but I think the reason that I'm optimistic for the long run
is that also in my lifetime
no I don't want to say this is what my lifetime has now spanned many decades
right
and %uh a in my lifetime I've seen enough change
to suggest that more change is possible
I was in world war two
%um
I saw a victory there
when
it looked impossible
I was in the civil rights movement
and all there for seven years living in the south
and so on
a marvelous developments and triumphs
but nobody ever expected I was in the movement because war in Vietnam
and they're to
it seemed impossible
the war for kuwait
and in the end
we had a great
movement against that war
and %uh
and also may be more important
even today
as we are in the midst of a war
well of who war which
well their depressing
because we see no end to it
and we see an administration in power
which seems determined to have war after war after war
in order to maintain American supremacy in the world
and yet in the midst of this situation today
I see signs in the united states
and certainly all over the world
of people who are aware of what is happening
and who
the not go along with it
they're not going along with it doesn't mean that
that they had yet
a succeeded in changing our policy that however what I want to go back to that will the whole
question of war in just a moment
but before we have
%uh before we get there
and the and I think that with them about to ask what makes closely to what you talk a
lot
%uh about the importance of what you call small acts that they do not receive national
publicity
and we're told
%uh to you know show that there's of but that's something stirring underneath and ultimately
cumulatively
cause people in the nation to change
and you've seen a lot of this in your own history why don't you elaborate
when I was talking about that
I guess I was thinking primarily about my experience in the south
of moving toward a Georgia
in nineteen fifty six
before there was a civil rights movement the montgomery bus boycott had taken place
yeah
but %uh now things will quiet
and that there was no real expectation of a tumultuous change and stuff
but the %uh I saw in atlanta
signs of unrest
%uh of dissatisfaction
my students at spellman college were quiet reserved polite
controlled at the same time it is a woman's college 0:03:11.179,0:03:13.229
at the same time was obvious that the students
although they were not yet breaking out
of their control situation
had enormous
resentment inside
at
this segregation
in the south that the humiliation
the people of color endured every day in the south
and I was involved with them know they
the of the social science club spelman college decided
of would try something
small
we'll try desegregating the atlanta public library
and they carried on the campaign yeah
which ultimately succeeded now
that's the kind of thing that didn't make headlines in terms of freedom rides
and so on
but these little forays yes
and these later on I discovered were taking place all over the South put another way
before the famous nineteen sixty sit ins
they weren't many students that didn't attract attention
yeah before the freedom rides
there were attempts to freedom rides
which didn't lead to anything big right
I came to the conclusion that
it's very important that people
engage in even the smallest of actions
even if they don't seem to bring any immediate results
it's these small actions that build and build and build
and eventually 0:04:38.060,0:04:39.979 come to fruition