Lanier Phillips was born on March 14, 1923 in the rural American town of Lithonia, Georgia. The great-grandson of slaves, Phillips grew up in a time and place where racism was still shockingly prevalent. The local government did not fund schools for black children and would not allow them to attend class with white students. The Ku Klux Klan was active and influential, with a membership that included policemen, shopkeepers, and other prominent residents. As a boy, Phillips saw Klansmen parade through town every Saturday night and terrorize its African-American residents - they fired guns into the air, dragged black men out of their homes, and beat them in front of their families. When local African-American parents built a school for their children, the KKK burned it to the ground. All of this instilled a deep and lingering fear in Phillips and damaged his sense of self-worth. "I saw no future, I had no dreams," he once said of his childhood.
For more information read the biography of Lanier Phillips elsewhere on our site.
