I was born and raised in a working-class suburb of a major city – a totally white suburb. I knew not one person of color throughout grade school and high school. I once was on a bus at an amusement park that was full of black people…

Few white folks would recognize the poem above or connect it to the lyrics from a song sung famously by black blues singer Billie Holiday. In fact, it was her theme song, and she was often barred from singing it except in her more exclusive appearances in New York Café Society. I myself was not aware of it until I read The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James Cone…

Growing to adulthood, I accepted values that shaped my image of myself. With my two brothers and two sisters, I learned standard prayers, studying hard, working together, playing fair and being generous. That all seemed ordinary and natural, and I was happy and satisfied to act like that and be affirmed and counted on by others as being like that…