Down South. West Virginia is barely south of the Mason-Dixon line. The Greenbrier is closer to Lake Ontario than the Gulf of Mexico, but the mat and the sign were both right. The resort has been part of the biggest chapters of American history and is one of the most “Southern” places in the South.

Blue tarps still cover roofs around San Juan. There are downed billboards, mangled street signs and leaning power poles here and there, but it is possible to drive through Puerto Rico and see no damage. The scars are more internal than external and life is described as "before Maria" and "after Maria." Survivors tell of PTSD, anxiety, and an increase in domestic violence. Posters hang in bathrooms and churches with numbers victims can call for help.

Before I could get both feet inside the door at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, a short woman wrapped her arms around me. It was a hug of love and family from a woman I had never met. Her name was Brenda and she was the greeter. Her cousin Wanda gave the tours that started in the basement where Martin Luther King Jr organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The waiting group stood next to the mural of Civil Rights leaders and a rack of T-Shirts that said, "Love Has No Color. One Race...Human Race."

I learned about 1954 after picking that year and reading headlines from the front page of every edition, from January through December, of The Clarion-Ledger, a Mississippi newspaper my family once owned.