And Kati [Katarina Taikon, sister of Rosa Taikon] began to write, and she wrote a few books about social affairs. About the injustices Roma had to bear when doors closed in our faces and they [the swedish people] wouldn't let us settle in houses. They wouldn't admit us into schools. They didn't give us anything. They chased us away. For three weeks we were permitted to stay in one place. Then we had to go somewhere else. We weren't allowed to stay longer than three weeks. That's why we started to do social work in 1963. And every day we went to the swedish parliament and said to them, “You must give us Roma flats so we can live in flats. So, our children can go to school, so people will hire us.” From 1963 to 1966. Now there are no tents. There are no wagons. We live in flats, but I can't say that in Sweden there is no racism, there is, there is. But underneath. They don't show it.
Rosa Taikon (1926-2017) interviewed by Milena Hübschmannová, Prague 2000. Rosa Taikon was a swedish-romani women who where an important part of the roma civil rights movement in sweden. during her entire adult life she worked both as a famous silver smith and as a roma rights activist.
[Rosa Taikon in her silver smith workshop. the photograph on the mantelpiece is of her sister Katarina Taikon, who were the leader of the Romani Civil Rights Movements in Sweden during the 1950-1970s. photo by Bengt Weilert via högdalsbygden website. click for link]
Sources
Full interview: http://rombase.uni-graz.at/cd/data/pers//data/taikon-it-01.en.pdf
link to her page on Rombase, which published the interview. the link has have some more info about Rosa Taikon: http://rombase.uni-graz.at/cgi-bin/art.cgi?src=data/pers/taikon.en.xml
