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Miss O’Shay had risen, she turned her back and stood looking out the window at the
spring tulips in the school yard.

“I thought, since the award would be made at assembly right after our oath of allegiance,”
the words tumbled almost hysterically from Nancy Lee’s throat now, “I would put part

of the flag salute in my speech. You know, Miss O‘Shay, that part about liberty and
justice for all.”

“I know,” said Miss O’Shay, slowly facing the room again. “But America is only what
we who believe in it, make it. I am Irish. You may not know, Nancy Lee, but years
ago we were called the dirty Irish, and mobs rioted against us in the big cities, and we
were invited to go back where we came from. But we didn’t go. And we didn’t give up,
because we believed in the American dream, and in our power to make that dream come

true. Difficulties, yes. Mountains to climb, yes. Discouragements to face, yes. Democracy
to make, yes. That is it, Nancy Lee! We still have in this world of ours democracy to
make. You and I, Nancy Lee. But the premise and the base are here, the lines of the
Declaration of Independence and the words of Lincoln are here, and the stars in our flag.

Those who deny you this scholarship do not know the meaning of those stars, but it’s
up to us to make them know. As a teacher in the public schools of this city, I myself
will go before the school board and ask them to remove from our system the offer of
any prizes or awards denied to any student because of race or color.”

Suddenly, Miss O’Shay stopped speaking. Her clear, clear blue eyes looked into those of
the girl before her. The woman’s eyes were full of strength and courage. “Lift up your

head, Nancy Lee, and smile at me.”
Miss O’Shay stood against the open window with the green lawn and the tulips beyond,

the sunlight tangled in her gray hair, her voice an electric flow of strength to the hurt
spirit of Nancy Lee. The Abolitionists who believed in
freedom when there was slavery must have been like that.
What y
teach the freed slaves must have been like that. All those What you Think?ou Think?
The first white teachers who went into the Deep South to
What are Nancy’s
who stand against ignorance, narrowness, hate, and mud plans and dreams ?
on stars must be like that.

Nancy Lee lifted her head and smiled. The bell for assembly
rang. She went through the long hall filled with students toward the auditorium.

“There will be other awards,” Nancy Lee thought. “There’re schools in other cities. This
won’t keep me down. But when I’m a woman, I’ll fight to see that these things don’t
happen to other girls as this has happened to me. And men and women like Miss O’Shay
will help me.”

She took her seat among the seniors. The doors of the auditorium closed. As the principal

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