On September 9, 1963, a six-year-old named Sonnie Hereford IV walked into Fifth Avenue School in Huntsville. He was the first Black student admitted to a previously all-white public school in Alabama. The federal lawsuit that opened that door is still open today.

The case is 63 years old. Three of seven areas are now released from federal supervision, facilities is waiting on a ruling, and three remain. I'm about to join the board that has to finish the job, so I wrote down how we got here.