Diary of a Bipolar Soul

Happy Black History Month!

On the morning of September 4, 1957, fifteen-year-old Dorothy Counts set out on a harrowing path toward Harding High, where-as the first African American to attend the all-white school – she was greeted by a jeering swarm of boys who spat, threw trash, and yelled epithets at her as she entered the building.

Charlotte Observer photographer Don Sturkey captured the ugly incident on film, and in the days that followed, the searing image appeared not just in the local paper but in newspapers around the world.

Nazis weren’t just the soldiers with guns at the entrances to death camps. They weren’t just the guys who ushered people into the gas chambers. They weren’t just the politicians signing the orders to invade other countries, or the generals ordering their troops to execute civilians.

Nazis were also the people who joined the party because it was the social thing to do. They were the people who looked the other way when their Jewish neighbors were hauled off. They were the actors who put their careers above the lives of others in order to take roles in propaganda films. They were the civilians who asked “But what do we do about the Jewish problem???” and expected a legitimate answer. They were the people who registered, and put their names on a list so they could have a little bit of social fortune while it was still popular to do so.