The mother of two Sea Cliff students wrote to me in January 1961 with news of several people I knew and of the community in general.  I was at Duke, its undergrad school still all white.  She ended with these interesting and honest thoughts about changing attitudes about race.

"Is Duke integrated?  Do your fellow students think the whole idea distasteful?  Do they feel they must marry the colored just because they are going to school with them.  I have been thinking about this a lot in relation to how I would feel as a mother and I made the darndest discovery.  I don't think I would feel uncomfortable if D______ [her teen age daughter]  came home with an Asian but if she came home with an American Negro it would take some getting used to.  Why?  Now that I have discovered it I can find out why?  Come hell or high water I would never let it split my family no matter what she came home with.  Have you thought about this.  There is a new fad in the VILLAGE now that you must have heard about.  The girls are living with colored boys as a matter of principle just to prove that they aren't biased.  Am I getting old or does this seem right to you?"