I had my son’s 7th grade reading book at home this past week and I read a story written by Clifton Davis. You might know Clifton from the TV show entitled Amen. Clifton found success starring as the Reverend on the sitcom from the 1980’s.
It wasn’t success, however, that Clifton was encountering in earlier years. It was racism. He went to a predominantly white school where all of his classmates were white. Not a problem. But it became a problem one day when his school visited Washington D.C. Part of this trip that had cost him a lot of time and effort in order to gain the adequate funds, was a trip to an amusement park. All of them were excited; Clifton especially so. Trouble was, the amusement park at the time had a racial code – no Negroes aloud. As gently as possible, his teachers tried to explain that he would have to stay behind while his classmates went without him. Clifton was devastated. His friends, however, were appalled. One by one they decided to stay behind with Clifton, when they heard that he couldn’t go. They weren’t going any place Clifton couldn’t go, fun or no fun, money lost or money saved, they weren’t going.
As it turned out, all the boys were
...