Stories: Legacies of Who We Are - Awele Makeba
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0:13 - 0:19I am Awele. Daughter of Alice, granddaughter of Ruth,
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0:19 - 0:24great-granddaughter of Big Momma Alice and Madir Corine
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0:24 - 0:30great, great granddaughter of Anna and Zitii Benyen.
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0:30 - 0:32It is my hope
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0:32 - 0:37to find my best possible self in the service of others.
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0:37 - 0:41Now my daddy? He used to tell me stories.
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0:41 - 0:43My daddy, he would say,
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0:43 - 0:46"I want you to know who you are and where you come from.
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0:46 - 0:51That will guide you as you discover who you must be.
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0:51 - 0:53Now you listen to this story, you hear me baby girl?
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0:53 - 0:55It's not going to be in a book.
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0:55 - 0:57Your teacher's not going to tell it,
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0:57 - 1:00but you need to understand who you are."
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1:00 - 1:02That became a guiding principle
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1:02 - 1:05in the stories that I wanted to tell.
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1:05 - 1:09Stories about legacy of who we are.
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1:09 - 1:13I used to hear all the time that children are the future,
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1:13 - 1:15but what does that cliche really mean
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1:15 - 1:17and how are we preparing them?
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1:17 - 1:20So I looked for narratives about young people
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1:20 - 1:21and the legacy that they bring
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1:21 - 1:23as agents of change.
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1:23 - 1:26The power that you have right now.
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1:26 - 1:30Today, March 2, 1955,
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1:30 - 1:33the story that I want to share with you
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1:33 - 1:36comes from 1955, March 2nd.
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1:36 - 1:39It's about a courageous 16-year old girl,
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1:39 - 1:42Claudette Colvin.
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1:42 - 1:43And it comes full circle today
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1:43 - 1:46because a week ago today, in San Francisco,
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1:46 - 1:47my middle school students,
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1:47 - 1:49they performed a program that I had written,
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1:49 - 1:52"Agents of Change,"
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1:52 - 1:55starting with the reenactment of Plessy vs. Ferguson
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1:55 - 1:57from 1892 to 1896,
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1:57 - 2:00moving to Brown vs. Board and a student-led strike
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2:00 - 2:02by Barbara Rose Johns,
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2:02 - 2:06jumping to Claudette Colvin and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
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2:06 - 2:09and ending in 1960 with the sit-in movement,
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2:09 - 2:13the non-violent movement led by students.
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2:13 - 2:16So I'm going to share the story
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2:16 - 2:19and I would like to also share the work I do with it
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2:19 - 2:22as a case study.
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2:22 - 2:28I paid my dime at the front of the bus, and then I ran to the back door
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2:28 - 2:31with the rest of the colored kids so the driver wouldn't take off
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2:31 - 2:32before we got on.
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2:32 - 2:37Also, well, whites don't want us walking down the aisle next to them.
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2:37 - 2:40When I got back on the bus, the colored section was full,
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2:40 - 2:43so, I sat in the middle section.
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2:43 - 2:44I took the last row seat on the left,
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2:44 - 2:46it was right by the window,
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2:46 - 2:49wasn't thinking about anything in particular.
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2:49 - 2:52"Hey."
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2:52 - 2:55I didn't know the girl next to me either, this older girl.
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2:55 - 2:57So I just looked out the window.
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2:57 - 3:00Driver went more stops, more people were getting on,
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3:00 - 3:01colored and white.
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3:01 - 3:04Pretty soon, no more seats were available.
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3:04 - 3:07"Give me those seats," the driver called out.
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3:07 - 3:08Colored folks just started getting up.
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3:08 - 3:11White folks started taking their seats, but I stayed seated.
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3:11 - 3:15Girl next to me and the other two across, they stayed seated.
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3:15 - 3:17I knew it wasn't the restricted area.
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3:17 - 3:21"Make light on your feet!"
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3:21 - 3:22The girl next to me got up immediately.
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3:22 - 3:24She stood in the aisle, then the other two girls.
