In this article, the author discusses how the matter of civil rights, and in particular the treatment of black people at the hands of white people, was conveyed to him most powerfully by three men of Harvard. The first was his high school headmaster, Herbert W. Smith, who introduced their class to the horrors of apartheid through the writings of Alan Paton. Then, in his undergraduate years, there was Thomas F. Pettigrew from Virginia, descendant of a Confederate officer, and full-fledged battler for civil rights. Finally, there was Dean John U. Munro. Here, the author describes the lasting impressions that these three men made upon his life.