I lived on an Army post until I was in fourth grade. It was completely integrated. My best friend was white. That was the only world I knew. And then, in fourth grade, my mother moved us to Washington Terrace in Raleigh. It was my first time seeing segregated schools, segregated water fountains… There was a chain link fence that divided the black community from the white community. I remember looking at that fence and just grappling, just struggling to understand. I didn’t know where I fit.

Andre Smith has spent much of his life searching for a home in a world infected by racism. His first response was anger. In high school, he and some other kids started calling themselves the “Black Panthers.” They would walk into the cafeteria at their newly integrated school and sit down at tables filled with white students. He had verbal arguments and fist fights and, after teachers branded him a troublemaker, dropped out of school. 

As he grew older, he went in the opposite direction, searching for utopian communities free of racism.

I want to take this guy who did this to my son and give him an opportunity to do something with his life… I bet this guy can do something good. I bet he already has done something good.

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