For anyone who doubts the impact one person’s story can have, for anyone who thinks history is only about the past, I say, you should have been at Lakewood Middle in Durham yesterday.

The students had been learning about social movements and today were learning about the value of oral histories from our group from the Jackson Center in neighboring Chapel Hill, an organization dedicated to preserving the history of the historically-black Northside neighborhood whose residents had been at the center of the local civil rights protests and sit-ins.

After listening to a presentation about oral history and interviewing techniques, their assignment was to come up with questions to ask one of the four visitors we call “mentors.” I had the privilege of introducting one of those mentors, Miss Gwen. Miss Gwen, a retired teacher in the Chapel Hill schools, took a seat in front of twenty-five middle schoolers, who…