A few years ago I was trying to find a parking place in a mall parking lot when I stopped to let a Black woman drive out of her space. As she drove past me she slowed, lowered her window and spat on the side of my car. I guess I had experienced some hatred and racism but did not know why. Growing up in a small town that was proud of being part of the Underground Railroad, many of my friends were Black and race was never mentioned. We were in school together and played together. We spent time in each other’s houses and thought that we were living a normal life. After leaving that small town, it became apparent to me that what I had grown up to know to be normal was not the same in much of the rest of our country. I went to Syracuse when Jim Brown became the first Black football player there, and we lived in the North. Through the years, I have seen the revolution of non-white people being more accepted into society. The sixties were filled with burning streets and marches to propel this promise of equality forward. Dr. King finally got his message across before being killed, and Congress acted to rectify the age-old problem of “All Men Are Created Equal” without rights being granted to some because of their race. President Johnson started the Great Society, which built government housing and granted welfare to many of those fleeing the South. The problem was that, after receiving the welfare, it was difficult to find a job that would allow the same standard of living. The freed slaves were enslaved again but without the chance of living the American Dream. A big problem at this time was the education system that never attained the ability to educate those living in the inner cities in the government housing. The poverty became generational. If a job was found, there was a loss of benefits, and without a good education there was little chance to find a job good enough to equal or improve the standard of living over that in the government housing and welfare payments. So with no job to occupy time crime and drugs became the main pastime with the formation of gangs to rule the streets. Here come the police to take the streets back and they are still trying to do just that.