In 1981 a white American girl named Catherine Donnelly gained admission to Princeton University, which was predominantly white and got the shock of her life on her first day at school.
Her new roommate would be a tall lanky black American girl named LaVaugn Michelle Robinson from Chicago. She picked the phone and called her mother immediately.
She’s what?” Alice Brown asked, the tone of her voice hovering somewhere between anxiety and outright panic. Her knuckles turned white as she gripped the phone. She called Catherine’s grandmother and together they drove to Princeton to protest “the calamity” but unfortunately no alternative room was available, so “poor” Catherine had to bear the indignity.
So it was that 17 year old LaVaugn bore the brunt of discrimination and attitude of her two white roommates who moved out as soon as a new room could be found. Thereafter LaVaugn had a whole room to herself because she was black. It had degenerated so badly that when she encountered Catherine on the way, Catherine would turn her face away.
LaVaugn was to describe these years in her later life as scary. In fact, LaVaugn moved on from Princeton to read law at Harvard. She graduated, met a young man and got married.
In 2009, when Barak Obama became 44th President of the United States and the first black American to attain that height, his wife Michelle LaVaughn Obama became the first African-American First Lady.
Now I know you may be wondering what later became of Catherine Donnelly? I honestly didn’t see or read that part of the story and I am pained but I sure know she hasn’t become the wife of a United States president and that is how she lost the opportunity to a business card that reads “FRIEND OF THE FIRST LADY OF USA OR WIFE OF THE PRESIDENT.”
Never look down at someone because of his/her physical appearance or current status; you don’t know what he/she can become.
In 1981 a white American girl named Catherine Donnelly gained admission to Princeton University, which was predominantly white and got the shock of her life on her first day at school.
Her new roommate would be a tall lanky black American girl named LaVaugn Michelle Robinson from Chicago.
She picked the phone and called her mother immediately.
She’s what?” Alice Brown asked, the tone of her voice hovering somewhere between anxiety and outright panic. Her knuckles turned white as she gripped the phone. She called Catherine’s grandmother and together they drove to Princeton to protest “the calamity” but unfortunately no alternative room was available, so “poor” Catherine had to bear the indignity.
So it was that 17 year old LaVaugn bore the brunt of discrimination and attitude of her two white roommates who moved out as soon as a new room could be found. Thereafter LaVaugn had a whole room to herself because she was black. It had degenerated so badly that when she encountered Catherine on the way, Catherine would turn her face away.
LaVaugn was to describe these years in her later life as scary. In fact, LaVaugn moved on from Princeton to read law at Harvard. She graduated, met a young man and got married.
In 2009, when Barak Obama became 44th President of the United States and the first black American to attain that height, his wife Michelle LaVaughn Obama became the first African-American First Lady.
Now I know you may be wondering what later became of Catherine Donnelly? I honestly didn’t see or read that part of the story and I am pained but I sure know she hasn’t become the wife of a United States president and that is how she lost the opportunity to a business card that reads “FRIEND OF THE FIRST LADY OF USA OR WIFE OF THE PRESIDENT.”
Never look down at someone because of his/her physical appearance or current status; you don’t know what he/she can become.
#Personal and #CorporateDevelopment
#GreatnessAssured
