往往是生活里一个重要转折点。
It's the kind of thing that you do when you're on the cusp of life.
在我们所有人的家庭中，总会有这么一个年轻人存在。
And so, there is, in all of our families, this young person somewhere in our background.
他或许正站在码头，准备登船，他将横穿大西洋或者太平洋。
That person is standing at a dock, about to board a ship that will cross the Atlantic or the Pacific Ocean.
他或许在往卡车上装行李，准备穿过格兰德河。
That person is loading up a truck that will cross the Rio Grande.
又或者，他站在火车月台上，准备乘火车穿过河流和山脉，逃离种族隔离的南方，去到北方，希望能得到自由。
Or that person is standing at a railroad platform about to board a train that will cross rivers and mountains out of the Jim Crow South to what they hope will be freedom in the North.
而跟这位年轻人一起，送他们登船，或者上小艇，或者上卡车，火车的，正是养育了他们的人。
And there, with this young person as they are about to board that ship, that boat, that truck, that train, are the people who raised them.
他们的母亲、父亲、阿姨、叔叔、爷爷和奶奶，那些一路陪伴他成长至今的人。
Their mother, their father, their aunt, their uncle, their grandparents, whoever it might have been who had gotten them to this point.
这些上了年纪的人，已经无法跟他们一起完成这趟旅程。
Those older people were not going to be able to make the crossing with them.
年轻人凝视着亲人的双眼，他们都无法确认，有生之年还能否再见。
And as they looked into the eyes of the people who had raised them, there was no guarantee that they would ever see them alive again.
这是一种巨大的牺牲，几乎发生在我们的每一个家庭，仅仅为了让我们今天能站在这里。
That is the magnitude of the sacrifice that had to have happened in nearly all of our families just for us to be here.
一个简单的决定，改变了家庭的轨迹，甚至改变了家族、国家和历史的轨迹，一路走到今天。
A single decision that changed the course of families and lineages and countries and history to the current day.
其中有一股移民潮，它很有特点，可能我们还没有意识到。
One of these migration streams stands out in ways that we may not realize.
它被称作大移民。
It was called the Great Migration.
有600万非裔美国人，从种族隔离的南部，涌入北部和西部的城市，从第一次世界大战持续到70年代。
It was the outpouring of six million African Americans from the Jim Crow South to the cities of the North and West, from the time of World War I until the 1970s.
之所以说它突出，是因为这是美国历史上第一次，美国公民逃离自己的出生地，仅仅为了使自己与生俱来的公民身份得到承认。
It stands out because this was the first time in American history that American citizens had to flee the land of their birth just to be recognized as the citizens that they had always been.
而其他族裔的美国人完全不需要这么做，来使自己的公民身份得到承认。
No other group of Americans has had to act like immigrants in order to be recognized as citizens.
这个种族制度是如此荒谬，以至于在整个南部的法庭上都会有一本黑色的圣经，跟一本白色的圣经完全区分开，用来宣誓陈述事实。
This caste system was so arcane that in courtrooms throughout the South there was actually a black Bible and an altogether separate white Bible to swear to tell the truth on in court.
在南方的种族隔离制度下，连上帝的话都被隔离了。
The very word of God was segregated in the caste system of the Jim Crow South.
同样神圣的东西，却不能被不同种族的人触碰。
The same sacred object could not be touched by hands of different races.
大移民潮开始的时候，正是北方出现了劳动力问题。
This Great Migration began when the North had a labor problem.
北方的劳动力问题是因为它依赖于欧洲的廉价劳动力，来自欧洲的移民，在工厂、铸造车间和钢厂工作。
The North had a labor problem because it had been relying on cheap labor from Europe — immigrants from Europe — to work the factories and the foundries and the steel mills.
但是在一战期间，来自欧洲的移民事实上停止了。
But during World War I, migration from Europe came to a virtual halt.
北方出现了劳动力问题。
And so the North had a labor problem.
他们要寻找最廉价的劳动力，也就是南方的非裔美国人，他们中的很多人甚至都拿不到薪水。
And so the North decided to go and find the cheapest labor in the land which meant African Americans in the South, many of whom were not even being paid for their hard work.