[Music]
PEARSON: I was born and raised in the south, where segregation was the law of the land among the races,
black and white, and as a result, I was educated in black institutions. I had excelled in those settings and was
kind of riding high, but it occurred to me, gee, there's a whole nother world over there, you know. Maybe I don't
really know anything. I don't know enough, because the doors were so guarded on traditionally white institutions
that I did not have the opportunity to attend and I felt that I needed to sort of test myself and to see if all of
this real. Suppose, a whole lot of stuff, I'd never heard of and I'm not as with it as I had been thought to be
in my community, so I said, gee, I've got to go over there and see how I might do over there when I'm not
permitted to go. I wanted to broaden my horizons. I was satisfied with my education. That was all I knew but I
said, it must be something else and no matter how self confident you are that the laws of the land and how
other people view you can have an impact and I had support with family and community and so forth, but
I knew in my heart of hearts that I wanted to see the broader world and to see how I fit and what my
preparation was and I'm happy to report to you that I was well prepared. That's the impact that society
with its segregation laws, had had on me, that I must step over the line and see what it is and it was a bunch
of foolishness, as to why. There were more resources, of course, because of the discrimination but if you can
think and do critical thinking, once you get an opportunity, you're just like the other people who have
it, and maybe more, because you had to learn the rudiments of it without having the instrumentation
so I feel very fortunate I've been a part of both worlds.
[Music]
