DURHAM -- This month we are highlighting North Carolinians who grew up in the Civil Rights era.
Floyd McKissick, Sr. was a national civil rights leader from Durham.
He led a group called CORE, The Congress of Racial Equality, and one of his sons is currently a state lawmaker who grew up witnessing history.
Most people know Floyd McKissick, Jr. as a state lawmaker, or perhaps as a Durham attorney. But few people outside of politics know the stories he stores inside this box
Floyd's dad, bearing the same name, was front and center for Freedom Rides and marches and often locked arm in arm with Martin Luther King, Jr.
Senator McKissick started picketing with his dad as early as seven.
“From dusk in the evening up to dawn we would have armed people sitting on the front porch virtually every night to provide protection because of the level of threats we would have,” said McKissick.
His dad debated Malcolm X in Durham. He won the right in court to become the first African-American to attend UNC Law School. The McKissick children were among the first to integrate Durham schools.
When Dr. King was assassinated, the White House called his house three times hoping civil rights leaders would call for calm.
“It was on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. I actually stayed in that complex with my dad and with Dr. King about a year and a half earlier,” said McKissick.
Today, Senator McKissick tries to push forward his father's message, and inspire future generations – a vision developed right here in North Carolina.
“I hope when they take the baton they will lead us closer and closer to that society my father and Dr. King envisioned. “