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I was raised in a very activist household so that I grew up surrounded by people who were activists.

My mother was an elementary school teacher for 35 years and taught at the Nixon School in New Jersey. I was raised as a very liberal Democrat, and she was protesting Nixon when he was in office.

My parents always went to rallies and demonstrated against certain things; my generation, we often have a political conscience, but we're not that involved.

My parents demonstrated against the Vietnam war, they were into the civil rights movement, the feminist movement, they started the first vegetarian restaurant in Pittsburgh.

My parents were very active in the Civil Rights Movement. My father was a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) worker; my mother was a secretary with the Panthers.

Since an early age I was taught to be very politically aware and knew from childhood that the process was something I wanted to contribute towards if I could.

I had a mother who got involved in grassroot politics when I was growing up. I watched her have agency and become political in a very male-dominated world.

I think the Civil Rights Movement changed that trajectory for me. The first thing I did was leave school. I was suspended for my participation in Movement demonstrations in my hometown, December, 1961.

I was introduced to Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson. The young Congressman was very friendly.

But as for activism, my parents did what they could, given the constraints, but were never involved in the causes I think of when I think of activists.