Sam Shockley went to school with the black students who eventually desegregated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. So he was more than familiar with the harshness of racism.
When he moved to Kansas City in the 1950s, he experienced a different brand of it.
“Here it was more covert,” Shockley says.
In the early 1960s, he and his wife began looking to buy a home in which to raise their family. Even with four years in the Air Force and working two jobs – at Ford Motor Company and at TWA – his good income wasn’t going to buy him a house on the wrong side of the color line.
“My salary and my ability to earn was equal to the white guys but I just couldn’t use it the same way,” Shockley says. Check out the full story.
By Michelle Tyrene Johnson, KCUR
