Hi, I'm LeVar Burton, and this is LeVar Burton.

LeVar Burton reads.

In every episode, handpick a different piece of short fiction and I made it to you.

The only thing these stories have in common is that I love them.

And I hope you will do.

If there's been one constant in the last few years of my life, it's got to be

surprise. Constant surprise. I've been surprised by the lows we've reached as a nation.

On the flip side, I've also been surprised by how much goodness and light there still is in the world.

Really?

I've been surprised and genuinely flabbergasted

by things I've discovered about my own family's ancestry.

I learned about that in an episode of Finding Your Roots with Henry Lewis Gates.

Those revelations made me think twice about the things I hold to be true about myself.

But honestly, I think all of this is a good thing. I welcome the surprise and I welcome the opportunity to re-examine

long-held truths. Which brings me to today's story, one that takes us back to the America of the 1960s,

back to what we now call the Civil Rights era.

We'll follow Johnny, a young white boy growing up in Maryland who's observing the adults in

his life and how they respond to the changing times.

And the thing that sets this story apart for me

is that the story is told from Johnny's point of view.

Very little judgment, lots of details that seem extraneous, but not through the eyes

of a young boy. It's an interesting exercise to try and get in touch with how your brain works when you're a child.

...