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3:24 - 3:27But I told myself, this isn't the restricted area.
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3:27 - 3:29The driver, he looked up,
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3:29 - 3:33looked in the window, that mirror.
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3:33 - 3:37He pulled over. A pregnant lady, Mrs. Hamilton, got on the bus.
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3:37 - 3:39She ran to the back and got on,
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3:39 - 3:42not knowing he was trying to have me relinquish my seat.
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3:42 - 3:44And she sat right next to me.
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3:44 - 3:47"The two of you need to get up so I can drive on."
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3:47 - 3:51"Sir, I paid my dime, I paid my fare.
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3:51 - 3:53It's my right, you know, my constitutional ... "
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3:53 - 3:57"Constitutional? Ha ha, let me get the police."
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3:57 - 3:59Well he got off and he flagged down two motormen
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3:59 - 4:00and they came.
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4:00 - 4:04And those motormen, they came onto the bus.
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4:04 - 4:06Looked at Mrs. Hamilton,
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4:06 - 4:09"Now the two of you need to get up so the driver can drive on."
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4:09 - 4:12"Sir, I paid my dime. I'm pregnant.
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4:12 - 4:15If I were to move right now, I'd be very sick, sir."
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4:15 - 4:18"Sir, I paid my dime too, you know, and it's my right,
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4:18 - 4:20my constitutional right.
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4:20 - 4:21I'm a citizen of the United States.
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4:21 - 4:23You just read the Thirteenth and Fourteenth amendment --
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4:23 - 4:25it'll tell you so.
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4:25 - 4:27I know the law. My teacher, she taught it at school."
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4:27 - 4:30You see, my teacher, she taught the Constitution,
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4:30 - 4:32the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence,
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4:32 - 4:35Patrick Henry's speech -- I even memorized it.
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4:35 - 4:38My teacher, she would prick our minds,
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4:38 - 4:40trying to see what we thinking about.
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4:40 - 4:43She would say, "Who are you? Hmm?
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4:43 - 4:46Who are you sitting right here right now?
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4:46 - 4:48The person that people think they see
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4:48 - 4:49from your outside?
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4:49 - 4:51Who are you on the inside? How you think?
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4:51 - 4:53How you feel? What you believe?
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4:53 - 4:56Would you be willing to stand up for what you believe in
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4:56 - 4:58even if someone wants to hold you back
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4:58 - 5:00because you're different?
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5:00 - 5:04Do you love your beautiful brown skin children? Hmm?
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5:04 - 5:07Are you American?
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5:07 - 5:09What does it mean to be an American? Huh?
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5:09 - 5:13Homework tonight, write me an essay: What does it mean to be an American?
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5:13 - 5:15You need to know who you are, children!"
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5:15 - 5:18My teacher, she would teach us history and current events.
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5:18 - 5:21She said that's how we can understand everything that's going on
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5:21 - 5:24and we can do something about it.
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5:24 - 5:27"Sir, all I know is I hate Jim Crow.
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5:27 - 5:29I also know that if I ain't got something worth living for,
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5:29 - 5:31I ain't got nothing worth dying for.
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5:31 - 5:32So give me liberty or give me death!
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5:32 - 5:35Ouch! I don't care! Take me to jail."
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5:35 - 5:38They dragged her off the bus.
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5:38 - 5:41Next thing, Claudette Colvin was in a carseat,
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5:41 - 5:43backseat of the police car,
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5:43 - 5:48handcuffed through the windows.
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5:48 - 5:53The following year, May 11, 1956,
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5:53 - 5:57Claudette Colvin was the star witness in the federal court case,
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5:57 - 5:59Browder vs. Gayle.
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5:59 - 6:02Her, an 18-year-old teenager
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6:02 - 6:08and two others, women, Mrs. Browder.
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6:08 - 6:13Their case, Browder v. Gayle, went up to the supreme court.
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6:13 - 6:17On the heels of Brown vs. Board of Education, the Fourteenth Amendment
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6:17 - 6:24and her powerful testimony that day, the rest is history.
