ABSTRACT
I grew up the second of three children in a middle-class black family living in rural Virginia. My father owned a construction business, and my mother worked as a secretary with the state government. In 1965, Virginia instituted a voluntary school desegregation policy. At age nine, my brother and I were the only two black children to integrate the public elementary school system of Boydton, Virginia. Although I scarcely met with angry mobs, water hoses, or police dogs, I did notice an abrupt change in my station in life.
