First Hand History

"That is why we did what we did."

"Right now, my license expired. I can’t get a license. Each time I drive to somewheres, I fear that a police will stop me [and] take me to jail just because I don't have a license, nor valid documents."

"You see, there never was segregation in Mexico as far as black and white was concerned, however there was segregation as far as poor and wealthy."

"It was unfair that people who could afford to go to college could avoid the draft while people without enough money couldn’t."

"I like to think that I am a part of making sure people are aware of what their rights are and... a part of making sure that the kinds of things I experienced when I was younger in the ‘70s and ‘80s aren’t a part of the time that we are living in today."

"When I think of the term ‘social justice,’ I think of a societal belief in fairness."

"…Though the Japanese have left, I still have many wonderful memories from that time [the time period under Japanese colonial rule in Taiwan], and I will never forget them."

"We had the right to not be killed, and that was it... "

"The fence is absolutely devastating to border communities."

"Not that I’m less of a person, but that the world views me as less of a person, and that feels, to some degree, disenfranchised, not as relevant to the human race. "

"No-one has slushied me."

"On September 1, 1939, the Russians walked into our city."

"It was a sort of spiritual victory just to be accepted into their cause, and to help earn them rights they should have had before."

"Discrimination really is, to me, about a lack of power. Not just politically or legislatively and government, but it is that feeling that an individual has that they don’t have as much power as others to affect change and to make their life or their family’s life better."

"It had a very deep impact on me and made me angrier and more determined to do whatever I could to work for and support the civil rights movement."

"If you're determined and you want to do something, you can do it."

"I’m giving an older lady a seat -- my seat -- as I was taught to do."

"As a citizen of Texas, I feel that Texas itself is doing poorly in terms of making gay people equal to all other people, and trans people equal to all others."

"When I help people, I feel so blessed, lucky and joyful, because I am not the one in need of help, i am the one helping them."

"And some of the things that Richard Nixon was saying about the war were untrue, and I knew for a fact they were untrue."

"Side by side, they [whites and blacks] integrated for the freedom of our country…"

"TIME magazine, in 2003, named the 80 people who had changed the world. Of those, 10 were women. I was one, Rosa Parks was one—if you think about what she did, she refused to give up her seat on the bus. So, there are a lot of things you wouldn’t think of as being a real asset to social justice—hers was right time, right place, her age, the awareness that already been established of some of the problems."

"The schools that I went to only white kids could attend them… I had a lot of Hispanic friends as well as African-American friends."

"...they had to give you respect because it was the law, plus you earned it. "

"In Mexico, that problem is very big, because the people see you as a different person."

"I have always believed that people are created equally…"

"If I had lived in the North, I might have had a different experience."

"Apartheid is a source of shame for many, many South Africans, and it was a source of shame for me as well."

"I knew exactly what I thought, and there wasn’t anything that could have unconvinced me."

"When I was growing up, I never had a white friend or knew any white people."

"I taught in Rockdale for 41 years."

"That’s just the way it was. "

"I went to a segregated school when I was younger, we didn’t have any blacks in the town."

"Igbos have been stigmatized and marginalized. The big social injustice is that to this day, Igbo people are not properly characterized -- only as troublemakers, based off of ethnicity."

"When you would play in the street, you would see lots of soldiers and tanks and a lot of people exchanging money."

"Learning how to transform stress into energy makes it a powerful motivator."

"That meanness has such a big impact that has lasted my whole life."

"The Vietnam War caused tremendous tension at home, within families, within communities, far, far more than you can imagine or that is going on now in the current unfortunate military enterprise."

"Turn the other cheek."

"I assumed that everyone, when they went to a restaurant, they always ordered water and the cheapest thing off the menu; they didn’t order what they want."

"I would always question that."

"I’m African-American, so I grew up in a family that has a history of understanding the discrimination based on race, and so I think it was more than just my faith, I think it was more of the history of my family in fighting injustice."

"They left in 1960, originally in hopes to come back very soon, but that never occurred."

"GI is a term that means General Issue. The equipment in the military was general issue so a soldier was also General Issue."

"I was different, and I felt different about different people..."

"I think there is unfortunately something about human nature that we feel safest when we are with people that are like us... and it’s just harder to make room for people that are different."

"You could hurt a man more by taking his girlfriend away from him than by shooting him or hitting him with a bat."

"I call myself a survivor, and no one can take that away from me."

"We're still working on it, people’s ignorance. We'll get there one day."

"The Baha’i faith is considered a heresy by the current Iranian government. "

"So, what used to be good about being a mother, seemed to everyone to be outdated and out of step with women’s freedom. I felt like life really became upside down..."

"When my teacher asked who wanted to go to the college, and I raised my hand, I was perceived like a fool. "

"When people see homelessness, they don’t see a person’s face."

"There is no distance, or situation too great between best friends."

"It’s all about money. If you don't have money, you are nobody."

"So I was pretty much in favor of prosecuting war against our enemies as the president saw it. So I was brain washed to follow the leader."

"I know a black man who was almost lynched when he was 12."

"I can tell you for sure that the war took away my childhood."

"They were just totally unprepared..."

"I think it’s important that workers have some power and even government workers need some power because otherwise they can get abused and taken advantage of."

"A life lived in struggle is actually meaningful and worthwhile in and of itself."

"I have always felt that I need to keep my religion, my belief, and to be proud of my ethnicity and who I am."

"There’s been lots of progress."

"We had never been trained to hide in bombing shelter. Instead we headed toward rice paddies, sewer lines. "

"I think that it’s imperative for young people to discuss the past so that they can make the future a whole lot brighter."

"Every person counts. We have to recognize and reconnect to our humanity. We have to learn to treat each other with that kindness and respect that everyone deserves. "

"Being white didn’t mean that you were safe against prejudices and stuff."