Summer of '69: Pamela Corbin

Pamela Corbin, 58, Port St. Lucie, Fla. Now an international purser for United Airlines .

She boycotted Malverne High School for three months during her senior year in 1969 because of racism in the school. She and 136 other students and parents were arrested during a sit-in at the school. The administration eventually ceded to demands for more black teachers and the teaching of black history.

"Every time it's St. Patrick's Day, I say this is the day I got arrested in 1969 in a civil rights demonstration. Some people that were in the sit-in - their parents would not allow them to be arrested, and they were pulled out. One girl had her parent take her place, because parents were afraid that an arrest record would hinder your future prospects. . . . We were anally searched. For high school students. It was ridiculous. They didn't have facilities for so many people to be arrested in one day. And we were in jail for four hours.

"I can't say I was shaken with fear. We were kind of proud. We sang on the way to the bus. We were encouraged by following in the footsteps of our parents, of Martin Luther King.

"It was the most exciting year of my young life. And it was a culmination of everything."