On A Pale Horse

In the summer of 1985, while away at summer camp, I had my one and only big sister. Her name was Laurie and she had to be the sweetest person I’d ever met in my whole life with an incredibly angelic voice. I wrote my mom and dad about her and they wrote back that they couldn’t wait to meet her. You can’t imagine how excited I was when Parents Day rolled around and I pointed her out when she sang the National Anthem at the Swim Show, I didn’t realize my parents’ jaws could drop that low. To me Laurie was the best-est person in the whole world; to my parents she was black.

The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964 just 8 years before I was born. I know attitudes don’t change over night but every once in awhile my parents or grandparents will say or do something that blows my mind and that at one time in America it was all perfectly normal. It’s just the color of skin we’re not that different underneath it all.

Right down the road we’ve got The Henry Ford Museum that proudly displays the Rosa Parks Bus and patrons can walk through and see that a little place like that made a huge difference in the lives of so many people.

As a side note, I was in Atlanta on Monday for business. A co-worker, from Michigan, and her date, a local resident, were giving me the nickel tour showing me the sites. One thing that kept on coming up was that the city was still really segregated, and even some of her date’s comments were archaic. Pretty mind blowing.

Mrs. Parks made her home in Detroit in 1959 and worked for Congressman John Conyers. She passed away Monday, October 24th

February 13, 1913 - October 24, 2005
RIP

Labels: 1913 births, 2005 October deaths, activist, historical, natural causes, political

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