“Even though we have endured the segregation and discrimination that we endured, we excelled because we had a hand up,” Joe told NBC 7.
While Joe will be the first to tell you his experience is different than most Black experiences, it wasn’t without challenges. Both he and his wife, Ernestine, were raised in Detroit.
Ernestine went to segregated schools, and Joe lived in and attended school in a predominantly white community where things weren’t always fair in the classroom.
“Gone are the days when my head is bending low I hear the tender voices calling on old black Joe,” said Joe as he recounted a racially insensitive song his grade school teacher taught students.