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See the Voices! Fall 2023 issue for Part 1 of this series.

HOW I ERASED RACISM ON THE JOB
By Lee Coyne.ATMS

Back in 1963 I attempted to be the first white reporter on a Black weekly paper in Queens New York.
Publisher Ken Drew was a skeptic about my human rights knowledge base. However, I was a history
major who knew current events quite well.

I recited the Brown vs Board of Education case that ended school segregation as no longer legal. It
voided the old ‘separate but equal’ ruling of decades earlier. Then later Justice Thurgood Marshall
represented NAACP in its Supreme Court victory.

Later, on the job, I covered early picketing of White Castle that then only hired white employees.
Local police met with civil rights leaders to spell out picket rules in New York City.

I wrote up the outcome of that meeting. The police commissioner was given a copy and wrote to my
boss about how accurate that story was. That was my launchpad. In turn, my reporter interview skills
paved the later path to joining Toastmasters. The rest followed suit.

VOICES! | WINTER 2024 19