The AP sent me to a northern Alabama town where racial tensions had boiled over having to do with the relative few black police officers in a town with a huge minority population, a town where the Freedom Riders and media had been harassed and their bus burned. There was a town meeting about the police force representation. A black officer met me at the door. “Come with me,” he said, walking to an adjoining room that was almost empty. He moved a chair in front of a fireplace which, along with two large windows on either side of the fireplace, took up the space along that wall. “You will be safer here,” he said.
That night hadn’t crossed my mind in decades until Saturday when young people marched and rallied to end gun violence. One young man said it was hard to sit in a classroom and concentrate on studies not knowing if someone was going to kill you.
That’s hard for most to identify with, but I can. It is damned hard to keep your mind on what you’re there for if there is a possibility someone will fire a gun at you or toss a bomb. I was glad when the night ended and I could get out of there, on to something else. Students have to come back and sit in classrooms day after day.
This is no way to get an education.
Sorry, comments are closed for this post.