I was raised in a white bread world, did not really hear about this sort of stuff. I can almost see my mom turning off the TV at 4pm, the soaps are over and the news would have been viewed later after we were in bed. Dinner is at 5pm. Even once I was 3,000 miles away the habit of not watching the news made me pretty politically ignorant. At 68 I read these stories and sometimes feel damn stupid. Then I meet a person who only remembers John Lewis as the uppity negro because they grew up in a white bread town in rural Wa State and that was what the people in that town thought as they watched the news. She remembers thinking things would be so much calmer if he would just stop riling people up. She was stunned as his story was told when he passed but still explained it was just not what they were told when she was young growing up in a town with one black family.
I understand exactly why Colin Kaepernick took a knee but I still see far too many white people who view this as unpatriotic, I think they still just do not get it.
Good post.

A talented man, activist, comedian with a great heart, sad at his passing

I saw him speak at a rally at Mt. Tamalpais, CA. He was popular with many anti-war and civil rights activists, plus he was a good speaker and comedian. An all-around hero. RIP....

"In 1961, Gregory was working at the black-owned Roberts Show Bar in Chicago..." and he said to the audience:

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I understand there are a good many Southerners in the room tonight. I know the South very well. I spent twenty years there one night.

Last time I was down South I walked into this restaurant and this white waitress came up to me and said, "We don't serve colored people here." I said, "That's all right. I don't eat colored people. Bring me a whole fried chicken."

Then these three white boys came up to me and said, "Boy, we're giving you fair warning. Anything you do to that chicken, we're gonna do to you." So I put down my knife and fork, I picked up that chicken and I kissed it. Then I said, "Line up, boys!" [en.wikipedia.org]

I never knew he was so active on so many fronts, but I do remember his run for president.

Cut high school to see him at Oakland's Civic Auditorium.