Byrd and most of his generation are long dead and a few of them, best forgotten. It is also good to remember that civil rights in the south were supported by many white southerners. Some paid with loss of their friends, loss of position, loss of fortune and a few, loss of life. However, it almost goes without question had outsiders not forced change we would have only come a few baby steps from where we were.

Fast forward to today and we have more black Americans in local, state and federal office than we have ever had in history and most of them are in the South. Mixed racial couples are not quite normal in the South, but it's close and a far, far distance from where we were a scant generation ago.

I figure it will take the disappearance for my generation to bring this awful chapter of American history to its long-overdue close, though despite that, I hope to live to see it.

Bot