"I Had Come Face to Face with Evil": Leon Bass Talks about his Experiences of Racism
Leon Bass, a retired educator, describes his encounters with racism when he volunteered for the U.S. Army in 1943, and his anger when the people he was to protect and defend let him know that he "wasn't good enough" to be treated as an equal. Upon seeing inmates of the Buchenwald concentration camp shortly after its liberation, he realized the extreme that being "not good enough" could take. He returned home determined to get an education despite the discrimination he faced, and to fight against that discrimination. As a high school principal he witnessed the impact a Holocaust survivor had on his students, and was inspired to share his personal story. Bass speaks at the Facing History and Ourselves 2010 Cleveland benefit dinner.
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