When he was nine years old, Ron,

without my parents or myself knowing his whereabouts,

decided to take a mile walk from our home down to the library,

which was, of course, a public library,

but not so public for black folks

when you're talking about 1959.

So as he was walking in there,

all these folks were staring at him

because it was white folk only

and they were looking at him saying, you know,

"Who is this negro?"

So he politely positioned himself in line

to check out his books.

Well, this old librarian, she says,

"This library's not for coloreds."

He said, "Well, I would like to check out these books."

She says, "Young man,

if you don't leave this library right now,

I'm gonna call the police."

So he just propped himself up on the counter... (laughs)

and sat there and said, "I'll wait."

So, she called the police and subsequently called my mother.

The police came down, two burly guys,

come in and say, "Well, where's the disturbance?"

She pointed to the little nine year old boy

sitting up on the counter.

He says, "Ma'am, what's the problem?"

So my mother, in the meanwhile, she was called

and she comes down there praying the whole way there,

"Lordy, Jesus, please don't let them put my child in jail."

And my mother asked the librarian,

"What's the problem?"

"He wanted to check out the book.

You know your son shouldn't be down here."

And the police officer said,

"Why don't you just give the kid the books?"

And my mother said, "He'll take good care of them."

And reluctantly, the librarian gave Ron the books.

And my mother said, "What do you say?"

He said, "Thank you, ma'am." (laughs)

Later on, as youngsters,

a show came on TV called, "Star Trek."

Now, Star Trek showed the future where there were

black folk and white folk working together,

and I just looked at it as science-fiction,

because that wasn't gonna happen, really.

But Ronald saw it as science-possibility, you know.

He came up during a time when there was

Neil Armstrong and all of those guys.

So how was a colored boy from South Carolina, wearing glasses,

who never flew a plane, how was he gonna become an astronaut?

But Ron was the one who didn't accept

societal norms as being his norm.

That was for other people.

And uh, he got to be aboard his own Starship Enterprise.

♪♪

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