The living legend of on-screen badassery, Pam Grier, has consistently given unflinching performances, and that power, resilience, and grit come from living through some of America’s worst racially divided times.

Grier, 76, appeared on “The View” during their Martin Luther King Jr. Day episode to talk about her illustrious career, and given the celebration of the day, host Sunny Hostin highlighted the barriers that Grier has broken in spite of her dangerously racist upbringing in Columbus, Ohio.

"How did that shape you?" Hostin asked.

Grier shared details of her life growing up in a military family and the extreme restrictions Black families faced on and off military bases.

"The military wouldn't allow Black families to live on the base, so you had to live in an apartment," Grier said. "You couldn't take a bus, couldn't afford a car, your dads walked to the base. Sometimes, we'd go from tree shade to shade to get back to the apartment — my brother and I and my mom — with bags."

She described how her mother would physically pull her and her brother away from scenes of danger, saying, “Don’t look, don’t look, don’t look,” and told the panel that on one occasion she was shielded from a person “hanging from a tree.” Grier said the memory “triggers me today.”

"They have a memorial for it now, where you can see where people were and left," she said. "It triggers me today, to see that a voice can be silenced. And if a white family supported a Black [family], they're going to get burned down, killed, or lynched as well."

Grier’s on-air trip down memory lane brought renewed attention to how racial terror reverberates across generations and continues to shape the people who endured it.

Grier also discussed the arc of her career — from “Foxy Brown” and “Coffy” to recent projects like Soul Flix, a free, ad-supported streaming (FAST) channel in partnership with Free TV Networks, that showcases iconic and independent Black cinema, featuring classics from Blaxploitation to films by Richard Pryor and Sidney Poitier. Soul Flix serves as a curated platform celebrating Black artistry, resilience, and storytelling, building on Grier's legacy in Black film.