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Typewriters were very expensive and my family could not afford one.
打字机非常昂贵，我的家庭负担不起。
I was one of two kids from Baldwin County that was chosen to go to Washington along with hundreds of other kids across the country.
我是鲍德温县两个被选中的孩子之一，和全国数以百计的其他孩子被选去华盛顿。
Before we left, the Alabama delegation took a trip to our state capitol in Montgomery for a meeting with the governor.
在我们离开之前，阿拉巴马州代表团去了趟我们在蒙哥马利的州议会大厦，会见了州长。
The governor's name was George C.Wallace.
州长叫做乔治·华莱士。
The same George Wallace who in 1963 stood in the schoolhouse door at the University of Alabama to block African Americans from enrolling.
1963年，乔治·华莱士站在阿拉巴马大学校舍门阻止非洲裔美国人入学。
Wallace embraced the evils of segregation.
华莱士奉行邪恶的种族隔离主义。
He pitted whites against blacks, the South against the North, the working class against the so-called elites.
他让白人对抗黑人，南方对抗北方，工人阶级对抗所谓的精英。
Meeting my governor was not an honor for me.
与州长会面对我而言并非荣誉。
My heroes in life were Dr. Martin Luther King, and Robert F.Kennedy, who had fought against the very things that Wallace stood for.
我生命中的英雄是马丁·路德·金博士和罗伯特·肯尼迪，他们与华莱士的立场针锋相对。
Keep in mind, that I grew up, or, when I grew up, I grew up in a place where King and Kennedy were not exactly held in high esteem.
你需要知道的是，成长的过程中，我是在一个金和肯尼迪并不备受尊敬的地方长大。
When I was a kid, the South was still coming to grips with its history.
当我还是个孩子的时候，南方仍然对其历史紧抓不舍。
My textbooks even said the Civil War was about states' rights. They barely mentioned slavery.
我的课本里甚至说内战关乎国家权利。它们几乎没有提及奴隶制。
So I had to figure out for myself what was right and true. It was a search. It was a process.
所以我不得不为自己找出什么是正确的和真实的。这是一种找寻，一个过程。
It drew on the moral sense that I'd learned from my parents, and in church, and in my own heart, and led me on my own journey of discovery.
它汲取了我从我的父母，教堂，和在我的内心习得的道德观念，引领我走上了自己的发现之旅。
I found books in the public library that they probably didn't know they had.
我发现了一些在公共图书馆可能不为人知的书。
They all pointed to the fact that Wallace was wrong.
它们都指出了一个事实：华莱士是错误的。
That injustices like segregation had no place in our world. That equality is a right.
在我们的世界不应存在不公和种族隔离。平等是一种权利。
As I said, I was only 16 when I met Governor Wallace, so I shook his hand as we were expected to do.
就像我说的，我遇见华莱士州长的时候只有16岁，所以我按照期望的那样与他握了手。
But shaking his hand felt like a betrayal of my own beliefs. It felt wrong. Like I was selling a piece of my soul.
但是与他握手感觉像是背叛了自己的信仰。那感觉很不对劲。就像出卖了一部分自己的灵魂。
From Montgomery we flew to Washington. It was the first time I had ever been on an airplane.
我们从蒙哥马利飞往华盛顿。那是我第一次乘飞机。
In fact it was the first time that I traveled out of the South.
事实上那是我第一次离开南部。
On June 15,1977, I was one of 900 high schoolers greeted by the new president, President Jimmy Carter, on the south lawn of the White House, right there on the other side of the ellipse.
1977年6月15日，我作为900位高中生的其中一个迎接新总统，总统吉米·卡特，见面会在白宫的南草坪上，就在椭圆的另一边。
