Dear kids: The last two letters about racism during my college days were focused on events off the basketball court and away from the Lewis campus. I am reasonably sure that racial bias was at Lewis, but it never was obvious to me. I haven’t said much about racial discrimination in sports because my roommate, … Continue reading Letters to Grandkids #3: Other Racial Incidents in the 1960s
Category: Racism
Skin shades
Letter to the Grandkids #2: Racism in College Years
Lewis Basketball 1958-59 This is the second of a series of letters to my grandkids. I try to convey my reactions and emotions to the world that I was encountering as I grew older, and why, at age 79, I have these convictions. I share these letters with the public with the hope that other … Continue reading Letter to the Grandkids #2: Racism in College Years
Letters to the Grandkids # 1: Intro to Racism
This is the first of a series of letters to my grandkids. I will try to convey my reactions and emotions to the world that I was encountering as I grew older, and why, at age 79, I have these convictions. I share these letters with the public with the hope that other grandparents consider … Continue reading Letters to the Grandkids # 1: Intro to Racism
Calluses on the Feet? Not on the Heart!
"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."Leo Tolstoy If you ever had calluses on the bottom of your feet, you will know how painful that can be. Caused by walking unevenly, the thickness grows, layer over layer, until the core of the growth painfully penetrates the nerves. Likewise, our … Continue reading Calluses on the Feet? Not on the Heart!
The Enigmatic Rhymer of Lewis Intramurals: The Purple Poet
“I am the gray purple poet,My words are etched for all time;If you hear me on campus you’ll know it,I speak in verses and rhyme.”P.P. Alert…Alert…Alert: Readers should know that this blog, although primarily relevant to a particular audience of former Lewis University students, may contain interesting elements to a more diverse population. The Lewis … Continue reading The Enigmatic Rhymer of Lewis Intramurals: The Purple Poet
Coming of Age in the ’60’s
"The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn't the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility." John Lennon Little did I know that, at age 21, my future path already had been prescribed. The 1960’s and 1970’s confirmed that prescription. … Continue reading Coming of Age in the ’60’s
“…people of my nationality”
Ed Anderson, an African American native of Braidwood, Illinois, referred to himself also as belonging to "my nationality." I have long disagreed with terms like "white race" or "yellow race" of "white race" since there is only one race. The human race is comprised of variously tinted skin shades between lighter and darker. The commonly … Continue reading “…people of my nationality”
Lessons I Learned about Prejudice
“Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones.” Charlotte Brontë Lower Braidwood Grade School. (1930s) Coal Mines, Strike, and African Americans As I learned later, growing up in Braidwood was much different … Continue reading Lessons I Learned about Prejudice
Braidwood Beginnings 