White Doug/Black Experiences

I find myself doing a lot of reflecting as we observe Black History Month, 2025. 

After all, Black people were not a part of my early life as a white boy of Dutch descent, growing up in a white neighborhood in Muskegon, worshipping in a Christian Reformed Church and attending a Christian School. 

But then, I remember seeing a Black kid walking past our house on his way to school. Turns out Billy Green was much nicer than many of the white kids I knew. 

My dad, a Muskegon grocer, entered into an agreement to sell unused and discarded produce to Mr. King, a Black pig farmer. He was nicer than many of the white guys who serviced our store. 

My parents invited a Black woman from the local county hospital, formerly known as the poor farm, into our home for a Thanksgiving dinner. This delightful lady, with no legs and sitting in a wheelchair, was nicer and more fun than many of our relatives at Thanksgiving dinners. 

When getting started in radio broadcasting at the age of 17, I met a group of Black singers called the Spiritualaires. These guys were a whole lot better than much of the special music I had heard in our white churches. 

Years later, when I owned a radio station and conducted a morning talk show, I met an itinerant Black preacher named Cy Young. Using his amazing gift of recitation, he presented Dr. King’s I Have a Dream Speech in a manner that exceeded anything I had heard by any public speaker! 

Cy’s friendship led me to numerous wonderful Black singers whose talents topped many of the white musicians in my circles. 

I was hooked! 

When I founded a Christian male chorus in 1972---all white guys, some of whom who had never met a Black person---my goal was to reach people of all colors with our message. 

Then, I met a prisoner named Maurice Carter, an indigent Black man from Gary, Indiana, who claimed he had been wrongly convicted in Michigan. From that moment on, my life changed! 

You know the rest of the story.  Maurice became a member of our family, and we were a part of his release after being locked up for 29 years. And because of that relationship, an insignificant little organization called INNOCENT was formed in 2001. That agency, now called HUMANITY FOR PRISONERS, today boasts a client list that exceeds 11,000 Michigan prisoners. As one of the state’s foremost prisoner advocacy programs, HFP team members have touched the lives of more than one third of Michigan’s entire prison population! 

I thank God that my life was spared from a barren and dull existence with only people of my own race! 

"In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute."

- Thurgood Marshall, first African American on the U.S. Supreme Court

 

In Christ there is no east or west,

In him no south or north,

But one great fellowship of love

Thru'out the whole wide Earth

-John Oxenham

 

 

 

 

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