Transcript:

Some 25 years ago in San Fransisco, on the last day of an NEA Convention I was heading to the Moscone center, and down the street I saw a pan handler coming the other way.

I had a $10 bill in my pocket and that was it, no change. I had a room, and a plane ticket for the next day. $10 was all I had for supper or anything else. And I knew I’d be in an uncomfortable position dealing with a pan handler. We saw plenty at the Wharf and to the Kansas Delegation, they were novelties. So we’d give them change and joke with them.

But here in the Moscone center was a different class of people. All I had was a $10, and if I hurried into the center, I could avoid the guy. So I did.
And I noticed as he approached people, they ignored him. He was invisible. They just kept walking, never turning his way.

I got inside the center and went up and got inside the doors and turned to watch as people just passed him by not even bothering to look at him.

I saw him asking, asking, no response and finally he dropped his arms to his side and shouted - he wasn’t shouting at anyone in particular - he was just shouting “I am a human being! I exist. Don’t pretend you don’t see me! I am a human being.”

And because of what I was thinking earlier, I felt very far from my God at that moment. So I went downstairs and gave him my $10, I looked him in the eye, he said “God bless you.” And I said, “I’ll be back in Kansas tomorrow, buddy. God bless you. You’ll still be here.”

But what struck me in his anger and his shame: He wasn’t mad that he didn’t get a bottle or money or food. All he wanted was to be acknowledged as a human being.

And at the bottom of our buckets that’s all anyone of us want. It was one of those life changing moments that you keep in your consciousness. That I was running through life then, trying to be a good father, good husband and good citizen. I didn’t have time to stop and fix all the broken things I saw along the way.

But I have some time now.

And this is my anger and disgust over that Lindley Hall name. If we can harp back to his glory days, we can harp back to those students pain.

Frank Lindley didn’t think of them as human beings. He didn’t treat them as human beings. They didn’t meet his criteria for being a human being.

As a Christian, as an educator, as a human being, that is repugnant to me and it should be to all of you.

It’s a blasphemy against our God. It’s a scar upon our souls and it demeans us as a community.

The final cost of excusing and defending and sanctioning and ultimately, honoring racism is it makes us less human.

I have a petition of almost 1,000 names signs by past and present Newtonians and people in other communities trying to regain their humanity.

Let Lindley’s true legacy die and keep racism out of Newton’s future.

Some force took that name off that building. You can replace it or not - but just remember, your decision ultimately marks YOUR legacy.

- Anthony Cuellar, NHS Graduate of 1973