Freedom is Never Guaranteed

Civil Rights depend on fighting racist political and religious Attacks

My high school in Wichita, Kansas in the mid to late sixties was a hotbed of racism

A white female coming of age in the mid-1960's and early 1970's, I saw racism at home and abroad during a stint with the U.S. Army during the cold war. I watched the fight for Civil Rights grow from loosely organized groups into a national movement made up of women, African Americans, and persons who identified as LGBT marched across the U.S. demanding voting and Civil rights for every American. White Evangelical Religious leaders like Pat Robertson, who is now deceased, worked in the background to derail the movement, calling it an abomination for wanting gay rights and abortion included in the U.S Constitution.

In every state, blacks and gays had to deal with racism by a majority of students, their parents, and the community at large. Whites or blacks caught dating students not of their race were shunned by both white and black students, but admittedly, more by white students. A girl I attended elementary and junior high school with began dating a black student in high school. The couple was shunned by her aunt, also a high school student, along with white and black students. Any student who aligned themselves with Felicity (not her real name) would have been shunned as well.

My father learned southern racist mores growing up primarily in Kentucky and Tennessee, like most…