As a celebrity with a powerful platform, Oscar winner Common often speaks out with focused intensity about the struggles for justice, dignity and freedom -- as he did in his impassioned speech from the Academy Award stage last month. It's the kind of perspective that can only be delivered from the heart, and as a proud black man in America, Common says his own experiences have most certainly helped form his strong opinions about how we should treat one another. In an Oprah.com interview celebrating the 50th anniversary of the historic Selma-to-Montgomery marches, Common talks about growing up on the south side of Chicago and learning to be proud of his ancestry and the "beautiful aspects of being black." "I got to learn who I am as a black man in America, as a black person in America and to be able to embrace that," he says.