I began to realize the dense darkness of ignorance that I found myself in. I could see little white kids going to school to learn to read and write. They lived in conformable homes and had all types of opportunity for growth. We had no such opportunities to learn and grow. And that made me very sad. I longed for us to have the same chance that they had.

My mother kept me encouraged. She told me that my time would come. My mother would never get discouraged. She had great vision and understanding of human nature. It seems as though she got these traits from our ancestors. According to the stories that were passed down to me, she was descended from one of the great royalties of Africa. She encouraged self-reliance. "No matter the difficulty," she would say, "there was a way out if we put forth the effort ourselves."