Color of My Heart

Introduction

Forty six years hadn't wiped away the memories of 1955 and 1956. I still was fearful someone from the past would harm me. Time stood still and I pictured the people exactly as they were then. As I looked around things were even more dismal now than they were fifty years ago.

Memories of the Past

As we drove past the High School my mind drifted back to the morning I was summoned to the Principal's office and I could hear his voice and feel the viciousness that spewed from his mouth. We don't want your kind here, and if your Momma and your Daddy will agree we'll be glad to send you to reform school at Chilacothe. And I can guarantee you we'll lynch that nigger if he shows up at the Homecoming next week!

I was scared to death. I had to warn Andy. That night I found out his parents had whisked him out of town. What was I going to do?

Fears and Hope

The bus ride to Denver seemed endless. This would be the farthest I had ever been from home and I had NEVER been this far by myself. My life as I had known it was over. Why had my parents kept the real ugly truth hidden from me? Could I, a fifteen year old girl, survive the hatred in America that I was just learning about. Thank God I would be safe with Andy. We could conquer racism with love, couldn't we?

Historical Context

Although the U.S. Supreme Court decision to legalize Interracial Marriages in America with the Loving v. Virginia case was established in 1967, Andy and I were the first Black/White Interracial Couple to legally be married in Colorado ten years earlier in 1957.