All articles by Bert Montgomery: 

(Family, Friends, and Race – Part Three) The first two installments of this series involved sharing experiences of my mother and father who were born and raised in pre-Civil-Rights-era Mississippi. This is a broad, personal observation, coming from a white man born and raised in the aftermath of the 1960s Civil-Rights-era in the South.

I was born in New Orleans on Thursday, March 14, 1968. That's exactly three weeks prior to the day Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in Memphis (another large southern city I call home).

I grew up laughing at Richard Pryor on the television (on TV he was censored and . . . “safe”). His guest appearance with a young Lou Gossett, Jr. (with hair!) on an early Partridge Family episode ranks as one of my favorite shows of all time (you can watch the “Soul Club” episode here).

I remember staying up late and watching Pryor on Saturday Night Live. At school, we (white and black kids) would all go around imitating him as the priest on the SNL spoof of The Exorcist. But the sketch that I've always remembered most is the classic (and, back in 1975, very controversial) Saturday Night Live “Word Association” sketch in which Pryor and Chevy Chase trade racial slurs. When I got into high school and finally saw Blazing Saddles (thanks to the advent of VHS video rentals), it made perfect sense that Richard Pryor was one of the writers of this brilliant satire of racism.

In light of the events of this past week (the inauguration of the first African American as President of the United States), I have been reflecting quite a bit on my own 40 years of life in the post-Civil Rights-Era South. A series of short reflections on my own personal experience with race in light of faith are emerging. This, then, is the first in a developing series . . .

I can't recall ever hearing my parents say the word, “nigger,” unless it was in the context of a quote, and even then, they never seemed comfortable saying it.

Dad was born and raised out in the southwest Mississippi woods – between Brookhaven and McComb. He can remember the very first time he ever saw a person with dark skin. I asked him to tell me the story again (the older we both get, the more I ask Dad to re-tell his stories (and Mom, too)).

Click the "read more" link to hear Bert Montgomery's story....