Fran Hoffman, 71
Location: Mystic, CT
Interview facilitated by Greg Gilmartin and Dean Rocha from MYSTV Studios
When Fran Hoffman was growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, in the 1960s, her family received many threatening phone calls. Her parents were local leaders in the civil rights movement: Her mother was a biologist who presided over the Council on Human Relations of Greater Atlanta and her father sat on President John F. Kennedy Jr.'s civil rights commission. While the threats weren't pleasant, her parents set an example that Fran remembers to this day.
"The model that my parents indicated or demonstrated to me was, they just had conversations with the people that called and tried to calm things down and talked with them respectfully, but then ended the conversation when it got out of hand," she said.
"The good part was that we just knew that that was the important and right thing to do and that whatever skills you had and commitment you had, you gave it to that cause, because it was so essential, basic and vital."
Watch as Fran shares her memories of moving from Massachusetts to Atlanta, Georgia, during a deeply segregated period.
Hear more stories from people who were at the ground level of the civil rights marches