First, I want to express my condolences to the loved ones of Rep. Mike Clampitt. Clampitt was a dedicated servant of his constituents and I wish his family comfort and strength as they grieve for his memory.
My grandmother Anna Hutton was born in the green hills of Tennessee just on the eve of World War II. She died recently in Raleigh, North Carolina. Silvery late-winter sunlight was peering through the window, illuminating the clear-green buds of the Raleigh oak trees, and above her on the wall, photos from three generations were pinned to a poster. She was 86.
My maternal grandparents moved to North Carolina in the late 1960s. At the time, the state was rocking and heaving with the traumas of the ‘60s. White people had gone virtually insane over school integration, and riots at UNC and Duke had caused Gov. Bob Scott to call out the National Guard. The entire state was on the verge of combusting. It was an inauspicious time to move here…