Do not judge others by your own standards, for everyone is making their way home, in the way they know best.
—Leon Brown
Craig Melvin’s wife, Lindsay, sat down with his mother to talk about her experience as an African American growing up in South Carolina in the 1960s. Lindsay is white and wanted to know what she could learn from Betty Jo, how she could grow as a person and a parent to two biracial children. Mrs. Melvin shared memories of being spit on by children riding the bus as she walked to school, and using hand-me-down desks and books from the white schools. Bathrooms were segregated and the KKK was active within her community. Now sixty-five years old, Mrs. Melvin said that she knew her kids would not be given equal opportunity. “As the mother of black men and black grandboys, this world is a little bit different for them. . . . They have to compete a little bit harder. . . . So you teach your children from when they’re younger that, ‘I need you to be more.’ You have to push them harder.” When Lindsay asked Mrs. Melvin what she thought black Americans needed during such unsettling times, she said respect. “Respect how we are feeling.”