By Anne Shuttleworth

“Let me ask you one question -- Why do you think I am inferior just because I am black?” asked Reginald Mitchell of the more than 40 white youths in the room.

This frank confrontation was part of the openness which characterized the happening in the parish hall of St. Thomas More Church.

High school and college people of the parish had as their guests a group of black youths from the First Congregational Church of Atlanta.

Looking forward to Brotherhood Week, 1970, the evening consisted of role play dramatizations and discussions stemmed around the theme, “Brotherhood Begins With Respect.”

As they acted out various problem situations, six black and white teens exchanged roles. “By the whites acting as blacks and the blacks as whites, the individuals are more clearly able to realize the others’ feelings in these circumstances,” Rev. Donald Daughtry explains. Rev. Daughtry, associate pastor of the First Congregational Church, acted as moderator for the role playing and discussions that followed.

In a mixed group like this was there a shyness to speak out? “Not in this group,” exclaimed one of the members of the high school faculty of the St. Thomas More school of religion, which sponsored the happening. “In fact, Rev. Daughtry’s greatest problem seemed to be in trying to end the formal discussion at the appointed time.” “Prejudice is not something you are born with. It has to be taught. Just as your mother will say to you, ‘Don’t go near the pool, you’ll drown,’ she might also say, ‘Don’t talk to that girl, she’s colored,’” said one black teen.

“And if kids are prejudiced,” added a white girl, “they are taught to be that way by their parents. Adults don’t have to come right out and speak out against Negroes, they show it just as well by their actions.”

From another black youth, “Let’s face it, white people don’t just look down on black people, they look down on every other race in the world. They just think they are superior for some reason.”

And so went the conversation for the evening. Steve Turner of St. Thomas More found the success of the happening no great surprise. “Teenagers just naturally like to get out and talk to people their own age. Tonight we got to see some black kids and exchange questions with them. We not only got to see some of the problems they have in being discriminated against, but we also saw why they face this discrimination.”