I've Always Been Able To Make Choices

In 1967, The Students At San Francisco State Invited The Poet Amiri Baraka To The Campus For A Semester. He Attracted Other Influential Black Writers Such As Sonia Sanchez, Ed Bullins, Eldridge Cleaver. What Emerged Was Something We Called The Community Communications Program. That's How I Got Involved; I Got Involved In A Little Play

The Civil Rights Movement Didn't Deal With The Issue Of Political Disenfranchisement In The Northern Cities. It Didn't Deal With The Issues That Were Happening In Places Like Detroit, Where There Was A Deep Process Of Deindustrialization Going On. So You Have This Response Of Angry Young People, With A War Going On In Vietnam, A Poverty Program That Was Insufficient, And Police Brutality. All These Things Gave Rise To The Black Power Movement. The Black Power Movement Was Not A Separation From The Civil Rights Movement, But A Continuation Of This Whole Process Of Democratization.

My Theatrical Background Was In The Great Work Of The South African Playwright Athol Fugard.

Yes, (bush Is A) Racist. We All Knew That But The World Is Only Finding It Out Now. As Texas's Governor, Bush Led A Penitentiary System That Executed More People Than All The Other U.s. States Together. And Most Of The People Who Died From (the) Death Penalty Were Afro-americans Or Hispanics. (bush) Promoted A Conservative Program, Designed To Eliminate Everything Americans Had Accomplished So Far In Matters Of Race And Equality.

Kids Made Fun Of Me Because I Was Dark Skinned, Had A Wide Nose, And Was Dyslexic. Even As An Actor, It Took Me A Long Time To Realize Why Words And Letters Got Jumbled In My Mind And Came Out Differently.