"I don't regret..." Lynn Bryant, Color-Blind

Jade McCully

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“I don’t regret choosing to attend an all African-American school in the ’60s,” says Lynn.

In 1965, 10-year-old Lynn made an innocent (and controversial) decision to attend the elementary school down the street from her new home on Lady’s Island instead of the mainland elementary school in Beaufort. Her decision was made during an initial plan of integration in public schools; Lynn, who is Caucasian, chose to enroll in a school of all African American enrollment—and it changed her life.

“I really didn’t know anything about racism,” Lynn says. “I didn’t know anything about segregation.” She wrote a book about her experience, "I’m Black and I’m Proud,” Wished the White Girl, and has taught for 28 years in the very same elementary school she attended.

“This immersion in and learning of a totally different culture was a richness that I will always cherish, and has given me a great compassion, appreciation, respect for people of diverse cultures throughout the world, which is something I know is a prerequisite to achieve peace in our world today,” she says.

-Aleigh Acerni