A lesson on race

"Jack asked me: 'Grand, are you black?'
I told him it didn’t matter.
But then I went home and wrote Jack a letter
and told him that it (race) did matter, and that
I wish it didn’t. I said, 'You’re 6 and I am 76, and
hopefully by the time you’re 76, it won’t matter anymore.' "

Teaching his grandson, Jack, his first lesson on race relations in the United States, these words of John Seigenthaler, founder of the First Amendment Center and trustee of the Freedom Forum, were the most heartfelt and accurate on race I had ever had the pleasure to hear. The passion and conviction of Mr. Seigenthaler’s words were unmistakable. Transporting us to a cozy picture of “Grand” snuggled up next to grandson Jack in his bed, you feel right there with them. You’re tickled, as little Jack pleads with Grand to break the rules and not only read him a bedtime story but tell him one, too. Your heartstrings tug for a grandfather conflicted in what to tell his innocent grandchild about one of the United States’ most polarizing issues. Mr. Seigenthaler is, perhaps, the best storyteller I have ever heard -- because I believed him.

-- Michele Brown, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Times Daily, Florence, Ala.