Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
My name is Perry Kennedy. I have been in Duluth for about 42 years.
I'm a retired Air Force Sergeant.
I'm retired from the Department of Transportation.
I believe that racism and prejudice and all those things are non-productive in a community or in this country.
When I had the opportunity to get on board and be part of it, I was very happy.
One day, an old man was coming toward me and he stopped and it startled me and I stopped.
He said, "Boy, you going to get off the Board Walk?"
I said, "Sir, there's enough room for the two of us."
He said, "Boy, get your a-- off the Boardwalk."
I just stood there.
Pretty soon the Army jeep came around the corner with the MPs in it.
They asked me to come over.
I walked over to them and told them what the problem was.
They politely told me, "Get off the street and let the man go by."
"It's not worth the discussion."
He's an old man. I'm a young man in the uniform of this country.
He'll send me over and blow me up but I have to get off the sidewalk.
(Talking about a Restaurant visit:)
I said "No, I was going to drink it here young lady."
She said, "Sarge, I can sell it to you, but you can't drink it in here."
Again, it just baffled me. "What in the World?"
Here I am in my pretty little blue uniform, I've got this chestful of ribbons up here that they've given me...
And I've got stripes that I've earned... Hershey (overseas service) and Hash Marks of my time over across the pond.
But I'm not good enough to consume a cup of coffee in a public place...
And if you're a Christian-thinking person, you'd agree that God did not intend for that to be.
We all came here the same, we are all the same, and we are all going to leave here the same. No one is superior over the other.
(About the men lynched in Duluth in 1920:) They didn't get a fair trial...
Duluth, other communities, and this country [must] do what Martin said. Let's stop judging people by the color of their skin and judge them by the content of their character.
That's what we need to do.
My name is Heidi Bakk-Hansen. I am originally from the Chicago area.
I came to Duluth in 1995.
If you don't deal with your past, you can't move on.
If you don't deal with what has happened in your community...
Why would we have a memorial? Why would we bring up this horrible event and talk about and... Why?
The response was: because history, even bad history, negative history, history that reflects poorly on a community, still has to be dealt with.
The reason you deal with it is so that you can move forward.
Subtitles by the Amara.org community