- I have to make sure that I have given enough space between myself and another patron or another commuter on the train and just ensure that I'm not making someone uncomfortable. I have to make sure that my hands are visible when I walk into certain places so they make sure I'm not stealing. I try to make sure I make eye contact with people who may or may not be security or managerial staff, just to ensure that I'm not here to hide anything. I watch my tone to make sure that I don't come off as threatening. Just leaving the house some days, sometimes it'll just keep you at home and just keep you away from everything. [MUSIC PLAYING] - When I go into stores, sometimes I get followed, which is really annoying. And it just gives me-- it just makes me uncomfortable. And sometimes I get anxiety. So I have to leave. Especially being a teen of color, they assume that you're doing something bad. - I feel like I'm disturbing people by just being there. People feel uncomfortable when I walk in. I guess I've kind of become numb to it after so many years. Like, this is just my life, and it's just something that I've gotten used to, unfortunately. - I think all of us make that choice at some point of, am I going to take the burden of this interaction being comfortable? Or am I going to say, you take the burden of this interaction being comfortable? Because what I really want is a sandwich. Do you know what I mean? I don't want to fight. I'm hungry. I don't want to get into this with you. And I'm really not here to teach you this. But other times, it's like, OK, wait a minute. Lesson time. NARRATOR: Discrimination against African Americans in public spaces has a long history. In the 1960s, Black and white students trying to desegregate buses were firebombed. Black patrons were routinely denied service in restaurants and hotels. - I'm sorry. I'm management does not allow us to serve [BLEEP] in here. - Get out of here. NARRATOR: And civil rights workers were dragged from lunch counters, spat upon, and beaten. - We're willing to be beaten for democracy. And you misuse democracy. NARRATOR: The right to be respected in public spaces was at the heart of the civil rights movement. ALL: (SINGING) Everybody wants freedom. Everybody wants freedom. MAN: They keep thinking we begging them for something. We ain't begging for nothing. We're telling them what is ours right now! ALL: (CHANTING) Freedom now! Freedom now! NARRATOR: The freedom movement of the 1950s and '60s insisted that the United States live up to its constitution and allow equal access for all. ALL: (SINGING) Freedom-- NARRATOR: Finally, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, outlawing discrimination in public spaces. But changing the law doesn't always change reality. And being allowed in doesn't always mean being welcomed. SHERRILYN IFILL: To be welcomed as a customer means that not only do I allow you in, but it means that I'm glad you're here. I want to serve you. I want your business. And I don't draw distinctions between you and other customers in terms of your value. But it's time we talk about what it means to not be welcomed as an American citizen. - It's not like I can mute my actual physical blackness, right? So I just assume that people see a particular thing when they see the color of my skin. So everything else has to be perfect and clean and as blended in as possible. It's really just an arsenal of different masks. And it happens every time I-- every time I leave my house. - When I leave my house, regardless of where I'm going, the-- I'm just leaving my house. I'm just walking out the door. I'm not walking out the door thinking, what kind of hurdle am I going to run into today? What kind of way am I going to be judged? I walk out a free man. I just do my thing. - I have to make sure that I have given enough space between myself and another patron or another commuter on the train, just to ensure that I'm not making someone uncomfortable. I have to make sure that my hands are visible when I walk into certain places so they make sure I'm not stealing. I try to make sure I make eye contact with people who may or may not be security or managerial staff, just to ensure that I'm not here to hide anything. I watch my tone to make sure that I don't come off as threatening. Just leaving the house some days, sometimes it'll just keep you at home and just keep you away from everything. NARRATOR: For more than 50 years, equal treatment has been the law. Yet, as we know from cell phone videos, the nightly news, and maybe our own experience, we still have a long way to go. MAN: Why are you following me? - Watch this. He thinks I'm stealing. - She's been following me around the store the whole-- there she goes. She thinks I'm stealing. - Your card is fake. You're going to jail. That's what I kept hearing. - Unless you're spending money, we don't need customers like you. MAN: Oh, I'm not spending money? Because I'm Black? WOMAN: Ow! Ow! - You've been warned. - Your manager does not like Black people, honey. Yeah. WOMAN: Oh, my god! No, this is wrong. Oh, my god! - Get your hand off of me. NARRATOR: We just need to recognize that Black people are navigating the public space differently than white people, that women are navigating the public space differently than men, and not use the shortcut that has been wired into your brain because of the society that we live in that tells you when you see me, you should be nervous or you should be worried. - It brought me such despair to the day I recognized I had to explain this to my son, that he was going to-- that this muddy river of racism, he was still going to have to walk through it. We hadn't dammed it. We hadn't dried it up. It was still there for him to go through. And I've got to somehow try to tell him, OK, off you go. WOMAN: The society I want to see is I want to be able to walk out the house just as free feeling as that white guy who said he doesn't worry about a thing when he walks out the door. I want to have that same expectation. NARRATOR: Today, discrimination is against the law. It's the people and the systems that support our communities that must follow suit. No one's going to do it for us. What can you do to make our schools, our parks, our stores, our restaurants as welcoming and as inclusive as they can be? What kind of country do we want to live in? Who do we want to be? [MUSIC PLAYING]