Thank you, Michelle Norris, for telling the story of your father, and
for giving a name to the experience we both shared. My father too was
an African American from the segregated south who served in the U.S.
Army during WW II, spending most of the war on a bleak atoll in
Alaska. He did not talk about his war experience or his early life
until he was dying of cancer, when he told me about his mother, a
young woman, who became ill and was rushed to the nearest hospital.
But it was the “White Only” hospital, and she was sent away to the
“Black Only ” Hospital further away. Before her arrival there, she
died. I asked my father, why he didn’t tell us the story earlier, and
I will never forget his answer: ” I didn’t want you all growing up
hating.” His silence was a great gift to us, for we are free of the
racial prejudice that can be the bitter fruit of injustice. His grace
was not unique, for it was part of a generation’s upbringing and
character; nevertheless, it reflects an idealism both mysterious and
moving. Thank you for naming it.-Thank you, Michelle Norris, for telling the story of your father, and
for giving a name to the experience we both shared. My father too was
an African American from the segregated south who served in the U.S.
Army during WW II, spending most of the war on a bleak atoll in
Alaska. He did not talk about his war experience or his early life
until he was dying of cancer, when he told me about his mother, a
young woman, who became ill and was rushed to the nearest hospital.
But it was the “White Only” hospital, and she was sent away to the
“Black Only ” Hospital further away. Before her arrival there, she
died. I asked my father, why he didn’t tell us the story earlier, and
I will never forget his answer: ” I didn’t want you all growing up
hating.” His silence was a great gift to us, for we are free of the
racial prejudice that can be the bitter fruit of injustice. His grace
was not unique, for it was part of a generation’s upbringing and
character; nevertheless, it reflects an idealism both mysterious and
moving. Thank you for naming it.-Sidney Morrison
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