When you live in the South, you're constantly part of the civil rights movement.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I'm a child of the Civil Rights Movement.
One of the triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement is that when you travel through the South today, you do not feel overwhelmed by a residue of grievance and hate.
Growing up in Mississippi - a state that historically was a place of racial injustice, inequality and oppression - gave me the unique opportunity to experience first-hand the evolution of the civil rights movement through the eyes of my parents, grandparents, and the black elders of our community.
Even here in America, people are fighting for civil rights 45 years after the civil rights movement.
It's not the people in the South who create racial problems - it's the people who are governing.
I have a big passion about civil rights for everyone - whoever is being downtrodden at the moment, it doesn't matter: racial discrimination or sexual orientation or gender. Whatever it is, I'm there. I think I was a born civil rights activist. I can't stand the smashing of a community. It's not fair and it's not right.
I think that the thing that we learned back in the day of the civil rights movement is that you do have to keep on keeping on.
I grew up in the South, so a huge part of our American History education revolved around the Civil War.
You grow up with a heightened sense of the Civil Rights Movement, but I think it wasn't until I became of age that I really had a great appreciation for the struggle that took place.
You know, bigotry isn't relevant to just the South. It never was. But I'm very grateful that I don't know what it's like from experience.