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6:24 - 6:27Now why is it we don't know this story?
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6:27 - 6:28The Montgomery Busy Boycott --
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6:28 - 6:30we hear Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King,
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6:30 - 6:33they will forever be lifted up.
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6:33 - 6:36But the role of women that played in that movement,
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6:36 - 6:40the role of Claudette, as an upstander,
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6:40 - 6:44it teaches us important lessons that challenge us today.
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6:44 - 6:48What does it mean to be a participant?
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6:48 - 6:52A responsible citizen in a democracy?
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6:52 - 6:56And lessons of courage and of faith?
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6:56 - 6:59So I find freedom movement history that includes young people
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6:59 - 7:02so that they can explore these big ideas
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7:02 - 7:05of identity, your chosen identity
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7:05 - 7:07and the imposed identity.
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7:07 - 7:09What does membership in society mean?
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7:09 - 7:13Who has it? How do we make amends?
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7:13 - 7:17Race and violence in America,
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7:17 - 7:20as well as participatory citizenship.
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7:20 - 7:24So these stories allow me to have conversations,
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7:24 - 7:29to speak the unspeakable, that many are afraid to have.
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7:29 - 7:34Once in Eugene, Oregon, a young, blond-haired, blue-eyed boy middle schooler,
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7:34 - 7:36at the end of a performance in the dialogue said,
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7:36 - 7:39"But Ms. Awele, racism's over right?"
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7:39 - 7:41And not wanting to answer for him, I said, well,
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7:41 - 7:43"Turn to the person sitting next to you.
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7:43 - 7:45See if you can come up with evidence."
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7:45 - 7:47And I gave them four minutes to talk.
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7:47 - 7:54Soon they began to tell stories, evidence of racism in their community.
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7:54 - 7:57A girl wrote to me, a high school student in San Francisco:
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7:57 - 8:02"I was going to skip school but then I heard we had an assembly so I came.
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8:02 - 8:06And after listening to the students talk and seeing your performance,
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8:06 - 8:08I thought I should organize my friends
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8:08 - 8:11and we should go down to a board meeting
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8:11 - 8:13and tell them we that want to have advanced classes
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8:13 - 8:17for A through G requirements."
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8:17 - 8:21And so, I tell you this story today
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8:21 - 8:24in honor of the legacy of young people that have come before
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8:24 - 8:27so that they will have guidesposts and signs
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8:27 - 8:31to be the change that they want to see in this world,
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8:31 - 8:33as Claudette Colvin was.
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8:33 - 8:37Because she struck down the constitutionality of segregated seats
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8:37 - 8:40in Montgomery, Alabama.
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8:40 - 8:42Thank you.
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8:42 - 8:45(Applause)
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8:47 - 8:49Thank you.
- Title:
- Stories: Legacies of Who We Are - Awele Makeba
- Description:
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Storyteller and educator Awele Makeba combines performing arts and history to tell a powerful story from the American civil rights movement.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TED-Ed
- Duration:
- 09:02
Krystian Aparta commented on English subtitles for Stories: Legacies of Who We Are - Awele Makeba | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for Stories: Legacies of Who We Are - Awele Makeba | ||
Krystian Aparta commented on English subtitles for Stories: Legacies of Who We Are - Awele Makeba | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for Stories: Legacies of Who We Are - Awele Makeba | ||
Natsuhiko Mizutani commented on English subtitles for Stories: Legacies of Who We Are - Awele Makeba | ||
Lena Capa edited English subtitles for Stories: Legacies of Who We Are - Awele Makeba | ||
Elisabeth Buffard commented on English subtitles for Stories: Legacies of Who We Are - Awele Makeba | ||
Claudia Tomazi Peixoto edited English subtitles for Stories: Legacies of Who We Are - Awele Makeba |
Natsuhiko Mizutani
I think the first subtitle (Music) should be removed.
Krystian Aparta
The English transcript was edited on 8/17/2015. The first subtitle ((Music)) was removed.
Krystian Aparta
The English transcript was updated on 10/13/2016.