Thank you, Charles. I remember the civil rights battles well. I lived near Detroit at the time so I wasn’t in the south but we all had to wake up to the horrors going on down there. Life Magazine did much to bring the events to us in those days without the internet or even much TV. (We might see a bit on the 6 o’clock or 11 o’clock news but that was about it.) They showed pictures of people being beaten bloody, attacked by dogs, and sent flying with high-powered fire hoses. They showed the smug faces of the whites sitting in courts, knowing no white jury would ever convict them of anything, including murder.

It changed many of us. It was a battle worth fighting for. The Democrats lost the south over it, but it was worth whatever it took to change Jim Crow laws and bring some semblance of dignity back to people who had earlier been left to fight on their own.