More on the Peace Corps

We did a lot of partying when we were training for the Peace Corps and after we arrived in Nigeria. This was before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and during the continuing hateful resistance of whites to integration, particularly in the South, but also in states like Indiana -- especially Indiana. Martin Luther King Jr. was leading the movement, and his approach was modeled on the non-violent resistance of Ghandi. When demonstrators sat in at lunch counters and so forth, they would often sing. I regret that I was not one of the Freedom Riders of the early 1960s. One of the songs they sang was "We Shall Overcome." We sang it in the Peace Corps, though. I am very fond of that song and believe fervently in what it stands for. We still need that song and our non-violent resistance that the song symbolizes, resistance to the hatred and bigotry which is dying but still resides in the hearts of cowards who hide their identity. "Black and white together, black and white together / For deep in my heart / I do believe / that we shall overcome some day..."