My mother was like, no, my kids are going to college. And and you know, uh my brother went to Williams College, my sister went to Villanova, I went to Yale. So, you know, her vision of the family was the vision that determined our lives.
My grandfather kept Edward's secret right from the very beginning out of a sense of protectiveness for him. He knew that this was a very dangerous and risky thing that Edward was doing. Black men who were found to be posing as white could face all sorts of violence, even death in the Jim Crow era.
I didn't want my kids to think that anything else was more important than them, not being in the streets, not women, not gambling, not hustling, not anything. I didn't want them to ever think that anything that I was doing was more important than them. And my father made me at times feel unimportant to him.
It was a dark period in our lives that people we considered to be friends or supporters said such hurtful things. And so to look back, it wasn't just me and Joe. Look at our grandkids, you know, seeing them go through that and how hurt they were.
1mo ago
Underscored — save the words that stop you in your tracks.
