Born to a wealthy, established Creole family in Louisiana in 1945, I grew up in segregated schools and attended Bishop College in Dallas for three years before doing two tours of duty with the Navy in Vietnam between 1964 and 1973. When I returned from Navy duty, curiosity as to my standing as a black man and an American citizen drove me to see how the rest of America lived, and so, for 17 years thereafter, I travelled back and forth across the country, accumulating addresses and occupations,… more