Kids & Family

Activist to Students: 'Everything is not Downhill'

Civil rights activist Leon Bass spoke at Bucks Tuesday afternoon about his real life encounters with racism and how he dedicated his life to overcoming it.

After all he has seen and experienced, Leon Bass said it takes courage to overcome anger and stand up for what you think is right.

The civil rights activist learned firsthand about racism in America when he was just 18, freshly enlisted in the Army, and separated from his white friends from the get-go. He spoke at Bucks County Community College Tuesday afternoon to a group of about 100.

It was 1943. He had just graduated high school and when he and his buddies showed up for induction day, he was immediately sent to basic training in the Deep South. His friends went elsewhere.

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"My country was saying, 'You're not good enough,'" Bass said. 

He was denied access to a restaurant, a water fountain and finally a seat on the bus. Bass stood up for 100 miles while other seats went unoccupied, he said.

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"Needless to say, I was upset."

During World War II, he was able to tour the Buchenwald concentration camp when his unit helped to release its prisoners. 

He said he saw horrific sights – including the torture room, starving prisoners and the cremation chamber. 

"The pain and suffering I saw could touch all of us," he said. "I know I had seen the face of evil."

It was then Bass said he realized that the suffering at home was nothing compared to what these people were going through, and he found an answer to his nagging personal question, 'What are you fighting for?'

After he returned safely, Bass went about acquiring an education. After steadily working his way up the ladder, he became an elementary school teacher, principal and finally a high school principal for one of the toughest high schools in the country at the time, Benjamin Franklin High School.

He said he became a teacher because his father had suggested it, and he looked to his parents as heroes.

Bass began speaking about his experiences in the 1970s and he said it became his life mission. 

"If you want to change things, you better be ready," he said.


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