When that white driver stepped back toward us, when he waved his hand and ordered us up and out of our seats, I felt a determination cover my body like a quilt on a winter night.
I was determined to achieve the total freedom that our history lessons...
Why do you all push us around?
Victory or defeat? It is the slogan of all-powerful militarism in every belligerent nation. And yet, what can victory bring to the proletariat?
Racial pride and self-dignity were emphasized in my family and community.
I had felt for a long time, that if I was ever told to get up so a white person could sit, that I would refuse to do so.
All I was trying to do was get home from work.
I will no longer act on the outside in a way that contradicts the truth that I hold deeply inside. I will no longer act as if I were less than the whole person I know myself inwardly to be.
It takes more than one person to bring about peace – it takes all of us.
There is no future without education.
I see the energy of young people as a real force for positive change.
My only concern was to get home after a hard day’s work.
Arrest me for sitting on a bus? You may do that.
As a child I learned from the Bible to trust in God and not be afraid. And I felt the Lord would give me the strength to endure whatever I had to face. God did away with all my fear.
One of my greatest pleasures there was enjoying the smell of bacon frying and coffee brewing and knowing that white folks were doing the preparing instead of me. There was swimming in the man-made lake, volleyball, square dancing. It was quite enjoyable to be with at Highlander. We forgot what color anybody was. I was forty-two years old, and it was one of the few times in my life up to that point when I did not feel any hostility from white people.
At the time i didn’t realize why there was so much Klan activity, but later I learned that it was because African-American soldiers werre returning from World War Iasn acting as if they deserved equal rights because they had served their country.
That was a difference between black slaves and white indentured servants. Black slaves were usually not allowed to keep their names, but were given new names by their owners.
One of my greatest pleasures there was enjoying the smell of bacon frying and coffee brewing and knowing that white folks were doing the preparing instead of me. I was 42 years old, and it was one of the few times in my life up to that point when I did not feel any hostility from white people.
What I learned best at Miss White’s school was that I was a person with dignity and self-respect, and I should not set my sights lower than anybody else just because I was black.
I had decided that I would not go anywhere with a piece of paper in my hand asking white folks for any favors. I had made that decision myself, as an individual.
Even when there was segregation there was plenty of integration in the South, but it was for the benefit and convenience of the white person, not us.