Zoom with a Civil Rights Icon

Icon of the Civil Rights Movement Andrew Young joined the GDS High School Civil Rights class "From Freedom Rides to Ferguson" virtually last Friday.

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Amelia Myre ’20 wrote to Paula [Young Shelton] after class to thank her for bringing her father. Paula and Andy Lipps co-teach the class. Amelia wrote, "Speaking to Mr. Young was incredibly inspiring during these uncertain times. Mr. Young had an extremely uplifting message that was especially important for our mostly-Senior class to hear. He reminded us of the importance of committing to the things you love and told me about his granddaughter who was named Amelia, too, after Amelia Boynton. He told us his favorite anecdotes from his activism in the Civil Rights movement. He said, "Our singing was more powerful than their guns." and that "No change is going to take a weekend." While we are all sitting at home during this forced reflection that is the Coronavirus pandemic, I was moved by Mr. Young's faith and reminder to look around and see who you can help."

During their in-class reflection (once Mr. Young had left the video call), Isabela Fraga-Abaza ’20 expressed finding value in Mr. Young's advice to try to see their challenging time as an opportunity. She said, "We need to take advantage of the fact that we are stuck at home with free time for...months."
 
Charlie Vogel ’20 was moved by Mr. Young's closing words of encouragement. She recalled, "One of the questions I had was about how he managed to keep going and kept persevering, and I think he answered it in those last moments when he said, 'You have to believe deep in your heart [that you are doing something you are destined to do].'"

The momentum of the conversation carried Amelia to reconnect immediately as a youth advocate. She said, "After talking to Mr. Young, I was inspired to reach out to No One Left Behind, an organization I originally got in touch with during the GDS Policy and Advocacy Institute in 2017. I have started an internship with my sister where we are responding to Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applicants who are Afghan and Iraqi translators in the process of applying for visas to the United States after serving as interpreters to the American military. We have organized their information from letters of recommendation to death threats from the Taliban. It has been where we have focused our efforts and offered our help when it seems that everything we know has been upended."