I grew up in Baton Rouge at a time that feels very different from the world we know today. In my family, public service was woven into everything we did. We’d sit around the kitchen table and talk about politics at just about every meal. I grew up around people who were aware that you’re supposed to serve. It was a part of my training.
And even as I was developing a love of entertainment, watching legends like Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee and Sidney Poitier light up the stage and screen, I was inspired by their activism as much as their acting.
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It helped that my mother was a volunteer driver for the Baton Rouge bus boycott that preceded Montgomery and was an active member of the NAACP, like my aunt, whose name appeared on the longest-running school desegregation suit in the country. And my grandfather was a country doctor whose commitment to serving the community was so great that when patients couldn’t afford his services, he would take produce for payment and do all that he could for free. Because we are all in it together.
In the era of Donald Trump, that kind of thinking can sometimes feel like ancient history. But there’s one candidate in this race who understands the fabric that used to hold American communities like mine together — and can unite our country once again.
Source: Lynn Whitfield endorses Joe Biden for president because public service is his ‘North star’
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