Letters to Vada

In 1964 Wayne Frye left North Carolina to attend college in Indiana. He did so to break away from the insular, dogmatic, bigoted, prejudiced society that had been indoctrinating him with biased propaganda since birth. He had never sat in a classroom with a person of colour, because he was taught that the separation of races was sanctified by God, and he lived in a part of the USA, where until 1964 and the passage of the Civil Rights Act, African-Americans attended separate schools and were systematically discriminated against and brutalized by a system that protected white privilege.

This was the only world he knew, a world where God, the southern way of life and patriotic fervour were not just taught, but used to brainwash people into blind obedience. It is a world that, even today, often attempts to cling to a past that is glorified and sanctified; and thereby, keeps people in bondage to the bankrupt idea of white privilege.

Throughout his youth, he relied heavily on his grandmother for guidance in a world where barriers were always erected to keep people in service to the glorified privileged class and the religious leaders who feared inquiring minds. He learned from her to never accept anything at face value, but rather, to seek the truth through intelligent inquiry in a world that often promoted ignorance as a means to control individuals.

Leaving the south was a way to free himself from the provincialism that prevailed at the time, but in doing so he had to leave the most important person in his life - his grandmother (Vada Frye). Herein, he recounts the years he was gone, and how written communication with her facilitated his connection to the person who was his guiding light that helped him open his mind to the possibilities of a world where freedom became the open window through which poured the sunlight of the human spirit and personal dignity.