The Civil Rights Activist Whose Name You’ve Probably Never Heard

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Dion Diamond was sitting at a“whites only” lunch counter in Arlington, Va., in 1960 when a crowd started gathering around him.At the time, he was a young black man participating in a sit-in at a local fiveand-dime store with a group of black and white university students, and they were drawing some attention from people who didn’t want them protesting.

1960年，黑人青年戴恩·戴蒙德坐在弗吉尼亚州阿灵顿一个标有“白人专用”的午餐台旁，人群在他周围聚集起来。那时，他正和一群黑人、白人大学生在当地的杂货店静坐，他们引起了反对人士的注意。

[2]At one point, a white boy—maybe 12 or 13—pointed his finger at Dion.He seemed to say, “‘Get out, you know you are not wanted here,’” Dion tells StoryCorps1美国非营利组织，通过记录、保存人们的对话，分享不同背景和信仰的人的故事。该组织是人类迄今为止最大的声音库，已收集超过5万份采访对话，逾9万人参与。in Washington, D.C.

[2]戴恩告诉华盛顿特区的“故事团”节目：他们静坐时，一个大约十二三岁的白人男孩指着戴恩，似乎嚷了句：“滚出去，这儿不欢迎你。”

“I could only hope that as he got older, some of his attitudes regarding equality and equal rights changed,” he says.

他说：“我只能希望，他长大后会改变看法，在一定程度上认同人人生来平等及享有平等权利。”

[3]Dion, now 76, started doing sitins at 15.He grew up in the 1950s in Petersburg, Va., and says he grew tired oflooking at the “whites only” signs.That’s when he began what he calls “his own private sit-ins” at lunch counters,skirting out the back door whenever the police came.His family had no idea what he was up to—until the newspapers started calling his house.

[3]现年76岁的戴恩从15岁开始就参加静坐示威。20世纪50年代，他在弗吉尼亚州彼得斯堡长大，厌倦了“白人专用”的标示。于是，他开始在午餐台旁进行他自称的“私人静坐”，每次警察一来他就从后门绕路而出。他的家人对此一无所知——直到媒体开始给他家打电话。

[4]Dion says, “I’ve done some crazy things, but you take chances when you’re young.I call it youthful exuberance.”

[4]戴恩说：“我做过一些疯狂的事，但年轻的时候就要冒险，我称之为青春的活力。”

[5]By the time of his last arrest in Baton Rouge, La., he had been—as he describes it, a “guest”—at the jail there more than once.

[5]他最后一次被捕是在路易斯安那州的巴吞鲁日，此前他已多次入狱，称自己是监狱的“常客”。

“The white guards told these inmates,‘We got a troublemaker here, gang.If you give him a hard time, you may get time off for good behavior,’” Dion says.

“白人狱警告诉其他囚犯：‘伙计们，来了个难缠的家伙。如果你们给他点儿颜色瞧瞧，就算表现良好给你们减刑。’”戴恩说。

[6]Looking back, that was probably the time he was most frightened, he recalls.But some of the inmates knew who Dion was, and they issued a warning: Don’t mess with him.

[6]回想起来，那或许是他最害怕的一次。但有些囚犯知道戴恩是谁，他们警告其他人：不许碰他。

“That was my salvation,” Dion says.

“那是我的救赎。”戴恩说。

[7]Today, if people see his name somewhere, they may not know who Dion is—and they likely won’t, he says.His three grandchildren aren’t all that interested in his story, either.But that doesn’t matter.

[7]如今，如果有人在某处看到戴恩的名字，或许并不知道他是谁——或许永远不会知道，戴恩说。他的三个孙子、孙女对他的故事也不是那么感兴趣。但这不重要。

“Any time I pick up a historical publication, I feel as if a period or a comma in that book is my contribution,”he says.

他说：“每当我读历史书的时候，都会感到书里某个句号或逗号是我书写的。”