Ronnie Savoie,
Gonzales, LA
I’m Cajun (Acadian diaspora settling in Louisiana) and have a tiny percentage of Micmac First Nations people from the 1600s. My maternal grandfather was pretty racist, but is my favorite person of all time, and who imparted to me my love of history, although he only had a fourth grade education. Towards the end of his life, my dad actually expressed remorse for ever supporting segregation when I was little. He said, “That’s the way I was taught it should be, and I really never gave it much thought. I never realized that it made black people’s lives really harder. When I think back on my life, I wish I’d never even spoken in favor of that stuff (segregation).” He was not a politician or anything. Just a pretty smart diesel mechanic who never had the opportunity for higher eductation, despite having the smarts for it.
