In the 8th Grade, when I was 12, our 8th Grade class refused to participate in a essay-writing contest that was given annually by the Daughters of the American Revolution, the DAR, which was quite a prestigious organisation in those years. Why did we refuse to participate? Because Hazel Scott, the black pianist – later the wife of... I can't think of it... Adam Clayton Powell, the congressman – Hazel Scott was denied entrance into the Constitutional Hall in Washington to give a concert, recital because the DAR, who owned Constitutional Hall, wouldn't allow a black performer. And so our little group of kids, when we were given the assignment to write a patriotic essay for the DAR, refused. This... this is very unlikely, it didn't happen. Refused. And the class was written up in the newspaper, what we'd done, and the class. The president of our class, a guy named Eddie Sable, was interviewed and his picture was in the paper. And then in a nearby grade school, that 8th Grade class refused to participate and that was in the paper as well.

Now the point to make about both of these 8th Grade classes is that there wasn't a black student in the class, there wasn't a black student in the school. All these kids were little Jewish kids – both in my school, Chancellor Avenue School – and the other school, Maple Avenue School – that joined us.