Transcript for the Piece Audio version of The Valentine 1955

I grew up in an old city on Huckleberry Finn's river. When I was seven, my city was in trouble. Poor colored folks - tired of sharecropping - came looking for prosperity and flooded into our working class neighborhood. The city fathers had no plan, no wisdom to offer - only the politics of fear.

There were 62 children in my first-grade class and 15 were what we politely referred to as Negroes. Valentines Day. I can still hear the hiss and clank of radiators, see steam collecting on the tall windows in the crowded old classroom.We all brought valentines to exchange at 2:00. I was given 47 cards. "No need to give valentines to colored children," I was told. "No one will notice if you skip over them."
2 o'clock. Time for the big card exchange. First-grade frenzy: everyone tossing cards into one another's collection envelopes. But before I made a move, the very brown Lucille Washington was standing in front of me with her hand out. Our eyes met.

A hundred years earlier, Huckleberry Finn had to choose between the Christian admonition of his kinfolk and kindness toward a black man. He held his breath, he decided: "All right, then, I'll go to hell," he said.

But Huck had an old soul and I was only seven. I didn't know what to say. Lucille and I just kept staring at each other till her smile vanished.

And then I turned away.