks like that might be. - Yup.
- She seems like an incredibly strong-willed woman, Theresa.
She runs her own museum in a small town in Alabama.
- Hello, Mrs. Burroughs. - Hello Miss Burroughs.
(excited laughter)
- TB: Hi! - So nice to meet you.
- TB: Nice to meet you.
- In a certain way, the goal is to get
more than we possibly could need.
- TB: I'm right under here. I'm right down here.
- The idea of the sign to say that this is my age, so I am of age to vote, right?
- TB: They wanted the world to see how they could beat black people.
- Beyond just sort of what things looked like,
the other kind of thing we need to be thinking about is
what did it feel like to her?
Because, we have the power and animation
to not just do things in a literal way.
- TB: I was just so tired of standing.
And so, I leaned back against the wall.
And, Mr. Cox had a fit.
This hand that was out like this, and balled into a fist.
And, he drew back.
- Talking to her today, it feeds our understanding
of just how courageous and confident she was.
- TB: I didn't know water was so powerful.
And they just, just, just beat us down with the water.
- You know, you can always design a cartoon character.
All you need is a couple eyes, and a nose and a mouth,
but when you get a chance to take a trip like this,
you find out so much more about the person
than just what you have heard in the audio.
And, things like that that make the characters
when we finally do the animation, hopefully feel more real.
- You're going to stay looking that way.
It's gonna be a profile.
- In some sense I feel like we're making these cartoons for,
you know, an audience of one or two,
and that's the people who told them.
'Cause you know if he went to that...
- We really want the storytellers to feel like
what we get in them is, is like a memory,
that we have recreated this memory for them.
- All of that feeds into your motivation to bring it to life.
- TB: Then he gave me my slip, that I was a registered voter.
We did vote in the next election.
It was a joy, but the thing about it is...
I didn't feel it should have been this hard.
I knew, I knew bad news shouldn't have been this hard.
*