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This post is a collaborative effort between the Clay Center For Young Healthy Minds affiliated with Harvard Medical School, and Alexia Norton Jones, the daughter of Martin Luther King’s speechwriter and friend.
The forward introduces the topic from the perspective of two white guys, one of whom is myself and the other is my colleague, Gene Beresin. Ms. Jones, of course, brings a particularly unique voice to the matter.
Across America, in addition to enjoying a day off from school or work, it is our hope that people stopped and considered the enormous impact of Dr. King’s legacy. Our children may find it hard to believe that the United States was a very different place less than half a century ago.
My parents, both white, were married in 1960. They ventured from Kansas City to New Orleans for their honeymoon, and were surprised to be politely directed away from the “colored persons” drinking fountain in a Louisiana department store. I remember very vividly when they first told me this story. I was just a child, and the memory came out as I was trying to make sense of my grandmother referring to one of my parents’ friends as “colored.” I honestly didn’t know what my grandmother meant. Was I colorless?
