My name Traven Dull, a white man, and no don’t I think Negros are an ignominy to humanity thanks to one big man. But of course I was like the rest of my kind I thought Negros weren’t any better than a dog or simple possession that can be sold and traded with no remark. I thought they didn’t have feelings and wouldn’t care if I separated them from their family, hit them, or even killed them. I remember when I thought like that and one man made me change my mind forever and this all took place in 1963.

It was December 1, 1955 and I lived in the Montgomery, Alabama and owned many Negro slaves. I’m had to go to town but I had to take the bus since I couldn’t drive and my driver was sick. As I got on the bus and saw that four Negros were sitting in a row so I tried to sit as far away from them as possible. When I sat down a white lady gets on the bus and looks at them with dissatisfaction since she doesn’t have a seat and by law Negros would have to give up from their row, but one of the Negros sitting there didn’t. The white lady said, “Move back!” with a straight demand. Then the Negro lady responded with indignity, “No! Who are you to tell me what to do?” Then the lady got infuriated and yelled, “I’m a white lady and if you know what’s good for you better move back!” In return the Negro lady stood up and said, “Well you know what, I have a name and it’s Rosa Parks and I’m not going to listen to you! If you have a problem with it then I guess you’ll have to deal with it!” Rosa Parks and the white lady gape at each other with anger and loathe in their eyes, the white lady turned and headed straight to the front of the bus and said, “Who the heck does she think she is a simple Negro lady talking back to me? Well I might as well let her slap me! Stop the bus!” she ordered the bus driver and with deference he obeyed. As I sat there I wondered who the heck would take that from a negro lady and I thought if it were me she wouldn’t had the pleaser to see the next day. I would’ve lynched her faster than she could’ve said sorry. The police came on to the bus to get the shameless Negro lady off and put her in jail. I thought that she had it coming. What negro would talk back to a white person and refuse to move back in a bus?

On December 21, 1956, a little over a year after the bus boycott began. The Negros finally decided to go on the busses again after not going on the bus for more than a year, but the MIA just wouldn’t get it. Why would they do that just to get back at us? How can they think that they are at the same level as us? Snipers are tried to get at them by shooting at them in the buses although it’s put whites in danger; it’s good that I had my own car. Then the KKK is killed lots of Negros but, lots of whites started to fight against so much violence so it ended up dying off.

On August 28, 1963 a couple years later and there had been lots of talk about Martin Luther King Jr. having a speech later on that same day and I decided I would watch it on T.V. just to see what the big deal was about. I didn’t believe anything that the Negros had to say but I wanted to see why so many people were saying that he would end “segregation” which I saw no point at all of doing because everything is was fine the way it was. It was about to begin so I sat down and got ready to watch the speech. When I turn it on I saw a Negro man standing at a podium and he began to talk. I’m heard lots of non-sense about changing our ways but wait he says, “Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God’s children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood”, and I thought, “What he meant by me being his brother? Is he really the same as anyone else? Is he a Child of God?” I continued to listen and he said, “There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights.” This is when I started I to wonder Was that really the case? Would we never reach peace and harmony until we changed our beliefs and gave Negros their so called rights? As I continued to listen I’m felt a weird feeling inside of me that I’ve never felt before it was tingly and was like I took a punch to the stomach. Then Martin Luther King JR. said, “We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline”, which made me realize that the Negro race could be civilized and in a way are better than us because we had been mean and corrupt with them and they denied responding back in violence. Then he said, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed”, and he meant that all men are created equal. This statement finished it off and for the first time I felt guilt for what I had said and done to the Negro race.

This man changed my mind forever and made me realize the Negro race is a race of people. They too are a child of God.