Thank you for publishing Hal Hess’ reflections on his time at Mennonite House “An education for idealists,” March 3). My grandparents are contemporaries of Hess, and our branch of Yoders arrived in Atlanta in 1964 to take up residence on Houston Street (now John Wesley Dobbs). Born in the early ’80s, I grew up with stories about Atlanta in the ’60s, during the last days of segregation, when you could ride the streetcar downtown to go shopping, and people still wore hats. Today the neighborhood of the long-gone Mennonite House is full of white people and young people who have no idea what lessons were learned on those streets 60 years ago. The story about VSers taking Black children to Lake Lanier (and the reception they received) has been told to me so many times I can­not remember when I first heard it: uniquely Southern Mennonite family lore, the social justice background noise of my childhood. Seeing it in writing was powerful. Please continue to publish content like this. As our world and nation turn faster to violence and hatred, we need to hear from our elders about our recent history.

Casie M. Yoder, Atlanta