History's Paved Roads

On my flight today from the nation's capital, as our airplane prepared for take off, I had an amazing thought. Here I am seated next to another Black lady and a third black lady in front of us. No that's not the amazing thought I had. However, what was amazing is that we are all seated in First Class, or as Delta calls it Premium Class. 

I looked out the window and thought, just on the other side of the Potomac River, well before my life time, Americans marched in Washington D.C. due to laws like Jim Crow (and other secret made up laws in the north) that denied Blacks and other minorities equal living and enjoyment in America. 

Our flight is taking us to Atlanta, Georgia, the peach of the deep south. I can't imagine what commotion that would have caused 50 year's ago...three black women flying south, with a possible southern flight attendance waiting on us, would most likely have caused a whirled wind of problems. Sixty or seventy years ago it may not have even been allowed. 

Here we are 2015 and it's not even a thought. In fact there is a man of African decent seated on the first row, making that four blacks riding in first class being served by a white woman, who doesn't even seem phased by the complexity of an American problem fifty or sixty years ago.

With each visit to our row, the flight attendant offers a genuine smile as she does her job to make our flight a truly pleasant and enjoyable one.

Someone paved the road for me to enjoy this simple luxury. Many people, Blacks and other ethnic groups, gave their lives so that this would be a normal thoughtless opportunity for me. I'm slightly ashamed and saddened that I have never given this a thought before. Then again, maybe this is the way it should be...I'm not sure. But since it's on my mind, I have to say thank you to all those courageous Black men and women, and the many other loving Americans, who made first class travel a possibility to me. I'm truly grateful for all of the possibilities that I enjoy that my grandparents only dreamed of when they were younger. 

While there are those who choose to focus on what seem to not have changed in America, I'm celebrating what has while believing that things will continue to change if we in this generation are willing to continue to pave roads for the next generations. 

I am enjoying traveling roads that were paved for me, but I have to remember that the roads ahead need someone to pave them for those coming. So if there is work still to be done it requires those who will work more than complain. Nothing changes because of complaining, but change does happen when those willing put their hands to the plow and pick up where the others left off.

This hour and half flight has shown me how much the roads have been paved, as I watch the interaction between the black lady seated next to me and the flight attendant. And I have to admit this road is a lot smoother than the one my ancestors traveled.