I grew up next to an Underground Railroad town. My parents taught me, “don’t judge a book by it’s cover.” It was understood it had multiple meanings. I accompanied my mother to a master’s degree class and heard her bitterly complain about how much was paid in books and tuition and the blacks had everything paid for. Even as young as I was, with her fellow students not even able to speak decent English in a master’s program class, I knew it was very wrong.
I should have added that I was 8 years old, my mother was in a reading specialist master’s degree program, and I was an example of teaching children to read early and the mastery that could be achieved at a very young age. I read to one of her classes. I wasn’t toted there because of no babysitter. I went from “Dick and Jane” to Newsweek at age 4 or 5. Family time- having your 4 year old read Newsweek to you. Happy times, but I still ended up conservative.