UPDATE: It appears Dobson was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. I'd like that confirmed via a trustworthy source, then you can start finding out what Shreveport was like in the 1940s.
Okay, anyone up on their southern history? How racially idyllic was Louisiana in the late 1930s and early 1940s?
A profile of Dobson this The Week magazine:
What’s Dobson’s background?Ok, so he was born in 1936, and since he remembers giving his life to Jesus at the age of 3, it's fair to say that his "idyllic" remembrance goes back to the same year, so let's start our investigation in the year 1939. What was Louisiana like from 1939 to 1954 (Dobson's youth) for blacks?
He was born in Louisiana in 1936, and remembers his hometown as an idyllic slice of heartland America. “There were no drugs in my racially mixed, public high school,” he wrote. “There were no punkers, no skinheads, no neo-Nazis, no freaks, no witches, and no gay or lesbian activists.” The only child of a minister in the Church of the Nazarene, which emphasizes study of the Scripture and opposes alcohol, tobacco, and premarital intercourse, Dobson committed himself to God when he was 3. He was attending Sunday services, and his father invited those who felt like doing so to gather at the front of the church. Dobson toddled down the aisle. “I recall crying and asking Jesus to forgive my sins.”
Also, high school usually starts at the age of 13 or 14, so that would put Dobson at 1949 or 1950 for starting high school. Where there any racially-mixed public high schools in Louisiana from 1949 to 1954 (the years he'd likely have been in high school)?
