I was born in 1957, three years after Brown vs. Board of Education outlawed segregation in public schools.
I started secondary school in Huntsville, Alabama during the tenure of Governor George C. Wallace who touted "segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."
I attended segregated parochial schools until 1968 when I switched to public schools and provided the integration/diversity along with a Filipino American.
Fast forward to 2014 where in professional settings in California I usually also provide the racial integration.
Recently I traveled to Austin, Texas to visit my 82 year old father. During my stay I went to an African Methodist Episcopal Church and was struck by how different this was from my working life in California, still segregated but diametrically opposite.
When growing up I heard that Sundays were the most segregated day of the week. Not that there is anything wrong with voluntary segregation.
But interesting that when left to our own devices we tend to segregate based on race and ethnicity.
In church, I was in the majority of 100 some worshipers, 95 of whom were of African descent, 2 Caucasian, and 3 Latino.
An improvement from growing up, but we still have far to go to attaining diversity. Perhaps to achieve we should work first on the church, then the judiciary.
