WEBVTT

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I am Awele.

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Daughter of Alice, granddaughter of Ruth,

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great-granddaughter
of Big Momma Alice and Madir Corine,

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great-great-granddaughter
of Anna and Zitii Benyen.

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It is my hope

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to find my best possible self
in the service of others.

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Now, my daddy, he used to tell me stories.

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My daddy, he would say,

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"I want you to know who you are
and where you come from.

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That will guide you as you discover

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who you must be.

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Now, you listen to this story,
you hear me, baby girl?

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It's not going to be in a book.

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Your teacher is not going to tell it,

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but you need to understand who you are."

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That became a guiding principle

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in the stories that I wanted to tell.

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Stories about legacy of who we are.

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I used to hear all the time
that children are the future,

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but what does that cliché really mean

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and how are we preparing them?

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So I looked for narratives
about young people

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and the legacy that they bring
as agents of change.

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The power that you have right now.

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Today, March 2, 1955 --

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the story that I want to share with you

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comes from 1955, March 2.

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It's about a courageous 16-year-old girl,

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Claudette Colvin.

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And it comes full circle today

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because a week ago today,
in San Francisco,

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my middle school students,

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they performed a program
that I had written,

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"Agents of Change,"

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starting with the reenactment
of Plessy v. Ferguson

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from 1892 to 1896,

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moving to Brown v. Board
and a student-led strike

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by Barbara Rose Johns,

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jumping to Claudette Colvin
and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

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and ending in 1960
with the Sit-In Movement,

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the non-violent movement led by students.

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So I'm going to share the story,

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and I would like to also share
the work I do with it,

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as a case study.

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I paid my dime at the front of the bus,

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and then I ran to the back door

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with the rest of the colored kids

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so the driver wouldn't take off
before we got on.

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Also, well, whites don't want us
walking down the aisle next to them.

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When I got back on the bus,

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colored section was full,

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so, I sat in the middle section.

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I took the last row seat on the left,

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it was right by the window,

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wasn't thinking
about anything in particular.

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"Hey."

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I didn't know the girl
next to me either, this older girl.

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So I just looked out the window.

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Driver went more stops,

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more people were getting on,
colored and white.

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Pretty soon, no more seats were available.

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"Give me those seats,"
the driver called out.

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Colored folks just started getting up.

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White folks started taking their seats,

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but I stayed seated.

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Girl next to me
and the other two across --

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they stayed seated.

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I knew it wasn't the restricted area.

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"Make light on your feet!"

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Girl next to me got up immediately.

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She stood in the aisle,
then the other two girls.

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But I told myself,
this isn't the restricted area.

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The driver, he looked up,

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looked in the window,

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that mirror.

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He pulled over.

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A pregnant lady, Mrs. Hamilton,
got on the bus.

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She ran to the back and got on,

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not knowing he was trying
to have me relinquish my seat.

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And she sat right next to me.

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"The two of you need to get up
so I can drive on."

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"Sir, I paid my dime, I paid my fare.

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It's my right, you know,
my constitutional --"

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"Constitutional?
Ha-ha, let me get the police."

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Well he got off and he flagged down
two motormen, and they came.

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And those motormen,
they came onto the bus.

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Looked at Mrs. Hamilton.

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"Now the two of you need to get up
so the driver can drive on."

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"Sir, I paid my dime. I'm pregnant.

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If I were to move right now,
I'd be very sick, sir."

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"Sir, I paid my dime too,
you know, and it's my right,

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my constitutional right.

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I'm a citizen of the United States.

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You just read the 13th
and 14th Amendment, it'll tell you so.

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I know the law. My teacher,
she taught it at school."

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You see, my teacher,
she taught the Constitution,

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the Bill of Rights,
the Declaration of Independence,

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Patrick Henry's speech --
I even memorized it.

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My teacher, she would prick our minds,

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trying to see what we thinking about.

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She would say, "Who are you? Hmm?

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Who are you, sitting right here right now?

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The person that people think they see
from your outside?

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Who are you on the inside? How you think?

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How you feel? What you believe?

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Would you be willing to stand up
for what you believe in

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even if someone wants to hold you back
because you're different?

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Do you love your beautiful
brown skin, children? Hmm?

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Are you American?

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What does it mean to be an American? Huh?

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Homework tonight, write me an essay:
"What does it mean to be an American?"

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You need to know who you are, children!"

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My teacher, she would teach us
history and current events.

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She said that's how we can understand
everything that's going on

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and we can do something about it.

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"Sir, all I know is I hate Jim Crow.

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I also know if I ain't got nothing
worth living for,

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I ain't got nothing worth dying for.
So give me liberty or give me death!

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Ouch! I don't care! Take me to jail."

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They dragged her off the bus.

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Next thing, Claudette Colvin
was in a car seat,

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backseat of the police car,

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handcuffed through the windows.

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The following year,

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May 11, 1956,

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Claudette Colvin was the star witness

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in the federal court case
Browder v. Gayle.

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Her, an 18-year-old teenager

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and two others, women, Mrs. Browder.

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Their case, Browder v. Gayle,
went up to the supreme court.

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On the heels of Brown
v. Board of Education,

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the 14th Amendment
and her powerful testimony that day,

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the rest is history.

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Now, why is it we don't know this story?

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The Montgomery Bus Boycott --

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we hear Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King,

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they will forever be lifted up.

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But the role women
played in that movement,

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the role of Claudette, as an up-stander,

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it teaches us important lessons
that challenge us today.

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What does it mean to be a participant?

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A responsible citizen in a democracy?

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And lessons of courage and of faith?

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So I find freedom movement history
that includes young people

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so that they can explore these big ideas

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of identity, your chosen identity,

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and the imposed identity.

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What does membership in society mean?

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Who has it? How do we make amends?

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Race and violence in America,

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as well as participatory citizenship.

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So these stories allow me
to have conversations,

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to speak the unspeakable,

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that many are afraid to have.

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Once in Eugene, Oregon,

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a young, blond-haired,
blue-eyed boy, middle schooler,

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at the end of a performance
in the dialogue said,

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"But Ms. Awele, racism's over, right?"

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And not wanting to answer for him, I said,

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"Turn to the person sitting next to you.
See if you can come up with evidence."

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And I gave them four minutes to talk.

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Soon, they began to tell stories,

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evidence of racism in their community.

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A girl wrote to me,
a high school student in San Francisco:

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"I was going to skip school

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but then I heard
we had an assembly, so I came.

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And after listening to the students talk

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and seeing your performance,

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I thought I should organize my friends

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and we should go down to a board meeting

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and tell them that want
to have advanced classes

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for A through G requirements."

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So, I tell you this story today

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in honor of the legacy of young people
that have come before,

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so that they will have
guideposts and signs

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to be the change
that they want to see in this world,

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as Claudette Colvin was.

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Because she struck down
the constitutionality

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of segregated seats

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in Montgomery, Alabama.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)

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Thank you.

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(Applause)