R. Chin

I am 74—born on July 4th in Washington, DC. I'm Chinese American—but to be more precise, my Chinese roots are divided, my paternal set from southern China (Toisan/Rural Village), my maternal set from northern China (Peking/Beijing). They met up in Chinatown, New York City.

On a road trip through the “Deep South” (our professor Dad was researching the cotton textile industry), “Rest Rooms -White's Only” & “Colored” - was a rude awakening. “Where should we go?”

Of course, we didn't make that decision. We were told where to go. I knew then—at age 10 or so—that I wasn't white or black, but I wasn't going to let someone else tell me when I grew up where to go or who I was. The experience led me to become and activist and a civil rights attorney.