Connection to Curriculum:
History: World War II, Black History
English: Writing
Social Studies: Racism, Equality, Civil Rights
Empathy

Overview:
Growing up in fear in the Klan controlled State of Georgia; Phillips joined a segregated Navy as a teenager. One February night in 1942, his ship was wrecked off the coast of Newfoundland. When a local resident saved him from hypothermia, Phillips thought, "Here is a white man who wants me to live." The kindness he received from these white strangers as they nursed him through the night was a miracle that allowed him to recognize his future was worth fighting for. The love and hope he found in the community of St. Lawrence would continue to empower him throughout the course of his life.