Raymond R. Rochester III,
Elkins Park, PA.

It was 1981, me being 31 years old … I was on my way to Paris, France … Aboard a Boeing 747, pre-take off, a French pilot was introducing himself … When he got to me he spoke, and upon my reply he instantly acknowledged, “Ahhhh, you are American”! … His statement struck me like a thunderbolt, because for the first time in my life it hit home that “an American” is exactly what I was, and am … Prior to this I would have simply described myself as Black, I hadn’t felt American, and America certainly hadn’t made me feel as such … On my return home I began to tell all, white and black, that a French pilot had to tell me my nationality … That illumination profoundly affected me, so much so that some time ago I shared it with the Philadelphia Inquirer … Apparently it affected them also, because they printed my experience once, and then again at the end of that year.