Trying to close the circle on race: Fourteen parents sat in the cafeteria of a Silver Spring elementary school last fall talking about race. The discussion had been mostly light-hearted, until Teresa Murray brought up O.J. Simpson.
Murray recounted how, as a second-year student at George Washington Law School, she was in class watching as the jury foreman in the 1995 trial read the 'not guilty' verdict. She and the other black students cheered, she recalled. The white students were upset. Heated words were exchanged. Class was suspended.
'It was at that moment I said, 'Oh, my God, this is still here, even with educated, liberal whites,' ' Murray said during a meeting of parents to deal with issues of race in Montgomery County schools.
As she spoke, Brian Egan's cheeks turned red. 'Did you really think he was not guilty or that he was getting screwed?' he asked calmly. 'What I really want to know, as a white guy: Were you really cheering for justice?'
The school cafeteria where Murray and Egan had gathered with other parents was so quiet that cicadas could be heard through an open window.
