Father Andrew Gentry

I grew up as a white boy in a totally segregated state. I had no concept of what it meant to be racist or that the system I knew was anything other than what it was supposed to be. I had no interaction with black people other than an occasional black woman that would help my mother who had four children and worked 48 hours a week as did my dad.

I had heard stories told in my family about slavery and the War Between the States and I heard comments about black folk and their "culture" which I assumed were true and not at all uncharitable. I remember seeing signs "white only" or "colored only" and being told that whites and blacks did not mix. I was forbidden to use the "n" word and told that black people were precious in the Lords sight just as much as we were. I did not at the time realize how contradictory that sentiment was with the reality of segregation...until one day when I was a young teenager my mom had taken me with her to the supermarket. I sat in her car with the windows down. An old black man was walking along the sidewalk adjacent to the store and a white man dressed in overalls was approaching from the opposite direction. The old gentleman tried to get out of the way of the white man but could not do so in time. The white man stumbled and the black man brushed against him. I heard him say " you! Goddamn nigger get off the goddamn street" and then he said "look what you made me do, nigger. You made me take the Lords name in vain"

When I heard him say that it was as if someone had taken a hot poker and stabbed me in my heart and I immediately got sick to my stomach. It was then I began to understand just a little bit how evil racism is...especially racism supported by religion. To this day the emotions I felt then still well up within me.