THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "I hope that children of all races everywhere will not assume that everything has come about solely because of one man's generosity. But rather they know that all people within a country contribute to its growth. I hope they work toward the betterment of their country and not contribute to its downfall, and that they realize that all people are brothers and sisters, and no people can live without the other for long." -- ANDREW L. JORDAN (1932-1991)
DEAR READERS: Andrew Jordan was an extraordinary African-American schoolteacher, the son of sharecropper parents in rural Mississippi. After serving as a "colored soldier" in the early 1950s, he got his higher education with financial assistance from the GI Bill and realized his dream of teaching. When it became known he was a civil rights activist, he lost his job and became unemployable in his home state.
All of this -- and much more -- is detailed in his biography, "Civil Rights Childhood," beautifully written by his daughter, Jordana Y. Shakoor. This excellent firsthand account of the civil rights struggle is now in its second printing, published by University Press of Mississippi. It is available in bookstores everywhere. It is a sobering reminder that the freedoms many of us take for granted came at a very high price.