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Suzan-Lori Parks
Pulitzer Prize for Drama
My father was born and raised in Chicago. Very, very, very, very, very poor family. My mom from Texas, not well-to-do certainly, her mother was a teacher. Her grandfather had a bunch of black businesses and did things in Odessa like build sidewalks and things like that, but they weren't rich. But they understood the importance of education. They met in college at Southern University, which at that time was a segregated college -- or university I suppose -- in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. So it was a segregated school. So, to say they were academic, you know, I meet people who are from academic families, and it kind of wasn't like that. It was just that I think my parents recognized the importance of working hard and enjoyed school. You know what I mean? So they weren't sort of these academics. They were more like hard-working people who enjoyed school and wanted us to enjoy school.
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Sidney Poitier
Oscar for Best Actor
Sidney Poitier: It is not very good that we have really not made a stronger, sustained effort to speak to our children -- the black ones, the white ones, the brown ones -- about this man. This man. It is because of this man, Lincoln, that we have a President Obama. Because the values of Abraham Lincoln were ignited in President Obama. And President Obama ignited some of Lincoln's values in his fellow Americans. And if you were to take a listing of the American population two years, four years, five years ago, the possibility of him being what he is today wouldn't have crossed very many minds. Would not. As a result, here is a guy who says, "I am this " and "I am imperfect, but yes -- and I screwed up here and I did this there, and I'll tell you about it. And if you can tell me where I can improve, I will listen to you. My responsibility is to represent you." Well, I find him absolutely glorious, this guy.
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