I felt we were not treated like white students. Their classes were not cold. They did not have to sit in tar paper shacks. I just prayed—God please grant us a new school. Please let us have a warm place to stay where we won’t have to keep our coats on all day to stay warm. … I had to do something about inequality but I still didn't know what."

One morning, I was so busy rushing my brothers and sister to school that I forgot my own lunch and had to rush back up the hill to retrieve it. In the meantime, the bus arrived... About an hour later, I was still waiting, when the ‘white school bus’ drives by—half empty... It would have to pass by my school to get to that school and I couldn’t ride with them."

...as I lay in my bed I prayed for help—That night, whether in a dream or whether I was awake, but I felt I was awake, a plan began to formulate in my mind. A plan I felt was divinely inspired…"