Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump remembers being bused to a predominantly white school in Lumberton, North Carolina, in 1979.
Crump and his white classmates played with each other and were cordial in class. Things were very different during lunch hour, however, when segregation became obvious.
Most of the African American students came from poor families, so they had to eat from the free lunch line, Crump said. Meanwhile, the white children with $100 weekly allowances had the privilege of eating from the a la carte line. It was during those school days he realized he wanted to confront racial injustice.
“I was going to be like Thurgood Marshall and fight to make it better for people who lived in my community and people who look like me,” Crump said. Check out the full story.
By Andrea Henderson, St. Louis Public Radio
