Nancy was only 3-years old when our family moved to De Queen, AR. Prior to that, we had lived in Sharp County, a rural area that was farming country and primarily white population almost 30 years ago.

Our move to De Queen was, for the most part, uneventful. Coming from our town, it was huge–approximately 5,000 people. One of the first few days we were there, we went into the local KFC to have some dinner. We were sitting in our booth enjoying the rare treat of eating out. Patrons were steadily coming and going although the lobby was not full.

Nan was sitting on a booster seat facing away from the door. Being a curious friendly child, she spent a great deal of time peaking around the edge of her seat to see what was going on behind her. Suddenly, we heard her raise her voice and say, “BOO!” Turning to see what was going on, we realized she had seen her first African-American.

Needless to say, we finished our meal and our parents hurried us out of KFC while apologizing to the gentleman for the social blunder. He gracefully accepted our apology and spoke kindly to Nan.